Hello out there horror fans! Sick Dungeon here back to review one of the most fun Stephen King projects, the 1982 film Creepshow. This is an anthology film of horror stories inspired by classic EC comics from the 1950s full of gore, horror, and morality tales. Titles like Tales From the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror were scaring kids and adults until the Comics Code Authority came around to censor these magazines. But Stephen King, with a little help from fellow horror legends George A. Romero and Tom Savini helped revitalize interest in these types of stories. There will be spoilers in this review so if you don’t like that, check on the meteor out back, poke it with your finger, go back to your home, flip on the television, realize you are a lunkhead and watch the film, then come back here to read the review.

Creepshow Background

Creepshow is a bit of an oddball on my list of Stephen King films I am reviewing. This is not exactly an adaptation of one of his works. Instead, he wrote the screenplay. And while two of these short stories did originally appear in a collection of King’s, three of them are original to the film.

If you’ve never read an EC comic from back in the day and you’re a horror fan, do yourself a favor and pick one up. They told some amazing stories, usually with a heavy dose of gore and more often than not a bit of a morality lesson. Let’s just say if you are a bad person in an EC comic, there’s a good chance you’ll get yours eventually.

The film tries to emulate this tone and does so with aplomb. It doesn’t hurt that Romero, Savini, and King all grew up in the age when these comics were readily available either.

The film proved popular, earning a healthy $21 million domestically. It contains five different stories, laid out in a comic book style sequence. Let’s talk about each one.

Prologue

As a comic fan, this one hurts. Billy, a young boy, is minding his own business reading a horror comic. His father catches him doing it and snatches the book away and tosses it in the trash. Billy goes to his room wishing his father would rot in Hell. I suppose that’s an extreme reaction but it sucks when people take your stuff when you’re a kid. Anyway, Billy hears a sound coming from his window. Turns out the sound is coming from a character called The Creeper who takes Billy out to the trash and opens the lid for him so he can get his comic back.

This sets up the narrative framing of the film, us the viewers, experiencing each story as something Billy is reading.

It’s a bit hokey but if you like old horror comics, you know that some of the best ones did have hosts for each story. One of the most famous is The Crypt Keeper from Tales From the Crypt. And the addition of The Creeper just increases the feeling of being in a horror comic.

Father’s Day

This is a tale about greed, abuse, and violence. A wealthy man has greedy adult children who are waiting for him to die so they can have their inheritance. The man is none too pleasant and most of his family essentially hates him. He’s made his money through bootlegging, fraud, and murder just to name a few. He’s horribly abusive to his daughter, Bedelia. One father’s day, the man demands his cake. This is enough for Bedelia so she kills the guy.

This is basically an open family secret. And all the other relatives are essentially grateful to Bedelia for having killed the dude. Well, it’s father’s day again and Bedelia visits the grave of her dead father. It doesn’t go so well. This dude rises from the grave, rotting and putrid demanding his cake, and just wipes out his family. But not before showing up with a severed head covered with frosting and candles.

Yep, this dude got what was coming to him, he got his cake, and all the greedy immoral elites ended up dead.

This one isn’t the best one in the film but it’s a good start and there’s gore a plenty here.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill

This is an adaptation of the Stephen King story Weeds. And it stars King himself as Jordy.

Safety tip from your old pal Slick, if you find a meteor in your back yard, don’t touch it.

This is exactly what Jordy does when he finds one in his backyard. He goes out to get it, thinking he can sell it to the local college for as much as $200. Jordy dumps water on it to cool it off and the thing splits in half. He now thinks he’ll only get $50 but he figures it’s still worth a shot. Some blue liquid comes out of the meteor and gets on Jordy’s hands.

Soon, weeds start to grow out of his fingertips. Jordy thinks of himself as lunkhead for even messing around with this stuff. He considers calling a doctor but thinks they’ll cut off his fingers.

The rest of the story we see everything Jordy touches grow. And the weeds grow on him until Jordy is nothing but a plant.

The story is so ridiculous and silly and just outright fun. And King actually pulls off playing a lunkhead pretty well. The effects for this one are genuinely creepy and still hold up to this day thanks to Tom Savini.

