Creepshow

10/10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When George Romero and Stephen King team up, one could expect something pretty cool. In 1982, this miracle actually took place, leading to the creation of "Creepshow."  The final product was something better than I could've ever imagined. It was a film of humor, and horrors that only a genius could imagine.  Being the "Heavy Metal" of live action, it is an anthology movie, and definitely the best of them all. 

The movie begins on a dark and stormy night. A young boy named Billy is seen being disciplined harshly by his father for having a horror comic book called "Creepshow." The boy is very upset by this, because the horror genre is very much his love. As he looks out the window, a ghoul looks right at him, and the opening credits begin. Personally, I thought this was great, because I can connect with Billy's passion for horror, and one feels a lot of sympathy for him. The intro credits were also awesome, because of the snazzy animation, and spooky music. 

The rest of the film is an anthology that includes five horror stories with black comedy. It is meant to go through the very comic book that Billy's father threw away, and the stories were all either written for the movie, or adaptations of Stephen King's short stories.  I thought this was very cool, because it saved us from being bored by one plot the whole time, and gave a 5 in 1 deal. 

1. Father's Day: I thought that "Father's Day" was a very good story, because it gave a lot of good horror moments, while also being hilarious because of its morbid elements. It basically tells the story of a man rising from the dead getting revenge on his family for not giving them his cake. This plot sounds absurd, but honestly that makes it all the better. I really thought that the cast was pretty great in this number, with Ed Harris giving a cool and sarcastic performance as Hank, and Elizabeth Regan being the other standout with her unmistakable sass as Hank's wife Cass.  The ending to this short was also absolutely crazy, and everything one would expect with King's disturbing supernatural narrative. 

2: The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill: Fast paced, bizarre, and much funnier than "Father's Day," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill kicked the sophomore slump right in the butt. It tells the story of a simple man named Jordy Verrill, whom finds a meteor in his field.  Making a very bad decision, Jordy touches the space rock, and begins to get lumps on his fingers. These small marks turn into green patches of weeds, and they spread onto everything he touches.  This story was absolutely hilarious for a few great reasons. The first was Stephen King's performance of the lead.  I never really thought of his acting skills before, but this really showed the depth of his talents. He gave such a goofy and over the top performance, while still staying appropriate for the story.  I could almost call his portrayal a crossover between Jim Carrey and Jack Nicholson.  The faces he made were priceless, and he gave such a satirically perfect performance as a hillbilly. The next thing that made this story hilarious were the dream sequences. Even though they were dark in nature, there was such a light hearted and macabre way about them that I was laughing so hard.  The ending of the story was also potentially sad in a lot of ways, but it was handled well to the point that I could still laugh. Overall this story really gave me even more interest for the film, and I was thoroughly impressed. 

3. Something to Tide You Over: This third installment in the anthology was one of the darker(if not the darkest) of the bunch. Obviously being influenced by the works of Poe, "Something to Tide You Over" tells the story of a man named Richard, whom decides to get revenge on his wife and her lover Harry.  He forces them to bury themselves on the beach with sand, and they have to withstand the tortures of the tides.  While Richard thinks he will get away with this, there is an event to later take place that he would have never expected. I thought it was an interesting move to have the two funniest people in the whole movie(Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen) be in the least comical story of the movie. Luckily, both of them have incredible depth in their acting, and they pulled it off to the max.  Nielsen's evil side was actually terrifying in my opinion, because instead of being his bumbling self, he took his wit to portray a character that was sadistic beyond all belief. The ending of this chapter was particularly insane, and it ended on a humongous laugh showing how bad Richard messed up. At this point of the movie, this story was second to the previous one. 

4. The Crate: The next story takes a turn even further into darkness with a tale of lying, sabotage, and death. Henry Northup is a man unhappy with his marriage. He is controlled, and not even loved by his wife, who seems to only want him for his money.  His friend Dexter is just about the only person who keeps him sane, yet he still fantasizes of killing Wilma(Billie) all the time.  Dexter has recently been informed by a janitor named Michael at the college that he teaches at that there is a mysterious crate from an expedition in the 1930's.  The two men go to check it out at night, and it ends up holding a murderous creature.  Completely shocked by this revelation, Dexter runs to Henry for help. Northup decides to go to the college to check things out, and when he sees what has happened he thinks of a plan that will affect the lives of many.  Honestly, this was my favorite story in the whole film. It was gorier than all of the others, and it was also the funniest in my opinion. It had such a macabre sense of humor, and I was honestly laughing most of the time. The cast in this one was also pretty awesome, with Hal Holbrook as the unhappy husband Henry, the notorious beauty of the era Adrienne Barbeau as Billie, and Fritz Weaver giving a paranoid and emotional performance as Dexter. The thing that really set this chapter apart from the others was the attack scenes with the monster; now credited as "Fluffy." The puppetry for this character was actually the main reason I watched this movie, because the details of the body and movements were so intricate, and it was some of the best work in the field I have seen since "The Muppets."  The last quarter of this one was pretty mindblowing, because the insanity really flows, and even though the ending was somewhat predictable, it still had an ounce of suspense left in it. 

5. They're Creeping Up On You:  The final story in this amazing anthology is a tale of karma. Upson Pratt is the scum of the earth.  He shows no kindness to people at all, and he is just plain unhappy. This man is also a huge germaphobic, and he freaks out when he starts to see roaches in his house. Calling for help immediately, he hopes this can be fixed. To his bad luck, people don't come quick enough, and the house begins to swarm. Will he be able to make it? Or is this his horrifying end?  I thought that this was the second best of all the parts in the movie, because it was so well done. E.G. Marshall gave a perfect performance as who may be the meanest man on the earth.  The sight of his insanity that he creates from the isolation is priceless, and I thought that this was one of the darkest chapters. The ending scene was absolute shocking in my opinion, and it stands to be one of the greatest clips of horror history. 

I thought it was very neat how the film followed comic book format of its inspiration. There were so many cool touches to add to this, including pauses with banners shooting to the screen in scenes of fear, funny sound effects, and the color schemes; especially during the attack scenes of "The Crate." I also loved how after each story, a page in the comic flipped to the next one.  The animations for the book were absolutely beautiful, and they were so intricate that there ended up being a graphic novel in the future.  All of these factors really reminded me of a classic cartoon movie called "Heavy Metal," because they followed the same formula in a different format. 

Another great thing about the film was the special effects.  Tom Savini did a beautiful job with the gore and makeup, because everything looked so natural, and it was nasty and detailed.  The puppetry work throughout the film was also pretty awesome, and it including movie skeletons, ghosts, and the iconic "Fluffy."  I think that while they all could be construed as cheesy now, it was such a great artistic achievement, and I love them dearly. 

The ending of the movie brings us back to Billy's house again. The garbage men find the comic book, and take it home in fascination.  Then to our surprise, Billy does something that blew my mind immensely. I thought that the ending was so morbid, and so unexpected that it completely lived up to every story from before. 

It is very rare that I feel the way I did after watching this movie. I was so full of awe, because this film was a true masterpiece. It was sharper than a knife, it made me laugh like crazy, and it had some truly amazing scenes of horror. The acting was superb, and the writing/special effects were just top notch. I definitely see this as my favorite Romero film, and probably my second favorite Stephen King movie(behind "The Shining").  I definitely recommend it to all fans of the genre, because it is probably one of the all time  best, and it will be the most fun horror experience of your entire life.