Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King
Synopsis: Masters of the macabre – writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero – conjure up five shocking yarns, each a virtuoso exercise in the ghouls-and-gags style of classic '50s horror comics. A murdered man emerges from the grave for Father's Day cake. A meteor's ooze makes everything ... grow. A professor selects his wife as a snack for a crated creature. A scheming husband plants two lovers up to their necks in terror. A malevolent millionaire with an insect phobia becomes the prey of a cockroach army. Add the spirited performances of an excellent cast (Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, E.G. Marshall and King himself) and the ghoulish makeup wizardry of Tom Savini, and you have a non-stop, thrilling ride that "plays like an anthology of human phobias" (Roger Ebert)!
Creepshow (1982) has long been my absolute favorite horror anthology, a horror project that brought together director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) with legendary horror scribe Stephen King (The Shining). These guys were the undisputed kings of horror in the 80s and it was am inspired pairing that in my mind could only be bested by that one time someone stuck Hershey's bar into a jar of peanut butter and thought, 'hey, this is pretty good'! The resulting anthology was a wonderful blend EC Comics morality and pitch perfect campiness that has yet to be matched in my opinion, this is about as near perfect an anthology as I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, there's some greeat ones out there, from the vintage Amicus stuff on through to new class Trick R Treat, but this one is the best in my book. As a kid I loved that this was such a comic book movie with a mix of live action sequences that dissolve into animated panels, I thought it was cool then and I think it's even cooler now.
Like every good anthology of terror is begins with a prologue/wraparound story, this one featuring a young horror loving kid named Billy (played by King's son Joe Hill), whose step dad Stan (Tom Atkins, Halloween III: Season of the Witch) is laying into him about reading all this "horror crap", tossing his copy of the Creepshow comic in the trash. It's then that the ghoulish apparition of The Creep (sort of like an early version of the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt) appears to the boy, dissolving into an animated short with the pages of the comic flipping open and landing on the title page to the story 'Father's Day'.
The first proper tale about a gathering of old school money types gathered on the family estate to commemorate the family patriarch, the now deceased Nathan Grantham, who as described by the family, was an awful, abusive man, who was murdered by his long-suffering daughter Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors, Exorcist III). As Bedilia visits her father's grave he emerges as a rotting zombie corpse (a very cool-looking zombie) and sets about murdering his living family members around the property, a fun EC-styled romp with a terrific ending with a severed-head father's day cake.
Up next is a bit of tragic farce, 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill' starring Stephen King as the titular hayseed who has big money dreams when a meteor falls from the sky and lands on his property. This one is based on Stephen King short titled "Weeds", though it owes a bit to H.P. Lovecraft by way of "The Color Out of Space". While Jordy is prodding the space rock some "meteor-shit" leaks from it, unbeknownst to Jordy it causes the rampant growth of an alien weed, and after coming into contact with it he makes some poor decisions, leading up to Jordy taking his own life before being choked-out by the alien-weed. The tone of this one is goofy, as is the acting by King, he really hams it up here, but I did find myself feeling bad for the simpleton as he sets about his tragic journey of otherworldly discovery and eventual regret.
'Something to Tide You Over' pairs the comedic talents of Leslie Nielson (Day of the Animals) with future TV mega-star Dan Danson (Cheers) in a tale of cold-blooded revenge. Filthy rich TV exec Richard Vickers (Nielsen) discovers that his wife Becky (Gaylen Ross, Dawn of the Dead) has a new lover Harry (Danson). Noy willing to share he sets about burying them up to their necks on a sandy beach during low tide, saying that if they can hold their breath long enough there's a chance they can escape before they drown when the tide rolls in. Nielson is so good her, a sort of over-friendly villain, but make no mistake about it, he's cold-blooded, watching as the tide rolls on a closed circuit TV set-up from the comfort of his beach house property. This one has a fun watery dead revenge with good soggy slice of comeuppance delivered at the end, with the drown lovers returining as water-logged zombies!
