Five grisly tales from a kid's comic book about a murdered father rising from his grave, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.Five grisly tales from a kid's comic book about a murdered father rising from his grave, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.Five grisly tales from a kid's comic book about a murdered father rising from his grave, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.
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George A Romero & Stephen King combine here to give us 5 joyously silly tales based on the style of the E.C. Comics that both men loved as youths.
The film begins with a young boy having his comic collection thrown away by his father, this angers the boy and he plots evil revenge that segues into the five stories.
"Father's Day" is the opening story and whilst it isn't short on the camp factor, it's a very inauspicious start, a zombie father returns to enact vengeance on his horrid family in the name of cake! Next up is "The Lonesome Death Of Jody Verill", which sees Stephen King himself in the title role of a less than dumb hick who touches a fallen meteor and thus starts to turn into a plant monster. King has fun with the role but overplays it to dangerously annoying ham proportions, but it's a tidy fable with a cool ending. We then get to my personal favourite of the bunch with "Something To Tide You Over," here we have a delightfully villainous Leslie Nielson burying his unfaithful wife and her lover {Ted Danson} in the sand up to their necks as the tide starts to come in, naturally there is a grizzly twist a coming.
"The Crate" sees the arrival of Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau into the proceedings, a smart message of not opening crates marked with "Danger, Do Not Open," and here we get a genuinely scary monster into the show. The final segment is "They're Creeping Up On You" which seems to be a favourite of many across the site, and although it has creepy impact for those scared of insects, it's not the crowning glory I was hoping for. We are then cut back to the boy and his thirst for revenge and the film finishes with a glint in its eye, more schlock and camp than outright horror, but still a great piece of 80s fun for fans to enjoy, 7/10.
The film begins with a young boy having his comic collection thrown away by his father, this angers the boy and he plots evil revenge that segues into the five stories.
"Father's Day" is the opening story and whilst it isn't short on the camp factor, it's a very inauspicious start, a zombie father returns to enact vengeance on his horrid family in the name of cake! Next up is "The Lonesome Death Of Jody Verill", which sees Stephen King himself in the title role of a less than dumb hick who touches a fallen meteor and thus starts to turn into a plant monster. King has fun with the role but overplays it to dangerously annoying ham proportions, but it's a tidy fable with a cool ending. We then get to my personal favourite of the bunch with "Something To Tide You Over," here we have a delightfully villainous Leslie Nielson burying his unfaithful wife and her lover {Ted Danson} in the sand up to their necks as the tide starts to come in, naturally there is a grizzly twist a coming.
"The Crate" sees the arrival of Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau into the proceedings, a smart message of not opening crates marked with "Danger, Do Not Open," and here we get a genuinely scary monster into the show. The final segment is "They're Creeping Up On You" which seems to be a favourite of many across the site, and although it has creepy impact for those scared of insects, it's not the crowning glory I was hoping for. We are then cut back to the boy and his thirst for revenge and the film finishes with a glint in its eye, more schlock and camp than outright horror, but still a great piece of 80s fun for fans to enjoy, 7/10.
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.
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.
Despite some major problems (mainly contained in Stephen King's uneven and often heavy-handed script), this is still a pretty fun attempt to bring 1950s EC horror comics to the big screen. One of the best things about it is director George ('Night of the Living Dead') Romero's creative, vivid direction, that captures the bright color schemes and comic book framing to a tee. Each tale has a different horror theme usually tempered with some comedy and ranging from a rich patriarch returning from the dead to get revenge on his obnoxious family to a meteor that causes an outbreak of vegetation to a fanged, ape-like creature that's been locked away in a crate for decades. All five of the tales presented, despite some missteps, offer up good gory fun. Some of the acting is good, too, particularly Adrienne Barbeau as a heavy drinking, obnoxious faculty wife who gets what she deserves, Hal Holbrook as her hen-pecked husband and E.G. Marshall as a wealthy, obsessively clean old jerk who is savaged in his futuristic apartment by a legion of cockroaches. Talk about flesh crawling! Tom Savini's special effects are great, as usual.
