Review of Creepshow (1982) by Brando — 29 Sep 2008

Stephen King and George Romero joined forces and brought us an anthology of short horror stories, tied together as stories in a 1950's style horror comic book. The film includes five stories, all written by King: a deceased father returns from the grave for a special Father's Day reunion, a small-town simpleton dreams of riches when a strange meteor crashes on his property, a jolted husband exacts revenge on his cheating wife and her lover, a professor discovers a century-old secret hidden in a crate beneath the stairs, and a germophobic businessman's "germ-proof" apartment is invaded by cockroaches.

The stories are all tied together as part of a comic book with some cool illustrations used as transitions between each tale. I was surprised by some of the good performances in this movie. My favorite would easily be Leslie Nielsen as Richard Vickers in "Something to Tide You Over", the husband getting his thrills from torturing his cheating wife and her boyfriend.

I enjoyed seeing Nielsen in a role that wasn't comedic, as I was used to. Instead, we get a glimpse of his evil side. Oddly enough, I also enjoyed Stephen King's cartoonish performance as the title character in "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill".

The first time I saw the movie, I found him annoying. Since then, it's grown on me and now I enjoy his bit in the movie. We also get some good performances from Ted Danson and E.G. Marshall, though it's said Ed Harris was given such a small role.

It almost feels wasteful. As I had mentioned, the entire movie is stylized to create the feeling of 1950's horror comics. This means we treated to plenty of gel-colored lighting, oblique camera angles, eccentric characters, and even some comic book framing/captions.

It creates a fun style, but it tends to detract from any horror element in the film. If it weren't for the occasional walking dead or blood-thirsty creature, I would almost consider this more of a dark comedy.

Regardless of the genre, the film is entertaining for a two hour viewing, though nothing special. Despite it's horror roots, there isn't too much objectionable content which makes it relatively safe for the younger crowd to enjoy too.

I wouldn't consider this film a classic, but it's worth the time to watch it if you haven't seen it yet. My favorite segment, if I were to chose one, would definitely be "Something to Tide You Over".

Leslie Nielsen FTW.