CREEPSHOW (1982) Dir: George A. Romero U.K Blu-Ray

Horror anthology time now with Shawn Francis' review of the U.K Blu-Ray of George A.Romero and Stephen King's classic tales of terror flick CREEPSHOW. The U.K Blu comes from the guys at Second Sight but does this new disc live up to the standards we expect? Shawn has the skinny after the jump....

Heh, Heh! Greetings kiddies, and welcome

to the first issue of Creepshow, the

magazine that dares to answer the question,

“Who Goes There?”

Written By Shawn Francis
If you are, or were ever, a fan of those EC horror comics from the 50s and wanted to see them adapted for the movies then you should never have to look any farther than the 1982 Stephen King/George Romero movie collaboration known as
Creepshow.

I seem to remember being turned onto this movie through a grade school friend who used to collect Fangoria. This was long before I ever became a collector of that magazine and he used to bring an issue to school every so often to show off. Unfortunately, I have no concrete memory of when I first saw the movie. Since it was an ’82 release, I can only assume it was the following year when it creeped it’s way onto cable. I recall my mother and I watching it together in the living room.

It’s an anthology tale composed of five stories all of which pack a punch to varying degrees. Upon “The Crate” segment was my favorite, and my least favorite was the last one, “They’re Creeping Up On You!” Nowadays, I adore them all.

that initial viewing

The wraparound story deals with a kid (Stephen King’s actual son, Joe Hill) who is getting punished by his potentially abusive father for reading the Creepshow magazine. John Carpenter favorite, Tom Atkins, plays the father. As far as I can recall, at least as far as his movie career goes, this is the only time I have seen him play the “bad guy.”

The Creep (aka The Cryptkeeper) shows up at the kid’s bedroom window later on as he prays for this father to rot in hell. The homage to those horror comics of yesteryear kicks when the live action Creep turns into animation and the opening credits start and between each tale, and on occasion within the tales themselves, an appropriate level of EC-style animation surfaces to remind of the viewer of its origins. Not only that but even the live action stories themselves is given EC-style set dressing and color palettes, which work remarkably well in evoking that horror comic book’s vibe.

The first tale is called, “Father’s Day,” and it deals with a rich family getting together for a family dinner on none other than Father’s Day. Why Father’s Day? Well, Aunt Bedelia killed her father back on the day and has been guilt ridden ever since. So much so she returns home on the titular holiday, saunters down to her father’s family grave and rants and raves for a while. When that’s done, she has dinner with the rest of the family. And, yes, the rest of the family knows damn well what she did and is pretty much okay with it. Nathan Grantham was one of those patriarchs who deserved what he got. Problem is he decides to come back from the dead on this particular day and get revenge. A before-they-were famous Ed Harris plays an ill-fated boyfriend who just happens to be with the wrong family at the wrong time and pays a heavy price. Pun intended.

The second tale comes off as a comedic homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, ‘The Colour Out Of Space.’ It’s called, “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill,” and the horror scribe himself, Stephen King, plays bumpkin, Jordy Verrill, who one day witness a small meteor crash on his property. Thinking he’ll make some money off it he takes it into the house, but soon realizes touching it has infected him with an alien disease that slowly turns him into a humanoid weed. Suicide by shotgun ends up being the smartest thing he ever does.

“Something To Tide You Over” is next on the menu. Here a pre-Cheers Ted Danson matches wits with a murderous Leslie Nielsen for having an affair with his wife. He concocts a revenge that involves making Danson bury himself up to his neck on the beach, and then hooks up a TV so he can watch his wife, who’s also buried up to neck somewhere farther down on Nielsen’s private beach, slowly drown as the tide comes in. But as you well know revenge is a dish best served cold, and in this case sea water wet, and both lover and ex-wife return from the dead looking about has horrendous as one can look after the ocean gets her hands on there dead bodies and does to him what he did to them.

