Creepshow

SPOILERS!

1982's CREEPSHOW, written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero, has aggressively bounced around my memories since those late night cable viewings when I was thirteen and fourteen.  Back then I tended to bail before the final episode, one that involves thousands of that most loathsome of insects.  But it and the other tales never faded into oblivion, occasionally popping into my consciousness with no apparent trigger.  Things you watch and absorb in your youth sometimes do that.  While most of this genre's films easily evaporated, this, an anthology of horror tales based on beloved comic books from the 1950s, has doggedly haunted me, pleading for a rewatch.

So I finally did.  It had been about forty years.  It all came back to me.  Happily, the movie was just as effective and creepy, even as I was more cognizant of its very tongue in cheek point of view.   This is best appreciated through the wide eyes of an adolescent, kinda like the kid in the prologue.  Billy's father Stan (Tom Atkins) is furious that his son would waste the hours with the Creepshow comic and promptly throws it in the trash.  The issue blows down the street, and its host, the Creep (and precursor to the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt), appears to introduce each story.  

Typical for a cinematic compendium, the quality varies.  I liked them all, though the film improves significantly as it progresses.  The first, "Father's Day" involves the reanimation of a long dead evil rich guy who emerges from the grave, maggot ridden, to request the holiday cake he never got from his daughter.  He will murder several descendents in his quest.  One victim is played by Ed Harris, fresh off his debut in Romero's KNIGHTRIDERS.  This entry is kinda lame and obvious, though still entertaining.  Its best quality is its ribbing of blue blood sorts, a theme that will run though some of the other episodes.

Next stars King himself, "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", about a backwoods simpleton who foolishly touches a downed meteorite and turns into a human lawn.  The author, in a one man show, does a reasonable job of playing a goofball and his tale certainly reeks of ecological overtones.  This was the most overtly humorous of the lot.

"Something to Tide You Over" is essentially a two man show, with Leslie Nielsen as another evil rich guy who discovers his wife had an affair with a younger man, played by Ted Danson.  The former has a rather ghastly fate in store for his charge, and both actors (especially Nielsen) appear to be having a ball.  To me, this is the best directed of the anthology.  It's the second tale where someone comes back from the dead, with another amusing punchline.

Even more distinguished actors appear in "The Crate", its title referring to a century old wooden box that is discovered in a university basement.  Fritz Weaver and Hal Holbrook play professors who discover the content of that crate, a simian looking creature with long fangs.  Some of the cast will be swallowed whole.  Is one of the victims Willie (Adrienne Barbeau), the hilariously obnoxious wife of Holbrook's character?  This one's both scary and very funny, with terrifically mounted suspense and social commentary.

And finally we reach the ickiest tale, "They're Creeping Up On You".  Another rich asshole, played with relish by E.G. Marshall, berates underlings and their spouses over the phone while discovering his hermetically sealed penthouse is infested with cockroaches.  The episode reveals the little bastards slowly, gradually becoming unwatchable for insect phobics, leading to a highly disgusting finale (beware!).  I've hated roaches my entire life and this is why I changed the channel back in the day.  But undeniably, this is some primo (and pointed) horror/comedy.

Each episode begins and concludes with beautifully drawn comic book panels that fade into and recede from live action.  Great style.

CREEPSHOW inevitably feels uneven, but its sequencing is just right. It's all great fun and even scary here and there.  The tales grow darker before we reach the epilogue bookend with Billy and his father, another grim but smile inducing finale, one sure to be popular with anyone whose parents ever grounded them.