Macabras historias de horror

When I was about 13 years-old, I tried to rent this on VHS several times. Unfortunately, my mother kept walking in during a particularly violent segment and made me turn it off. It was a long time before I finally saw the whole film.

If you watch the accompanying Just Desserts documentary on the double-disc DVD, you'll see how lovingly crafted this film really was. Not only so, but this truly transcends the schlock horror of its E.C. origins. The acting is first rate and the plots surprisingly thoughtful, considering how short each segment is. For example, watch Aunt Bedelia's tortured graveside monologue in Father's Day, or the curious interplay between Henry and Dex in The Crate. E.G. Marshall totally nails it in They're Creeping Up On You, the segment most loaded with subtext.

Tom Savini's make-up effects are excellent and he doesn't scrimp on the gore. The one segment I dislike is Something To Tide You Over, as it's a particularly nasty and sadistic story (despite the just desserts moral).

Overall, this has a worthy place in the annals of 80s horror and will always hold fond memories for me; a young boy who just wanted to see that crate monster tear his victims apart like sour bread.

Despite some major problems (mainly contained in Stephen King's uneven and often heavy-handed script), this is still a pretty fun attempt to bring 1950s EC horror comics to the big screen. One of the best things about it is director George ('Night of the Living Dead') Romero's creative, vivid direction, that captures the bright color schemes and comic book framing to a tee. Each tale has a different horror theme usually tempered with some comedy and ranging from a rich patriarch returning from the dead to get revenge on his obnoxious family to a meteor that causes an outbreak of vegetation to a fanged, ape-like creature that's been locked away in a crate for decades. All five of the tales presented, despite some missteps, offer up good gory fun. Some of the acting is good, too, particularly Adrienne Barbeau as a heavy drinking, obnoxious faculty wife who gets what she deserves, Hal Holbrook as her hen-pecked husband and E.G. Marshall as a wealthy, obsessively clean old jerk who is savaged in his futuristic apartment by a legion of cockroaches. Talk about flesh crawling! Tom Savini's special effects are great, as usual.

This was after Tales from the Crypt, however, Romero and King both where heavily influenced by these comics that they developed a movie that was sort of a satire/parody of Tales but in the same time a tribute to that comic book. In this movie there are four scary stories being told some written by Stephen King from his short stories and some written by Romero and SK. These stores, for that time, were pretty scary and freaked me out when they came in theaters. There are many great things about this movie that I enjoyed but there was, however, one huge things that I did not like about this movie. Regardless, it's about time for two horror geniuses to team up and do something good for a change.

First off, the movie itself is about a comic book similar to Tails and the four stories in the movie come directly from the Creepshow comic books. The reason why that this idea works in not only the principle of bringing a comic book to life but the way it was shot, edited and lit. The camera angles had very defined and geometrical angels, similar to those that you would see in a comic book. The lighting when something horrible happens turns red, or if somebody is screaming the background turns to a shattered red background, thereby giving each scene a more comic book-like feel to visual picture. It had choppy edits and quick cuts, which we all know that comic books have. So we have a visual perspective of a comic, the overall pattern and texture of a comic and now we have the quick stimulus of a comic.

Between each story there is a sub-story dealing with a young boy who finds the Creepshow comic book and how little by little he becomes more possessed by it. These intermissions also incorporate The Creep or our host for the evening. This character is by far the Crypt Keeper or the Vault Keeper to our mockup of Tales. Like the Crypt Keeper in the actual comic, he begins each segment with a scene setup and a conclusion, however he does not talk, he just blows around in the wind. With the beginning of each new story it starts out with a still scene of that story with heavy rotoscoping to make it look as if it is a comic book page, then fades out to a real-life still image and then begins. The same could be said about the ending. The clever technique gives the viewer a further illustration that this is a comic book come to life.

Though this movie strikes it rich on my scare-o-meter there is just one thing that took me out of the movie just a little. I know what they where going at when they decided this concept and I understand it was a good idea but it doesn't work when it gets put on film. The campy one-liners, the cheesy sub-story and the lame screams. Of course its predecessor did the same thing, I don't think that it works as well on film as it does on paper. I think it was a nice try though.

Overall I do believe that this is a horror/parody classic and that many horror fans, if not cult horror fans, would like this movie for what it is. I certainly enjoyed it, even now; I recommend this movie to anybody who loves the zombie king and the horror king. A movie worth buying a ticket for.

I think it's pretty clear that the amount of enjoyment you get out of this movie is directly related to how sick your sense of humor is. Those people with a fairly low tolerance for sick humor, such as myself, won't particularly like it, but people who thoroughly enjoy horror cheese like "Tales From the Crypt" should LOVE this.

Now, even though I personally don't like this movie, I have to admit it is very well made. Everything is perfectly over-the-top: the music, the gaudy colors, the makeup--it's all done to the point where it is totally ridiculous, which is what King and Romero want. And I must admit I did like the segment "The Crate." How can you NOT love a giant ape-monster running around tearing people to bits? Sick, sick stuff, but enjoyable all the same.

If you like gruesome black humor, this is the movie for you. "Creepshow" is shock schlock at its very best. And as an added bonus, it is not very well known today, so it can have a wonderful "What the hell are you WATCHING!?" effect on other people.

8/10 stars.

George A Romero & Stephen King combine here to give us 5 joyously silly tales based on the style of the E.C. Comics that both men loved as youths.

The film begins with a young boy having his comic collection thrown away by his father, this angers the boy and he plots evil revenge that segues into the five stories.

"Father's Day" is the opening story and whilst it isn't short on the camp factor, it's a very inauspicious start, a zombie father returns to enact vengeance on his horrid family in the name of cake! Next up is "The Lonesome Death Of Jody Verill", which sees Stephen King himself in the title role of a less than dumb hick who touches a fallen meteor and thus starts to turn into a plant monster. King has fun with the role but overplays it to dangerously annoying ham proportions, but it's a tidy fable with a cool ending. We then get to my personal favourite of the bunch with "Something To Tide You Over," here we have a delightfully villainous Leslie Nielson burying his unfaithful wife and her lover {Ted Danson} in the sand up to their necks as the tide starts to come in, naturally there is a grizzly twist a coming.

"The Crate" sees the arrival of Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau into the proceedings, a smart message of not opening crates marked with "Danger, Do Not Open," and here we get a genuinely scary monster into the show. The final segment is "They're Creeping Up On You" which seems to be a favourite of many across the site, and although it has creepy impact for those scared of insects, it's not the crowning glory I was hoping for. We are then cut back to the boy and his thirst for revenge and the film finishes with a glint in its eye, more schlock and camp than outright horror, but still a great piece of 80s fun for fans to enjoy, 7/10.