Comic books are all about team-ups, like Batman and Superman, Spider-Man and the Human Torch, Green Lantern and Flash. While it's not based on a superhero comic, 1982's Creepshow features one of the most impressive comic book team-up's on film: George A. Romero and Stephen King.
The two horror giants take a page (or maybe a couple issues) from Golden Age EC horror comics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror with this pulpy anthology. The film features five gruesome tales written by King in shape or form (written either for the film or drawn from his previous stories). Like many EC horror comics, Creepshow is often about tales of revenge, and unlike the Klingon saying, revenge isn't served cold; in Creepshow its served messy with a hearty helping of irony.
The first of the shorts, "Father's Day," puts new meaning in the phrase "just deserts." The second, "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" stars King himself as a backwoods hillbilly hoping to profit off a glowing meteor rock, and getting more than he can bargain for. Leslie Neilsen gets his revenge on an unfaithful wife and Ted Danson in "Something to Tide You Over," but he doesn't get away clean, while "The Crate" has Hal Holbrook hoping to use the contents of a crate to eliminate his harping wife, played by Adrienne Barbeau. Lastly, "They're Creeping on You" has E.G. Marshall as a ruthless curmudgeon who finds even a hermetically sealed building can't save him from his comeuppance. The shorts are book-ended by the plight of a abused young boy (Joe King) taking refuge in comics from his aggressive father, and who ends up taking his revenge through a certain item offered by the comic book.
Romero and King's passion for pulp oozes into every blood drip in this campy horror anthology. An emphasis on bold color and dramatic overtones separate Creepshow from more pedestrian outings, in particular thanks to a four-color comic book framing which makes Creepshow a visually vibrant horror thriller. George Romero's make-up artist/frequent collaborator Tom Savini is along for the ride, bringing the same colorful gore to the ghost and ghouls of Creepshow as he did in Dawn of the Dead.
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