Send in the Creeps

Ah, but where would we be without CREEPSHOW?

Filmed in 1981, the horror anthology-cum-comic book tribute proved enough of a financial and critical success to warrant a sequel, but more importantly to our interests here, the original CREEPSHOW served as the seed for the program that was to become TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Richard P. Rubinstein, having formed Laurel Entertainment with George Romero in the 70s, produced a series of the director’s films including MARTIN (1977), KNIGHTRIDERS (1981), and DAY OF THE DEAD (1985). Rubinstein was also on board as producer for CREEPSHOW, the brainchild of Romero and novelist Stephen King, who penned the five tales comprising their omnibus project.

Having grown up delighting to the cackling mannerisms of the GhouLunatics from E. C. Comics’ stable of horror titles, Romero and King sought to create a film that replicated the retro, vibrant grotesqueries that they had loved so much in their youth. And boy did they succeed there. CREEPSHOW is a veritable Valentine’s to horror fans, one that tickles our twisted bones and scratches our rotting flesh in all the right places. 

The Day-Glo art direction is eye candy in the truest sense, as the screen seems to bubble over with its frothy compositions that have everything from cartoon bugs enc-roach-ing on the scene to lightning bolts from the electric rainbow highlighting the actors’ screaming faces. Every segment is timed just right, spending only so many minutes on each dramatic beat and dark joke before shuttling us over to the next. Not to mention how eminently quotable it is! I have absolutely no data to back this up, but something in my gut tells me that this could possibly be the one Stephen King-written property that most people could easily quote by heart. It has enough one-liners alone to fuel an entire line of clothing and apparel. 

Everybody on the scene looks to be having the time of their lives, and even icky moments like a monstrous primate ravaging flesh like so much wet tissue paper are shot with such glee that it remains nearly impossible to resist this movie's charms. There are some moments that might lose the bite of genuine terror due to all the Super-Size styling, but the bold advertising doesn’t shirk on its promise that CREEPSHOW will be “The Most Fun You’ll Have Being Scared.” From the second that the floating corpse-puppet grins outside of little Joe Hill’s window in the wraparound segment, we know we are in good hands.

The rock-em, shock-em atmosphere mellowed out (sort of…) when CREEPSHOW 2 was released in 1987. Michael Gornick (who served as DP for Romero on the Rubinstein projects in addition to DAWN OF THE DEAD [1978], as well as going on to helm several DARKSIDE episodes) took over the directing reins. The screenplay was penned by Romero this time out, including an adaptation of one of King's previously published short stories and two “original” yarns.

An interesting note: there were originally plans for CREEPSHOW 2 to have five segments like its predecessor, but two of them were scrapped. One of the vignettes, “The Cat from Hell,” went on to receive the screen treatment three years later in a little feature called TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE (1990).

Released just a year before TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE was to take its final bow on television, CREEPSHOW 2 seems a little less beholden to its pulpy roots and vies for a more contemporary vibe. The Warner Brothers banner, the classical and memorable score by John Harrison, and the cast of studio actors gave the original CREEPSHOW a dramatic heft that it brilliantly leavened with its gruesome comedy, like if the bullpen at EC Comics had been given directorial control over a season of PLAYHOUSE 90. In the sequel we have New World Pictures, a collection of relatively unknown and uninspiring players, and a musical track that starts to feel as redundant and unceasing as the stories themselves, a symptom perhaps of trying to fill out 30 minutes with 20 minute-stories. Ten minutes might seem like a quibble, but when they're devoted to expected payoffs for obnoxious villains, left-field seduction scenes, and something like 15 recitations of "Thanks for the ride, lady", you start eyeing the clock real close. And even the comic book-styled wraparound feels like the tepid stuff that you might see on a Saturday morning watching TALES FROM THE CRYPTKEEPER. 

Still, CREEPSHOW 2 has its fans, and I think we can all agree that Tom Savini and Joe Silver give it their all as the physical host and voice of The Creep respectively. Probably my favorite moment from the sequel is the very end of the film (for several reasons, har har!) when The Creep, hanging from the back of the news truck, waves little Billy goodbye and then spots us, the viewers. His eyes alight with fiendish glee and he points, laughing, before the news truck takes off and he litters the highway with gore-colored issues of the Creepshow comic. If only Stanley (Tom Atkins) from the first film could have lived to see all "that horror crap" choking up the thoroughfare! 

CREEPSHOW 2 did not perform nearly as well as the original, with one critic even opining that none of the segments from the theatrical feature were "as good as...the syndicated TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE." Just goes to show that $14 million doesn't make any guarantees for solid storytelling.

But it was after the surprise hit of the original CREEPSHOW that the brains over at Laurel Entertainment began formulating plans of distributing a television show that offered up isolated stories in a similar vein. The result came in the form of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE, a title that the Crypt Keeper would undoubtedly have approved. And while the show would debut with a strong pilot and feature occasional episodes that were clearly molded from the clay of 50s horror comics, DARKSIDE would eventually go on to explore other, shadowy terrain in a manner similar to THE TWILIGHT ZONE’s accumulation of pure terror, fantasy, and science fiction.

Without the success of CREEPSHOW, it’s very likely that the world would have never seen the Darkside. And for a feature that spent its time looking back into the past, it’s somewhat ironic that the film should help pave the road for Laurel’s future success in TV Land.

FURTHER READING

http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Creepshow#more

http://www.avclub.com/article/ted-danson-fargo-damages-cheers-and-leslie-nielsen-228795

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/creepshow-1982

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9807EED81038F933A25752C1A964948260&partner=Rotten%2520Tomatoes