As a kid this next story was a clear favorite, 'The Crate' has to do with a mysterious wooden crate found in a stairwell storage space by a janitor at a local college. The crate is marked with "Arctic Expedition - June 19 1834" imprinted on it. Surpised by the discovery he calls on Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver, Demon Seed) to come check it out. What they find when they open it is a scary-toothed ape like creature with a hideous gaping maw, it promptly eats the poor janitor, leaving the professor in a state of shock. Stanley tells his friend and colleague Prof. Northrup (Hal Holbrook, The Fog) about it all, but Northrup sees this creature as a way of ridding himself of his nagging wife Billy, played with overbearing fervor by Holbrook's Fog co-star Adrienne Barbeau (Two Evil Eyes). This woman, oh my, you can see why the professor wants her dead, and I love how he lures her to the campus with the promise of lurid gossip, feeding her to the beast within the box. As a kid I loved creature features, so loving this was a no-brainer, even if the short feels like two separate stories mashed-up into one. One about the discovery of this creature, another about a professor daydreaming about murdering his nagging wife, but they come together nicely and the creature, as silly as it looks, it a toothsome fright.
The story that brings this flick to a close it 'They're Creeping Up on You', a segment that gave me bug nightmares for weeks when I was 11 years-old. It's the story of a rich old man seemingkly modeled after infamous germaphobe Howard Hughes. E.G. Marshall (Superman II) plays corporate vulture Upson Pratt, a self-made millionaire who run his empire from a hermetically sealed high rise apartment. During a storm we find him glowing in the news that one of his subordinate has killed themselves, so yeah, he's not a nice guy. We find him spritzing bug-spray at the occasional cockroach, keeping his sterilized palace free of bugs is a full-time job, but it's a losing battle. During a power outage the roaches come swarming from the drains and engulf the man, ending with a grotesque scene of the bugs bursting from within his neck, this is a bug-haters worst nightmare! The dummy they used for this bit is not aided by the 4K presentation, looking pretty damn fake these days, butit still sends tingles of fear down by spine!
Creepshow is finished-up nicely with the epilogue of young horror-fan Billy having his revenge against his wicked step father, using a voodoo doll he acquired with a coupon from the Creepshow comic! This one holds up so well for me, sure there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped-up in it, but the stories are fun and well done, the comic illustration framing is still awesome.
Audio/Video: Creepshow (1982) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a brand new 4K scan from the original camera negative performed by Warner Bros Motion Picture and supervised by the Director of Photography Michael Gornick. Presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen - and it looks rather stunning. There's crisp detail in the faces and textures throughout, a fine layer of film grain, and colors are luminous. There's a new color grading here supervised by DP Michael Gornick and there's some noticeable differences from the previous WB release some years ago, the blues, reds and greens pop right of the screen. Looking at the screenshot comparisons of the 2009 and this new release at the bottom of the review you can see some major color shifts, the water-logged zombies are way greener and not as Dawn of the Dead-ish blue, skin tones on the Scream disc are a bit colder as well, look at Upson Pratt's head with the spurting blood, he's very pale as opposed to the warmer tones of the Warner Bros. disc, there's definitely some key differences, and I'm not 100% on board with all the new color grading, but I love the overall presentation.
Audio on the disc includes both DTS-HD MA STereo 2.0 and Surround 5.1 mixes, the stereo track is solid, dialogie is crisp and the synth score from John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) sounds great, optional English subtitles are provided. Worth noting, while toggling back and forth between the stereo and surround mixes I did notice a slight pitch difference on the surround track. I didn't notice it at first as leaned toward the stereo track, but while watching "The Crate" segment I switched over to the surround and I found Billy's grating-voice was even more annoying for some reason, so I toggled back and forth and it became clear that there's a slight pitch issue on with it. Knowing that I went back to "Something To Tide You Over" and noticed it again with Ted Danson's dialogue, after that just listening to the score and dialogie throughout you can hear it, so that's a bummer. As far as I know Scream Factory have not addressed this issue, but I do know it's a conversation on the forums.
