Creepshow

Starring: Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Robert Harper, Don Keefer
Directed by: George A. Romero
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
1982

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An anthology of five horror stories.

Review:

Tim: I'm usually not a fan of anthology films- in my experience, they're usually too uneven. The really good stories never feel long enough and the bad ones drag on forever. I wouldn't quite call Creepshow a good movie, but it gets surprisingly close. The stories aren't all equal, but they were fairly consistent across the board. Combining the forces of Stephen King and George A. Romero was a great idea and they assembled an impressive cast. This is a decent horror flick.

The first story, "Father's Day" is an original written by King for the film. It gets the movie off to a solid start. It's sufficiently creepy. We get just enough time with the characters to understand the story, but this segment doesn't overstay it's welcome. It sets the tone for the rest of the film and provides some solid scares. I really enjoyed seeing Ed Harris in his small role. The rest of the cast for this one was fine.

The second one, "The Lonesome Death..." really surprised me. It's based on a King short story and Stephen King himself plays the main role. 99% of the segment is him. King's not a great actor, but he did a fairly decent job here. His performance is too over-the-top and needed more subtlety, but how many authors could pull off a role this big? It's actually quite impressive. It helps that there's some great visuals in this story that feels very different than the first one. It was a lot of fun to see this depicted.

"Something to Tide You Over!" was a great shift for the third story. Most of it feels like a straight murder story, but there's some great supernatural elements towards the end. This was one of the highlights of the film. I was surprised by how effective Leslie Nielsen was in this diabolical role. I know him mostly from his goofier parts, so it was great to see him in this dramatic, intense role. I thought he did an effective job. He interacted well with Ted Danson, who was entertaining as our protagonist in this story. The elements of this story are simple- burying someone in the sand. However, it's depicted in a way that feels terrifying. You just imagine yourself there, unable to move, watching the waves get higher and higher, closer and closer. It was definitely an effective segment.

I was less enthused by "The Crate". This was the segment that felt like it lasted a bit too long. A crate is discovered in a college from some arctic expedition (I never believed this premise) and there's a monster inside. There's a revenge story as well- it just never really comes together. I enjoyed Hal Holbrook in the role- he was solid. The story just isn't very interesting. After three effective ones, this felt like a letdown.

I have mixed feelings about the final story, "They're Creeping Up on You". This story involves cockroaches- a lot of cockroaches. That was disgusting and cringe-worthy and it certainly made my skin crawl. So, in some ways, it was effective. It was fairly unpleasant to watch, though. It's filled with unlikable characters. E.G. Marshall was too over-the-top and ridiculous for my taste. It might be creepy, but it's uncomfortable to watch and not a ton of fun. Still, it's at least decent.

As a whole, this anthology works maybe slightly more than it doesn't. I wish I would have really enjoyed the film, but it's a bit too uneven for that. Still, for usually disliking anthologies, this was at least a decent attempt. Romero does a good job depicting each of these stories. Creepshow could have been better (and probably should have been), but I didn't mind this film at all.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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