Creepshow (1982)

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film hasn't changed one iota since 1982 and what's more it does not seem to have aged too much. Special effects maybe, but that's about all. The stories are absolutely funny more than frightening. They might have been gross and frightening in 1982 but today we are used to that kind of make-believe cinema. Every single story or moment is pleasure and nothing but pleasure. The Prologue and epilogue are so nice about the abusive father and the voodoo son, Stephen King's own son by the way. Let's think his father wasn't that kind of a father. But you may be surprised if you really analyzed the "rapport" between a father and a son. Abusiveness is at times in excess gentleness. "Father's Day" is the hilarious vengeance of an old and decrepit father killed by his own daughter: the vengeance comes from the grave, from beyond the grave. Never ever neglect celebrating father's day even for a father who does not deserve it. "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" with Stephen King in the main and only human role is even more than funny with his meteor that brings some kind of invasive green algae, fungus or whatever from outer space. Nothing to do with Superman, nor Aliens actually. The only solution is to evade the invasion by committing suicide I guess, slightly like a terrorist blows himself up in order to kill as many miscreants as possible to clean up the world of its perversion. The world is clean for the terrorist for sure after his own sacrifice. "Something to Tide You Over" is even more than hilarious because of another case of vengeance from beyond the grave and in this case the grave is the sea itself. I am not sure Stephen King intended this story to be hilarious but it is true that since Michael Jackson living dead creeping out of their graves and chasing you have become very entertaining. "The Crate" is nothing but justice or some just vengeance or some just balancing of grievances in a married couple. Don't let children watch that one: they could get some good idea of how to take care of an invasive mother who does not know what a bathroom or toilet door is when her son is using these facilities, or who does not know why she is not supposed to look under her son's bed. That's when the monster in the closet is really useful, and should be cultivated, for such sons: let it come out and take care of the mother. It is all the same when the son has become a husband and the mother has become a wife since all husbands choose their wives to correspond to what their mothers were. How can you be so pessimistic? But that is no pessimism: it is pure truth and reality. "They're Creeping Up on You" is the final touch about some rich man who is obnoxious with everyone and at the same time is obsessed with cleanliness and his germless and bugless environment. That is a killing obsession and the bugs will always have the last word and bring justice to the poor. You can imagine what I may dream about the fate of Trump who should be trumped by bugs and mulched by germs. And the epilogue gives us hope: all nasty people will sooner or later be trumped and mulched into oblivion and inexistence 1- beyond making friends with nasty Sunni dictators or autocrats; 2- beyond making fun of the Pope by being a grinning giant puppet next to the serious look of this grave charismatic religious leader; 3- beyond pushing some Prime Minister out of his right way to be in the front of the family picture; 4- beyond chastising 23 out of 28 of his allies and trying to bully them into paying for his own bills to make America great again; 5- beyond his gripping handshake that a French President turned into a gripping-back handshake that he could not escape anymore; 6- beyond his leaking confidential details of a criminal investigation in a terrorist attack in Manchester; 7- beyond his attempt to sink any climate agreement, including the one in Paris, for his egotistic promises to completely failed professions overdue in their coming to their own end; 8- beyond his sending 23 million people out of insurance coverage; 9- beyond his cutting federal funds for Medicaid by 50% and food stamps by 25% just to be able to cut the taxes of the wealthiest in proportion.And NINE is of course the apocalypse, the dragon, the beast and we are all the pregnant woman escaping this Babylon RED(RUM) Witch Doctor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYgOlqinH7A or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttGgIQpAUc) of a President.Yes There is hope beyond the worst possible horror story in real life and that's what makes Romero's film and Stephen King's stories so beautifully good, funny and true to life down to our deepest guts. When These masters of literature and the cinema die we will have to reinvent them under a new skin. It is true Stephen King leaves two sons beyond himself, though they do not have the same level of creativity as the father. But Romero is more complicated as for descent. Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

When I was about 13 years-old, I tried to rent this on VHS several times. Unfortunately, my mother kept walking in during a particularly violent segment and made me turn it off. It was a long time before I finally saw the whole film.If you watch the accompanying Just Desserts documentary on the double-disc DVD, you'll see how lovingly crafted this film really was. Not only so, but this truly transcends the schlock horror of its E.C. origins. The acting is first rate and the plots surprisingly thoughtful, considering how short each segment is. For example, watch Aunt Bedelia's tortured graveside monologue in Father's Day, or the curious interplay between Henry and Dex in The Crate. E.G. Marshall totally nails it in They're Creeping Up On You, the segment most loaded with subtext.Tom Savini's make-up effects are excellent and he doesn't scrimp on the gore. The one segment I dislike is Something To Tide You Over, as it's a particularly nasty and sadistic story (despite the just desserts moral).Overall, this has a worthy place in the annals of 80s horror and will always hold fond memories for me; a young boy who just wanted to see that crate monster tear his victims apart like sour bread.

With direction by George Romero and writing by Stephen King you are getting the best of the best in this horror anthology of six stories in Creepshow.Of the six four are concerned with vengeance of one sort or another. The other two are one man shows and really good ones about people being overwhelmed by extraordinary circumstances.Author Stephen King heavily made up plays this hillbilly rustic who gets the bad luck of having an encounter with a meteorite. With him it's like that old song on Hee Haw, "if weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all". Seems as though contact with the stuff inside the meteorite turns everything into plant life.The best is for last though and it couldn't never have been made while Howard Hughes was alive. The story concerns eccentric billionaire E.G. Marshall who lives hermetically sealed like Hughes with an overriding fear of our six legged creature. After having endured an attack of bedbugs in my dwelling two years ago I kind of related to what Marshall was going through. His fear is cockroaches and in the end he gets his comeuppance from same. If your taste runs to black comedy you can't help not liking Creepshow although you may find the other segments better than my favorites.

Five short stories by Stephen King (three originals and two self-adaptations), presented by director George A. Romero in the style of EC Comics. Neither "Father's Day" nor "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", "Something to Tide You Over", "The Crate" or "They're Creeping Up on You!" contain the pleasurable horrors to be derived by an old-school comic book--these twisted tales are just too ungainly; however, several of the performances are good, particularly Leslie Nielsen's in "Tide". Better than 1985's "Cat's Eye" (which Stephen King also had a hand in), but not as well-produced or as polished as Landis and Spielberg's "Twilight Zone: The Movie", released in 1983. Followed by "Creepshow 2" in 1987, wherein Romero adapted the King stories but didn't direct. ** from ****