This is one of my favorite horror movie anthologies. All five stories are pretty good; some of course are better than others. This one is also a lot better than Creepshow 2, which had only one really good story to it. The first story is an ok story involving this old man killed by his daughter. He comes back to life expecting a cake cause its father's day. Nothing to surprising happens here, but it is still pretty fun. The next one involves the story that has Stephen King as the main star. This is probably the weakest one of the five, but it is worth a chuckle or two as King does a somewhat good job of playing a slow fellow. This story involves a meteor that makes grass grow everywhere. The next story is one of the best, a revenge tale with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielson. Danson has been having an affair with Nielson's wife so Nielson takes him to the beach and buries him up to his neck in the sand. He had done the same thing with his wife and the tide apparently kills them both...or does it? The next tale is rather good as well as it has Adriean Barbeau in it as this obnoxious wife. Her husband finds out about a crate that may take care of her though. And the final tale is about a doctor or something, who is a bit of a clean freak. He lives in a special apartment that is supposed to be germ free, but it apparently has a roach problem. I don't even think he is a doctor, but he seems to be wearing a doctor's clothes. All in all Creepshow is a pretty enjoyable flick.
George A.Romero("Dawn of the Dead","Day of the Dead","Martin")after huge success with "Dawn of the Dead" directed his another masterpiece-an anthology of five short stories called "Creepshow".The script was written by Stephen King,and the special effects were made by F/X wizard Tom Savini("Martin","Maniac","The Prowler").The first story "Father's Day" is so-so-nothing special,but the zombie looks terrific;the second story "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verril" is the funniest,Stephen King steals the show as a Jordy,a goofy farmer,who finds a strange meteor;the third story "Something To Tide You Over" is my favourite-it's ghastly,creepy,funny and a little bit disturbing,again great make-up of the drowned zombies;the fourth story "The Crate" is the longest and goriest-there's a lot of suspense and plenty of gore mixed with black humour.Finally we are getting to the last story "Creeping Up On You"-an enjoyable story about cockroaches with some rather gross special effects.Overall I must say that I love "Creepshow"-surely they don't make them like this anymore.This is a REAL horror,not a teen-oriented garbage like "Scream" or "Urban Legend".Check it out.
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- TriviaAn alternate ending (scripted but then rewritten) for "Something to Tide You Over" found two policemen dropping by to investigate Richard's panicky-but-true claims of Harry and Becky invading his beach-house. When the policemen (predictably) laugh at his story - thinking he's drunk - Richard attempts to prove this by showing them camera footage of both undead stalkers. Instead, the television plays his incriminating conversation with Harry before and during the latter's burial-by-the-sea.
Richard protests that he's been set up, that this is the wrong tape. "Oh, it's the right tape all right, pal!" the police answer. "And speaking of rights...!"
The film smash-cuts from there to Richard's murder trial; he is convicted and sentenced to death row. Another smash-cut finds Richard in the gas chamber, laughing hysterically even while his life is choked out of him: "I can hold my breath for a long, long time...!"
- GoofsBefore he is slapped in the Prologue segment, Billy already has red slap marks painted on his face.
- Quotes
Wilma Northrup: You know what Henry? You're a regular barnyard exhibit. Sheep's eyes, chicken guts, piggy friends... and SHIT for BRAINS!
- Crazy creditsDuring the end of the credits, we hear "the old creep" laugh
- Alternate versionsVersion aired on Spanish-speaking channel Telemundo is dubbed, edited for content, runs 1 hour and 30 minutes (with commercials) and only shows stories "Something To Tide You Over" and "The Crate". The end credits for all five segments are intact.
- ConnectionsEdited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)
- SoundtracksA Star Is Born
(1937) (uncredited)
Music by Max Steiner
[segment "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill"]
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Cuentos de ultratumba
- Filming locations
- Island Beach State Park, Berkeley Township, Ocean County, New Jersey, USA(beach in "Something to Tide You Over")
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $8,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $21,028,755
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,870,889
- Nov 14, 1982
- Gross worldwide
- $21,031,312
- Runtime
- 2h(120 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
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