Before we look at the extras on this release let me say that it's a bit sad that Scream Factory couldn't include Michael Felsher's excellent making of doc 'Just Desserts - The Making of Creepshow' on this release as it's currently licensed to Synapse Films, who put it out on Blu-ray - it's an excellent release, if you're a fan of the film definitely buy it.. That aside, if you think there were no more stones left to turn over in regard to extras, Red Short Pictures offer up loads more here! In addition to the existing Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini, which was previously on available on UK Blu-ray, we get two brand new one for a total of three! New commentaries include one with Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, plus another with Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain. Thus far I have only listed to the Romero/Savini commentary, and it's everything you would hope it would be.
Then we have 'Terror And The Three Rivers' an intimate round table discussion on the making of the movie with John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini, and Marty Schiff. Felsher starts the conversation and then everyone feeds off one another, Tom Atkins speaking about Leslie Nielsen bringing a whoopee cushion to dinner, Tom Savini and Schiff laughing about their roles as garbage men, what it was like acting with Stephen King's son Joe King, and how concerned King Sr. was about Atkins slapping his kid in a scene. Schiff mentions how a comedy bit they performed for King during filming might have inspired a small part in one of King's novels, while Amplas talks about what a joy it was to work with older pros like Carrie Nye, Viveca Lindfors, and Ed Harris. Everyone speaks kindly of Romero, and what a great guy he was, and how comfortable he made everyone on set feel.
There's a new 13-minute interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson who speaks about working with Romero beginning on Knightriders, and how challenging Creepshow was, with it's unique set of circumstances, such as Viveca Lindfors wanting her character to chomp on a cigar, and how hairy chested Stephen King was, which required them to shave his chest to apply the green moss make-up effects, all the while escaped roaches from the "They're Creeping Up on You" were running around! She also speaks about clothes shopping with Adrienne Barbeau, and how chill E.G. Marshall was with having live roaches put on him, being a New Yorker he was used to it!
Animator Rick Catizone shows up for a 16-min interview who worked on both Creepshow and Creepshow 2, describing how he came to work on the film, the process of the animated transition scenes, and creating the partial comic book for the film which was partly done by EC Comic illustrator Jack Kame, with addition "Creep" panels done by Marvel Comics artists Ron Franz (The Amazing Spider-Man), He also goes into sculpting some of the appliances used for the "fluffy" creature for 'The Crate', in addition to the drowned girl from 'Something to Tide You Over', the re-animated dad from 'Father's Daqy'. He also goes into a scene that was deleted before it was ever shot for 'Something to Tide You Over' that had to do with a stop-motion animation sequence of a severed hand that he built an armature for, but it was deleted before it was shot for budgetary reasons, but which ended up being used in Evil Dead 2.
Director Of Photography Michael Gornick shows up to discuss the color palette of the film, notably he also speaks about going back to the original camera negative for this 4K scan and restoration, and the ability to do 10-hours of color timing to make the film look as good as it does. I can see some purist cringing while hearing him talk about the process, some of it sounding a bit revisionist as he talks about creating a color continuity, but I love what they did, it looks great.
Sound Re-recordist Chris Jenkins appears for 10-min and goes into creating the sounds of Creepshow, starting of by describing Romero as a big Grizzly bear of a human being who was fond of using the phrase "far out", a real Pittsburg filmmaker who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty on production, not afraid to experiment when making a film. Commenting on John Harrison's synth score which he affectionately calls "cheesy", and creating five different sounding mixes for five film segments.
Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones And Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry speak for about 10-min about their love of Romero and Creepshow in particular, pulling out some vintage prints based on the film. Creepshow collector Dave Burian speaks for about 13 minutes about his love of horror and creepshow, collecting props from the film through his friendship with Tom Savini, bargaining his services for a prop of E.G. Marshall's head, from which the roaches emerged in that segment about the bug, how cool is that! He's also got the crate from 'The Crate' which he bought from Romero's PA, and as if those treasures were not enough he own the Creepshow comic book! He tells the story of hounding animator Rick Catizone for it for years before he broke down and sold it to him, even though it was missing a few pages. As he speaks about these he shows them to us, which is great, this guy must be the envy of a lot of collectors. He also speak about how he sees himself as a keeper of memories, even collecting the cement trowel from Romero's Night of The Living Dead, Morgan's helmet from Knightriders, the Machete from Dawn of the Dead, and Major Cooper's brain from Dawn of the Dead!
