Creepshow
Creepshow is a 1982 American horror comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King in his screenwriting debut. It consists of five segments intercut with a sixth story acting mostly as an opening and epilogue; two of the segments, "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" and "The Crate", are based on stories by King, while the others are original material he wrote for the film.
The film stars an ensemble cast including Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E. G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ted Danson and Ed Harris, with King and his son Joe portraying the respective main characters of two segments. It was primarily shot on location in Pittsburgh and its suburbs, including Monroeville, where Romero leased an old boys' academy to build extensive sets for the film. Creepshow is an homage to the EC horror comics of the 1950s, such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. In order for the film to give viewers a comic book feel, Romero hired long-time effects specialist Tom Savini to replicate comic-like effects.
The film earned $21 million in the United States. It was followed by a sequel, Creepshow 2, directed by the first film's cinematographer Michael Gornick, written by Romero and only featuring segments based on King stories. Two further works in the franchise were made without involvement from either Romero or King: the film Creepshow 3 and an eponymous television series.
Plot
Prologue
Billy Hopkins, a young boy, gets disciplined by his abusive father Stan for reading Creepshow, a horror comic. Not wanting his son to be exposed to the comic's content, Stan throws it in the garbage while ranting on stories like people coming back from the dead and people turning into plants. As Billy sits upstairs, wishing that his father rots in Hell, he hears a sound at the window. The source of the noise turns out to be the Creep, the host of the comic book, who beckons him to come closer. The scene transitions to animation as the Creep removes the trash can's lids. Then the first story is shown."Father's Day"
Sylvia Grantham meets her nephew Richard and niece Cass along with Cass's new husband Hank Blaine at the Grantham estate for the family's annual dinner on the third Sunday in June. They proceed to tell Hank about the family matriarch Great Aunt Bedelia and of how it is an open secret in the family that she murdered her late father: the miserly and domineering Nathan Grantham who had accumulated the family's fortune through bootlegging, fraud, extortion, and murder-for-hire.Many years earlier, Bedelia was rendered an unstable spinster, the result of a lifetime spent putting up with her father's incessant demands and emotional abuse which got even worse after he suffered a stroke and she was made to nurse him full-time. The torture culminated with Nathan orchestrating a fatal "hunting accident" which took the life of his daughter's fiancé Peter Yarbro in order to keep her under his thumb. That Father's Day, Nathan does his petulant demands for his Father's Day Cake while insulting Bedelia. Driven into a murderous rage bashed her overbearing father's head in with a marble ashtray.
In the present day, Bedelia arrives at Grantham Manor that evening. She stops by the family cemetery just outside the mansion to lay a flower at her father's grave. She drunkenly reminisces about the murder and reveals that Sylvia staged the killing as an accident in order to steal and distribute Nathan's fortune among the rest of the family. She accidentally spills her whiskey bottle in front of the headstone. Just then, Nathan emerges from the burial plot as a putrefied maggot-infested zombie, still demanding the Father's Day cake he never got. He avenges himself on Bedelia, strangling her. He proceeds to systematically wipe out the rest of his family: telekinetically crushing Hank to death with a gravestone, then twisting Sylvia's neck; he also kills the Granthams' cook Mrs. Danvers possibly to cover his tracks. As a gruesome final joke, Nathan surprises Cass and Richard by presenting them with his Father's Day cake: Sylvia's severed head, covered with frosting and lit candles.
Interlude #1
An advertisement of Bolt: the family newspaper that nobody knows about where selling them can get you prizes like a bow and arrows, pistols and rifles, surveillance equipment, cannons and tanks, and nuclear warheads. Then there are some Creepy Correspondences where fans have their questions answered by the Creep. Returning to animation, the Creep turns the comic's page to the next story."The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill"
Jordy Verrill, a comedic and dim-witted yokel who runs a gas station, watches as a meteorite crash lands on his farm. Observing the crash site, Jordy gets his fingers burned when he tries to touch the meteorite. In a fantasy sequence, Jordy imagines selling the meteorite to the local college's "Department of Meteors", hoping that the sale will provide enough money to pay off a $200 bank loan. Taking precautions, he douses the meteorite with a bucket of water, causing it to crack open and spill a glowing blue liquid. In another fantasy sequence, Jordy reimagines the "Department of Meteors" refusing to purchase the now broken meteorite. Resolving to try and glue the halves together in the morning, Jordy nonchalantly dumps the liquid inside the meteor into the soil, but not before the substance makes contact with his skin.As time passes, Jordy finds his fingers being overcome by what appears to be grass. He attempts to call a doctor, but he reconsiders doing so when he imagines that the doctor will chop the afflicted fingers off without anesthetic. Over time, the strange substance continues to grow all over Jordy's farm, everything Jordy has touched, and even on Jordy's body, which causes him to itch furiously. Jordy panics as he discovers the increasing growth, and tries to calm himself by pouring himself a bottle of vodka and mixing it with orange juice. Soon after, Jordy falls asleep in a drunken stupor.