Now comes my favorite tale and one that’s a favorite with most fans, “The Crate.” Hidden under the stairs of a local university for well over a century is a mysterious crate. The janitor who stumbled upon it calls in one of the school’s professors played by Fritz Weaver and together they open it up. Not all the way open, for something living inside viciously kills the janitor and pulls his body into the crate. The professor in a state of hysterics bumps into a student who wants to see for real if this event really happened.

When they encounter the crate again it’s back under the staircas, and we all know what happens to curious cats, the student goes to have an up close look at it when he encounters a midget version of some kind of Abominable Snowman (Savini refers to is a Tasmanian Devil) that has been living inside.

Fritz Weaver’s character has a best friend played by Hal Holbrook and poor Hal has an “unmitigated bitch” of a wife played by Adrienne Barbeau. The kind of wife he’d rather kill than divorce and when Weaver’s character tells him this unbelievable tale of a carnivorous creature living in a crate the wheels in his head begin to turn.

It seems revenge is a common theme among these tales and I seem to think the original EC comics were like that as well. I know HBO’s Tales From The Crypt series (1989-1996) that was also based on those comics had a predominant number of stories where characters were getting revenge upon other characters in all kinds of colorful and supernatural ways.

The final tale is cockroach ridden one called, “They’re Creeping Up On You!” And it’s about an cruel, old man played by E.G. Marshal who’s crippled by his fear of germs and lives in a self-contained apartment where everything is and must be spic-and-span clean. He’s one of those rich businessmen who cares nothing for the little person and his comeuppance is unique. It’s a revenge tale where there is no clear “antagonist,” at least, no human one. Cockroaches begin appearing in his apartment here and there until they eventually and literally overwhelm him. Who sent them? Were they even “sent?” We never find out. Maybe, God himself was the one who decided it was time for Upson Pratt to finally pay the fiddler.

Second Sight is set to debut Creepshow on blu-ray on October 28^th. General specs for the video and audio are 1.85:1 anamorphic HD and a Stereo 2.0 or a DTS-HD Master Audio for your choosing. This is the first remastering I have seen that drops the ball. Yes, the clarity and detail are ten times better than anything you’ve seen prior making it look like it was filmed yesterday, but it’s been “scrubbed” too much. All the natural grain is gone and without it the movie looks too perfect and that too perfect appearance is unnatural to my eye. This is the first time I have seen one of these “DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) jobs” run amok. I know there are probably people out there who won’t mind this look, but I have seen Creepshow with its natural level of grain and it looks much better than this.

As far as the extra features go, it appears all of them have been ported over from the Special Edition DVD that was released in the UK back in 2007, while Second Sight has added a new commentary.

The first commentary is between Director, George Romero, FX Artist, and Tom Savini with moderation provided by Red Shirt Pictures owner, Michael Felsher. It’s a good one that covers all the bases of the movie’s production. Michael Felsher again moderates the new commentary but it’s not so much a straightforward commentary than four interviews Felsher conducted. He states up front that these four people were participants he couldn’t get for the doc, Just Desserts, he put together for the previous DVD. He interviews Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, Actor John Amples, Property Master Bruce Alan Green and Make-Up Effects Assistant Darryl Ferrucci.

Aside from the Romero/Savini commentary the other main attraction is the 1:29:30 long documentary, Just Desserts: The Making Of Creepshow that covers just about anything and everything you ever wanted to know about its making. The only lacking aspect is the absence of Stephen King.

‘Behind the creams with Tom Savini’ (26:29) is some pretty neat footage taken during production of Savini working on the various FX set pieces and make-up.

‘Deleted Scenes’ (15:20), the footage cut seemed to be the right decision. Nice seeing it but adding it back in really wouldn’t do much for the movie.

Rounding out the extras is a TV Spot and a Trailer and a Stills Gallery whose subject matter covers Artwork, Autographed Items, Behind-The-Scenes, Books, Lobby Cards. Magazine Articles And Covers, Official Photos, Original Comic Book Art, Posters, Press Books and Printed Ad.

As I mentioned before the remaster is a disappointment, but the extras are gold. For those living in the US, I recommend buying the Warner blu-ray for the film, but get this one for all the extras.