Review by Stephanie Scaife
Long before the recent influx of portmanteau horror anthologies such as The ABCs of Death and V/H/S there was George A. Romero and Stephen King’s Creepshow, a homage to the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s. It has long been a fan favourite and remains one of Romero’s biggest financial successes and his only film to ever reach #1 in the US box office. As with any anthology film, Creepshow is a real mixed bag of treats, but having not seen it since I was a kid I was surprised to find how well it has held up over the years, remaining incredibly watchable and very funny indeed, despite lacking in any genuine scares.
The first segment, Father’s Day, is perhaps the weakest of the five, although it is still amusing to see such a young Ed Harris, if nothing else. It centres around the Grantham family and their annual family dinner, the black sheep of the family Bedelia had many years earlier murdered her abusive father and after visiting his grave seems to have inadvertently reanimated his corpse. He’s now back and intent of having cake (is cake even associated with Father’s Day?) as well as wiping out his remaining descendants. It’s a pretty flimsy idea as a whole but there are a few nice effects shots, courtesy of Romero mainstay Tom Savini.
The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill is next and it is also the only segment from the film that I really remembered from when I first saw it years ago. It’s often touted as the worst film of the five due to a rather over the top performance from King himself as Jordy, an unfortunate and dim-witted man who happens upon a meteor that has crash landed into his backyard and decides that the answer to paying off his $200 bank loan is to sell the rock to the local university. Unfortunately the meteor has other plans, namely infecting Jordy with some sort of green fungus that takes over his body, house and presumably the world. Now it’d be fair to say that King isn’t going to be bothering the Academy for any best actor nods anytime soon, but there’s something so sweet and tragic about Jordy and so bizarre about this particularly short and mossy vignette that I think it’s one of the highlights of the film.
The third segment, Something to Tide You Over, stars Leslie Nielsen as Richard Vickers, a wealthy man who takes some fairly elaborate and disturbing revenge on his wife and her lover after he discovers the truth about their affair. Gaylen Ross and Ted Danson star as the fateful lovers who fall foul of Vickers sadistic game whereby he buries them up to the neck in sand where they must await a slow and painful drowning as the tide slowly comes in. I’m only really familiar with Nielsen’s comedic films such as The Naked Gun and Airplane, so it was something of a surprise to see him play a character that is altogether more sinister. Something to Tide You Over is perhaps the most surreal and original of the segments, although it is let down slightly by the ending that is very broad and also sort of similar to that of Father’s Day.
The Crate is the longest of the five segments and is based on a short story already written by King, not something specifically written for the film, which may also explain why it’s perhaps the strongest of the bunch narratively speaking. Hal Holbrook stars as Henry Northup, a university professor and the long suffering husband of Wilma Northup (Adrienne Barbeau), an abusive alcoholic that he longs to be rid of. As luck would have it a mysterious crate is found at the university containing a bizarre yeti like creature that likes nothing more than to chow down on human flesh, Henry soon comes to realise that this creature may be his ticket to a peaceful life and he attempts to lure Wilma into its grasp. Both Holbrook and Barbeau are fantastic, she especially as the vitriolic and perpetually disappointed wife and Savini excels himself once more with the animatronic yeti monster.
The final chapter, They’re Creeping Up on You, certainly lives up to its name. The fantastic E.G. Marshall is Upson Pratt a Howard Hughes alike shut-in that suffers from mysophobia and lives in a hermetically sealed apartment in New York City. His worst fears become a reality when thousands of cockroaches begin to invade his apartment, driving him insane and eventually leading to his rather gruesome demise. By genuinely having the cockroaches on set, it makes your skin crawl in a way that could never happen with CGI or special effects and although it must’ve been an absolute bugger to shoot, it really pays off and it certainly has a major does of the ick factor.
There is also an overarching story that binds the film together as a whole, establishing each part as a chapter within a comic book, these scenes perfectly segue into each of the short films that make up the anthology and the animation in particular looks great, especially on this Blu-ray edition. One of my favourite things about Creepshow, even if it is silly and a bit dated, is that it is so clear in establishing what it aspires to be – a tongue in cheek homage to 1950’s comic books. The portmanteau film is difficult to pull off as it is inconsistent and by its very nature lacking in the time to really establish characters or a sense of narrative, but Creepshow works by using some very simple and effective ideas and by never trying to be anything particularly subversive or clever.
Although the Blu-ray looks good, there are no new special features here that weren’t on the 2007 DVD release. But if you haven’t already got that then this is well worth the investment, particularly for the feature length documentary Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow, which in many ways is better than the actual film itself, with interviews and amusing anecdotes from all concerned (with the exception of King) it was a joy to watch.
Creepshow is available on Blu-ray now, from Second Sight.