Jordy wakes up sometime later, believing the experience to have been a dream, but his hopes are dashed when he sees that the plant growth has managed to reach inside the house, as well as discovering in a mirror that he has now grown a green beard. He starts to draw a bath to relieve the itching, but he is visited by the ghost of his deceased father, who appears in his mirror and warns him against doing so by telling him that water is what the plants want. Grimly rationalizing that not getting in would only delay the inevitable, Jordy laments that " a goner already." When the itching from the growth on his skin becomes unbearable, Jordy succumbs to temptation and collapses into the bathwater.
The next morning as The Farm Report plays on TV, Jordy's farm has been completely coated with dense layers of the alien vegetation, with Jordy himself transformed into a human-shaped collection of plant matter. In despair, he reaches for a Coach Gun, prays to God that his luck will be in just this once, and blows the top of his head off, killing himself. Immediately afterwards, the weather announcement mentions that moderate temperatures and heavy rains are predicted as the plants spread down the roads to other towns. The Creep mentions in a panel about the rain and the Verrill luck being in again.
Interlude #2
Returning to animation, a gust of wind turns the comic book's page briefly passing over an advertisement for a voodoo doll that is missing its order form). The next page shows weird novelties like disappearing ink, a secret agent periscope, exploding cigarettes, X-ray specs, an electric buzzer, an authentic Egyptian mummy, and meat-eating plants. Then the next story is shown."Something to Tide You Over"
Richard Vickers is a vicious and heartless millionaire whose spry jocularity belies his cold-blooded and murderous nature. He visits Harry Wentworth, the man with whom his wife Becky is having an affair. Richard mentions that he and Becky never shared any actual affection, but such is beside the issue; Richard's point of honor is always keeping what's "his", a rule that he enforces no matter what. Rather than physically assault Harry, Richard plays a recording of Becky's voice, where she tearfully begs Harry to help her. Both men travel to Comfort Point, Richard's isolated beach house. Richard points out what appears to be a burial mound in the sand. When Harry promptly runs to it, Richard pulls a gun on him. He forces Harry to jump into the empty hole and begin burying himself.Eventually, Richard finishes burying Harry neck-deep in the sand below the high-tide line. Richard then sets up a closed-circuit TV camera and a VCR to record Harry. He also brings along a monitor displaying Becky, who is also buried up to her neck farther down the beach, where the rising tide is already washing over her face. Richard does tell Harry that he and Becky have a chance of survival: if they can hold their breath long enough for the sand to loosen once the seawater covers them, they can break free and escape. With that, Richard abandons Harry and returns to Comfort Point. Sipping a cocktail, Richard watches with great satisfaction as Harry and Becky slowly drown. Just before Harry is completely submerged by the advancing tide, he looks directly into the camera and vows revenge on Richard.
Hours later, Richard returns to Harry's "grave" to collect the tape. He finds the ruined monitor, but no sign of Harry. Not disturbed, Richard writes this off as the body having been carried away by the current. Later that night, Richard hears voices calling his name, as a mysterious unseen presence easily bypasses Comfort Point's extensive security system. The culprits turn out to be Harry and Becky, the two lovers having returned as waterlogged, seaweed-covered revenants intent on revenge on their killer. Richard shoots them, but when the bullets have no effect, he barricades himself in his bedroom, only to find Becky and Harry already inside. The two victims taunt Richard, who laughs insanely.
Sometime later, the undead lovers have buried Richard up to his neck on the beach. They have since disappeared together into the surf, leaving Richard's own seaweed-covered video camera to record his coming demise. The hysterical Richard screams that he can hold his breath "for a LONG time!" Some of the tide goes into his mouth as the story ends.