Something to Tide You Over

Out of all the stories in Creepshow, I find this one the most frightening. This one stars some incredible actors. Leslie Nielson who you know from the Naked Gun films and Airplane is the villain in this. Our hero, if there is one, is everyone’s favorite bartender Ted Danson. The romantic interest is played by Gaylen Ross who starred in Dawn of the Dead. And even the man on TV is the famous Richard Gere. It’s a crazy all star cast for such a little story in an oddball movie and I am so here for it.

Richard finds out Harry Wentworth (Danson) is having an affair with his wife Becky (Ross). Richard is ruthless. He pulls a gun on Harry, drives him out to a beach, buries Harry neck deep in the sand and plants a television in front of him. Harry wants to know what has happened to Becky. On the television, Richard shows Harry an image of Becky also buried up to her neck in sand.

Richard is so pissed about the affair he’s set it up so Harry and Becky will be forced to watch each other drown, unable to help each other. And since Richard owns the beach and there’s nothing else for miles around, no other help is coming.

Sure enough, when Richard comes back to check on Harry, his body is gone.

I think you can guess what happens here but as a kid, watching this on sleepovers with friends would freak me out. Harry and Becky come back to Richard’s home, drowned and covered with kelp and kill Richard. The visual effects here are still decent, although not as frightening as I remembered.

The Crate

Creepshow’s fourth story is also a Stephen King adaptation of the same title. In my opinion it’s the weakest story (not counting the prologue/epilogue) in the film as far as scares but it does have some interesting nuance to it.

A janitor at a college discovers an ancient crate. He shows a professor the thing and together they open it. A creature inside devours the janitor.

The star of the story is another professor played by Hal Holbrook. This is professor Henry Northrup who is endlessly henpecked by his nagging and emotionally abusive wife. This dude fantasizes about killing her all the time but never does anything about it because he is too timid.

Northrup eventually finds out about the thing in the crate, lures his wife to it, lets it eat her, tells his buddy about what he did, and tosses the creature from the crate into a nearby quarry and watched it sink.

The end of the story shows the creature breaking the crate.

While the acting here is fantastic, the story moves kind of slow, and it feels a bit predictable. The short story is much better in my opinion. And while we don’t see everyone who deserves some punishment, it’s implied ol’ professor Northrup is about to get his at some point.

They’re Creeping Up On You!

A paranoid and wealthy business mogul is afraid of bugs. He’s horrific to those he employs and ruthlessly takes over other companies. In fact, one owner of a company this guy took over was so distraught he killed himself. But, when Upson Pratt finds out about it, he does not care and tells the widow her husband was weak.

Upson is a Howard Hughes type, a complete germophobe. I doubt I need to tell you how this story goes. Yeah, Upson keeps being a jerk and he ends up getting eaten alive by bugs for it. It’s actually a pretty satisfying tale to watch, just to see a corporate fat cat get what’s coming to him. It’s not the strongest story in the film but it’s entertaining as hell.

Creepshow Epilogue

Speaking of hell. Remember the trashcan from the prologue? Two garbage men are emptying it when one of them finds an issue of Creepshow. They flip through looking at the stuff they could order away for. One of the pages for a Voodoo doll is clipped. Young Billy has one in his possession. And he uses it to kill his dad.

This image becomes the image on the over of the next issue of Creepshow. I imagine at some point, Billy is going to find out killing people is a bad idea.

Creepshow Sequels

There are a couple of Creepshow sequels. One I will review this month and it involves King, Romero and Savini once again. The third has none of them and is nowhere near as good. Still, the three films together make a fun movie marathon full of little vignettes of horror.

If you can’t get your hands on an EC comic, these movies are a great substitute.

In Conclusion

Most of the King films I’m reviewing this month are horrific and terrifying. Sometimes they can be a bit much to take as they delve deep into trauma and deep themes of abuse, violence, and other intense subjects. But Creepshow is just pure fun. It’s always an enjoyable watch and it’s a project involving three masters of horror, so what’s not to like? If you haven’t watched this one, get out there and see it.

Want More?

Want to see some of my other King reviews? Take a look here!

Looking for a good King read? Check out this one!

Creepily yours,

Slick Dungeon