One of my favorite returning extras is Horror’s Hallowed Grounds with host Sean Clark who revisits some of the notable locations used in the film, along with Tom Atkins. He visits Billy's house, the former boy's school that served as the interior sets and Tom Savini's workshop during production, some vintage footage of the Father's Day house (the owners wouldn't let them on the property), the tree where Billy was shot in the head during a fantasy sequence, the faculty party house, Amberson Hall (actually Carnegie Hall). Atkins reenacts a few of his most memorable lines from the film, and of course outtakes from Clark at the end.
There's also about 12-min of deleted and trimmed scenes that didn't make the final cut, some of the more notable stuff includes more of Jordy's dreams, a stop motion animated severed hand that I mentioned earlier, a lot of this stuff is extended dialogue , but nothing much to get excited about, but it's cool to have it!
Extras are finished-up with a trailer with cool illustrated graphics, TV and Radio Spots, loads of image galleries, and a Spanish Trailer for the film.
The single disc release comes housed in standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork - we get the traditional one-sheet and the Bernie Wrightson cover art for the comic adaptation. The keepcase is housed in a sturdy, rigid keepcase along the lines of The [REC] Collection that Scream Factory released. The slipcase also houses a 40-page booklet with extensive writings on the film from Michael Gingold, he recounts missing out an advance screening of the film on Rhode Island as teen, going into some of the production history with interviews from key players, detailing each segment and going into the history of anthology film both prior to and after the success of the film. There's also promotional artwork, posters, lobby cards and still images peppered throughout the booklet, in addition to notes about the new 4K scan. I will say that I am a bit disappointed we did not get a reprint of the 8-page comic from the film, or a reprint of the Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing) comic adaptation of the film, either or would have been fantastic.
Special Features:
- NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative – Color Correction Supervised And Approved By Director Of Photography Michael Gornick
- Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick
- NEW Audio Commentary With Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain
- NEW Terror And The Three Rivers – A Round Table Discussion On The Making Of Creepshow With John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini, And Marty Schiff (30 min)
- NEW The Comic Book Look – An Interview With Costume Designer Barbara Anderson (13 min)
- NEW Ripped From The Pages – An Interview With Animator Rick Catizone (16 min)
- NEW The Colors Of Creepshow – A Look At The Restoration of Creepshow With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick (10 min)
- NEW Into The Mix – An Interview With Sound Re-recordist Chris Jenkins (13 min)
- NEW Mondo Macabre – A Look At Mondo’s Various Creepshow Posters With Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones And Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry (10 min)
- NEW Collecting Creepshow – A Look At Some Of The Original Props And Collectibles From The Film With Collector Dave Burian (13 min)
- Audio Interviews With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, Actor John Amplas, Property Master Bruce Alan Miller, And Make-up Effects Assistant Darryl Ferrucci
Tom Savini’s Behind-The-Scenes Footage (26 min)
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – A Look At The Original Film Locations Hosted By Sean Clark (16 min)
- Deleted Scenes (16 min)
- Theatrical Trailers (2 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Radio Spots (1 min)
- Still Galleries – Posters, Lobby Cards (7 min)
- Still Galleries - Color Stills (2 min)
- Still Galleries – Behind The Scenes Photos (6 min)
- Still Galleries – Behind The Scenes Photos: Special Make-up FX (6 min)
- 40-Page Booklet with New Writing by Michael Gingold
Creepshow (1982) is a fun EC comics inspired blast, a seminal slice of anthology horror from the minds of George A. Romero and Stephen King, for me it doesn't get much better than this right here. The new 4K resoration looks great, and the mix of new and old extras are truly excellent, plus Scream have done a great job with the packaging and presentation, this is highly recommended.
Blu-ray Screenshot Comparison
Warner Bros. (2009)
Scream Facory (2018)
