CREEPSHOW (1982)
2-Disc Collector's Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 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
In CREEPSHOW, 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 in CREEPSHOW.
Creepshow (1982) has long been my absolute favorite horror anthology, a horror project that brought together two titans of genre; director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) teamed-up with legendary horror scribe Stephen King (The Shining). These guys were the undisputed kings of horror in the 80s and it was an 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 fuckin' good'! The resulting anthology was a wonderful blend EC Comics morality and pitch perfect campiness that has yet to be matched, this is about as near perfect an anthology as I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, there's some great ones out there, from the vintage Amicus stuff on through to new classics like Trick R Treat, but this one is still the king of anthologies in my opinion . 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 and future horror author 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 into the trash. It's then that the ghoulish apparition of The Creep (sort of like an early prototype of the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt) appears to the boy outside his bedroom window, dissolving into an animated short with the pages of the comic flipping open and landing on the title page to the first story 'Father's Day', a tale about stuffy old school money types gathered on a family estate to commemorate the death of the family patriarch, 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 his rotting zombie corpse emerges and sets about murdering the family members around the property. A wicked 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 slack-jawed yokel 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 pretty poor decisions, leading up to Jordy taking his own life before being choked-out by the alien-weed. The tone of this one is broad and goofy, King really hams it up, 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 the soon-to-be TV mega-star Ted Danson (TV's 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 by way of Harry (Danson). Not willing to share his woman or release her from his grip he sets about burying them up to their necks on a sandy stretch of remote beach during low tide, saying that if they can hold their breath long enough there's a fighting chance they could escape before the incoming tide drowns them. Nielson is so good here, a sort of sadistic but over-friendly villain, but make no mistake about it, he's cold-blooded, taking great pleasure in watching as the tide rolls in on a closed circuit TV set-up from the comfort of his beach house property. This one offers up a soggy slice of vengeful comeuppance delivered at the end, with the drown lovers returning as water-logged zombies!
As a kid this next story was a clear favorite, it still is, 'The Crate' has to do with a mysterious wooden crate found ticked away 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. Surprised 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 razor-toothed ape like creature with a hideous gaping maw and glowing eyes. The beast 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, with Northrup believing that this creature might hold the way key to ridding himself of his overbearing, nagging wife Billy, played with annoying fervor by Holbrook's Fog co-star Adrienne Barbeau (Two Evil Eyes). This woman, oh my, let me just say that I 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. The story of a rich old man modeled after infamous germaphobe Howard Hughes. E.G. Marshall (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) plays corporate vulture Upson Pratt, a self-made millionaire who runs 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 seemingly 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 in the modern era by the revealing 4K UHD presentation, looking pretty damn fake these days, but it 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 pulpy and quite well done, and the comic illustration framing is still awesome.
Audio/Video: Creepshow (1982) arrives on 4H Ultra HD from Scream Factory with a brand new 2023 4K scan from the original camera negative aided by a new HDR10 Dolby Vision color-grading. Presented in 2160p 4K Ultra HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen - and it looks luminous. Grain is lush and well-managed, there's pleasing detail in the faces and textures, and colors are luminous. There's WCG color grading reinvigorates primaries with vibrant blues, reds and greens that pop right of the screen; the sickly greenish hue of the water-logged zombies in 'Something To Tide You Over', the alien green moss from 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill', the magenta and blue saturated lighting seen in 'Father's Day', all are more vibrant and the colors denser, it's really terrific. Audio on the disc includes a new Dolby Atmos remix that is full-bodied, plus we still get the previous English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 and Surround 5.1 mixes from the previous release with optional English subtitles. The Atmos really amps up the John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) score, the fright flick has never sounded better.
No new extras for the film's 4K UHD debut, but that's fine, the archival Red Shirt Pictures extras produced for the previous Scream Factory Collector's Edition are fantastic Michael, though it's still a shame we don't get Michael Felsher's excellent making of doc Just Desserts - The Making of Creepshow, which is 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. The extras are split between the 4K Ultra HD and the Blu-ray, and it should be noted that the Blu-ray is not simply a recycle of the previous 2018 Collector's Edition, and also features Dolby Atmos audio.
Archival extras include an Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini, a second Audio Commentary with Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, and a third Audio Commentary with Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain. Then we have the 30-min 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.
In the 13-minute The Comic Book Look - Interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson, she 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!
Ripped from the Pages is a 16-min interview with animator Rick Catizone 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 Day' and gets 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.
The Colors of Creepshow is a 10-min interview with cinematographer Michael Gornick, he discusses 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.
Into the Mix - an interview with sound re-recordist Chris Jenkins runs 10-min; he 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.
In the 10-min Mondo Macabre – a look at Mondo’s various Creepshow posters with Mondo co-founder Rob Jones and Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry, they speak for of their love of Romero and Creepshow in particular, pulling out some vintage prints based on the film, while the 13-min Collecting Creepshow the avid collector talks about amassing 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 Day of the Dead!
Next up, 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 16-min of Deleted 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, and loads of Image Galleries.
The 2-disc release comes housed in black keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork - both options offering classic illustrated movie poster artworks, with the slipcover also featuring one the key art for the film. Inside the two artworks are also featured on the discs themselves.
Not carried over from the previous Blu-ray release are the packaging extras, this includes a sturdy Rigid Slipbox plus the 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 4K scan. So hang onto that if you're a packaging/extras junkie.
Special Features:
Disc One: 4K Ultra HD
- NEW 2023 4K of the original camera negative in Dolby Vision (HDR10 Compatible)
- NEW Dolby Atmos track
- Audio Commentary with Director George A. Romero and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini
- Audio Commentary with cinematographer Michael Gornick
- Audio Commentary with composer/first assistant director John Harrison and construction coordinator Ed Fountain
- Audio Interviews with director of photography Michael Gornick, actor John Amplas, property master Bruce Alan Miller, and make-up effects assistant Darryl Ferrucci
- 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)
- Collecting Creepshow - original props from the film with collector Dave Burian (13 min)
- The Colors of Creepshow – an interview with cinematographer Michael Gornick (10 min)
- Into the Mix - an interview with sound re-recordist Chris Jenkins (13 min)
- Still Galleries: Posters and Lobby Cards (7 min), Movie Posters (2 min), Color Stills (2 min), Special Effects Makeup (6 min), Behind The Scenes (6 min)
Disc Two: Blu-ray:
- NEW 2023 4K of the original camera negative
- NEW Dolby Atmos track
- Audio Commentary with Director George A. Romero and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini
- Audio Commentary with cinematographer Michael Gornick
- Audio Commentary with composer/first assistant director John Harrison and construction coordinator Ed Fountain
- Audio Interviews with director of photography Michael Gornick, actor John Amplas, property master Bruce Alan Miller, and make-up effects assistant Darryl Ferrucci
- Terror and the Three Rivers - a 2018 roundtable discussion (30 min)
- The Comic Book Look - an interview with costume designer Barbara Anderson (13 min)
- Ripped from the Pages - an interview with animator Rick Catizone (16 min)
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – a look at the original filming locations (16 min)
- Tom Savini’s Behind the Scenes Footage (26 min)
- Deleted Scenes (16 min)
- Theatrical Trailer – English and Spanish (2 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Radio Spots (1 min)
Creepshow (1982) is a pulpy EC comics inspired blast of anthology horror coming from two masters of horror - George A. Romero and Stephen King - for me it just doesn't get much better than this. The new 4K restoration and Dolby Atmos remix from Scream Factory are terrific, and the massive amount of archival extras are an absolute treasure trove.
