Creepshow



Creepshow is a 1982 horror anthology film written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero. The film is an homage to the EC Comics horror series, such as Tales From The Crypt.

The Plot
Warning: This plot synopsis contains spoilers.

Prologue
Creepshow, being a tribute by the fans for the fans of the EC Comics, appropriately opens on a suburban home during the Halloween season. A father is scolding his son Billy for reading the "rotten" comic Creepshow (an EC-like horror comic) and threatens to punish him severely if he ever finds him reading such a comic again.

While the father feels satisfied about his decision, Billy seethes in his room. At that moment, the Crypt Keeper-like Creep appears in Billy's window, with the latter being clearly amused, and an animation sequence opens with the credits, ending with a peek inside the comic that transitions to reality.

Father's Day
The first story concerns the Grantham family, whose matriarch Great Aunt Bedelia killed her demanding father Nathan in a rage seven years ago on Father's Day. The Granthams are quite happy about the death of the miserly Nathan, which allowed them to inherit his fortune, but this year things go differently; Nathan rises from his grave as a vengeful zombie and begins killing off his relatives one by one in a quest for his "cake".

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
The second story revolves around Jordy Verrill, a backwoods hick who, after being infected by the juice inside a meteorite that crashes in his yard, gets a little more growth out of his plants than he can handle.

Something To Tide You Over
Richard Vickers, a rich and jealous husband, decides to get revenge on his cheating wife Becky and her lover Harry in a creatively cruel manner, but learns too late that the tide has a way of bringing things back.

The Crate
A patsy professor sees the release of a dangerous creature from a crate delivered to his college as a surefire way to rid himself of his monster of a wife.

They're Creeping Up On You
Upson Pratt, a mean old business tycoon with a fear of insects, gets bugged by roaches after he causes the suicide of an employee.

Epilogue
The next morning, two garbage collectors find the Creepshow comic Billy's father threw away, noting that the coupon for a voodoo doll has been ripped out. Meanwhile, the father himself is having some major neck pain. As he collapses from said pain, we learn that Billy is stabbing his new voodoo doll over and over, this act fading to the cover of another issue of Creepshow being read by none other than The Creep.

The Cast
Prologue and Epilogue

Billy - Joe King (Stephen King's own son)

Billy's Mother - Iva Jean Saraceni&nbsp

BStan, Billy's father - Tom Atkin

Garbage Man #1 - Marty Schiff

Garbage Man #2 - Tom Savini

Father's Day

Sylvia Grantham - Carrie Nye

Richard Grantham - Warner Shook

Cass Blaine - Elizabeth Regan

Hank Blaine - Ed Harris

Aunt Bedelia - Viveca Lindfors

Nathan Grantham - Jon Lormer

Mrs. Danvers - Nann Mogg

Nathan's Corpse - John Amplas

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

Jordy Verrill - Stephen King

Doctor/Professor - Unknown

Jordy's Father - Bingo O'Malley

Something To Tide You Over

Richard Vickers - Leslie Nielsen

Harry Wentworth - Ted Danson

Becky Vickers - Gaylen Ross

The Crate

Henry Northrup - Hal Holbrook

Wilma Northrup - Adrienne Barbeau

Dexter Stanley - Fritz Weaver

Tabitha Raymond - Christine Forrest

Richard Raymond - Chuck Aber

Charlie Gereson - Robert Harper

Mike the Janitor - Don Keefer

Fluffy - Darryl Ferrucci

They're Creeping Up On You

Upson Pratt - E.G. Marshall

White - David Early

Lenora Castonmeyer - Ann Muffly (voice)

Trivia

 * Stephen King carried a figure of the character Greedo from Star Wars on set as good luck.
 * The maggots used on Nathan Grantham are actually Rice Krispies.
 * The marble ashtray used by Bedelia to kill Nathan in "Father's Day" shows up somewhere in all five segments.
 * The wrestling match Jordy Verrill is watching is WWF former champion Bo Backlund and The Samoan No. 1, called by Vince MacMahon.
 * At the end of "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", a sign leading to Castle Rock (one of Stephen King's famous fictional towns) can be seen.
 * Ted Danson reportedly tried to avoid his daughter, who was on set during the scene where he returns from the dead in "Something To Tide You Over", out of fear of scaring her. Ironically, when she finally approached him, she simply responded with, "Oh, hi Dad."
 * The on-set nickname for the monster in "The Crate" was "Fluffy", given to him by George Romero.
 * The minor characters Tabitha and Richard in "The Crate" are named after Stephen King's wife and pseudonym Richard Bachman, respectively.
 * The final segment, "They're Creeping Up On You" was originally supposed to take place in a lush penthouse apartment, but it was decided that such a setting would be unworkable with the live roaches used.

Creepshow 2
See here for Wikipedia's article on Creepshow 2.

Creepshow spawned a sequel, Creepshow 2, in 1987, which had only three tales of terror instead of five. The wraparound story follows Billy as he is harassed by bullies (eventually getting even with man-eating venus flytraps), and the stories deal with a vengeful cigar store indian ("Old Chief Woodn'Head"), four teenagers stranded on a raft by a hungry blob ("The Raft"), and an upper-class woman who is haunted by the ghost of a man she killed in a hit-and-run ("The Hitch-Hiker").

Tales From The Darkside and Monsters
See here for Wikipedia's articles on Tales From The Darkside, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, and Monsters.

After some legal disputes over ownership of the Creepshow franchise, George Romero changed the name and took the idea to the small screen, resulting in Tales From The Darkside (1983-1988) and the "official Creepshow 3", Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (1990). A further series titled Monsters (1988-1991) succeeded it. Both series would somewhat foreshadow the later Tales From The Crypt tv series.

Creepshow 3 and Creepshow: RAW
Taurus Entertainment, who owned rights to Creepshow (hence the name having to be changed to Tales From The Darkside) made their own unofficial sequel, Creepshow 3 in 2006 with no involvement from King or Romero. Despite its poor reception, Taurus is in the process of producing a tv show called Creepshow: RAW, having already filmed the first episode.

Creepshow 4 (2011)
Warner Bros. is also working on a "remake" of Creepshow, Creepshow 4, although rumors speculate that the story will actually be a continuation in which Billy, now grown and proudly working for Creepshow Comics, is on the verge of losing his job due to poor material and given just one night to come up with five shocking tales for the next issue.