CreepTales

If this wasn't attached to another movie I bought, you could not have paid me to see this waste of time. A more stupid, uninteresting movie has never been made. The short stories are such that 7 year olds tell around a campfire - and they tell them better. Not only that but the felt they had to film most of it with a blue filter to give it a sort of "blue" look, don't know what else to call it. The saddest part was I felt the cast and crew were really trying to accomplish something. Hopefully they all have day jobs at a WalMart somewhere. I am really trying to think of something good to say, and the best I can think of is "at least that fat guy got his acting job before the coronary hit" Don't torture another brain cell with this - there are much more entertaining was to knock them off.

When people mix horror and comedy, or cobble together a bunch of smaller films, the results are not usually pleasant. This is why I was pleasantly surprised by this goofy little collection of stories, loosely knit together in the manner of Creepshow, Tales from the Crypt, etc.

It appears to me that the enterprising filmmakers took several short (or perhaps unfinished) scary flicks and put them together with a funny story to bind them together. This surrounding story is played with cheesy delight: hunchbacked ghouls want to watch a scary movie, so they have a party and steal a video tape from their uncle's tomb. The uncle then comes after them, with predictably gleeful results!

Some of the segments are very weird and eerie, ala Warped and Howling Nightmare (a segment that feels unfinished to me). On the other hand, most of the tales are very silly. Some, such as the Closet, Snatcher and Sucker (the only one where they really go for the gross-out) were very wacky, Tales From the Crypt fare. The segment entitled Groovy Ghoulie Garage, despite the exceptionally goofy title (and ending), is played very gamely and a great treat for those of us who loved the old horror comics (Eerie, House of Mystery) with the 'shock endings' (that you could see coming a mile away) to every story.

Overall, a really high-spirited little collection of B-grade horror. Perfect for a party of your own or viewing when you need a chuckle!

This is a collection of scary stories from obviously different sources. Most of the stories are no more than ten minutes long. They have a look of amateurishness to them and were made in the 1980s. High quality, low budget fare.

The main story is called Halloween Night. It's the glue that holds all the other stories together. A bunch of friendly monsters are having a party on Halloween, and they want to watch a video. Two ghouls go to the video store, only to find it closing. So, they go to the graveyard to retrieve the video buried along with their uncle. They unearth the coffin and wrench the 'CreepTales' video from his clutching hands and take it back to the party. They then view the stories as we see them. In between each story, the monsters laugh and order a pizza. But we know that the uncle is now awake and angry. He is coming to take the video back from them.

The first story (inside the story) in CreepTales is called 'Warped'. It concerns a young woman who visits a house out in the country where two elderly women are living. She is a relative of theirs who has come to settle an old family grudge.

The next story is called 'Snatcher'. It is a clever tale of a young man who steals purses in San Francisco. One day he makes a terrible mistake when he steals the purse from the wrong old woman!

Next comes a very short and amusing story called 'The Closet'. A young boy lies awake in bed on a stormy night afraid of something in his closet.

The next story is called 'Groovy Ghoulie Garage'. Two young men are driving across the country on Halloween night. They have a small breakdown near a town called Tower Springs. Fortunately, a tow-truck from town comes by to help them. They go to the town and find out it has a terrible secret.

The next story is 'Howling Nightmare'. A bunch of men are hunting a werewolf in a dark forest. Too bad for them that the werewolf is much faster, stronger, and smarter! There may also be more than one werewolf!

The final story is called 'Sucker'. It concerns a middle-aged woman who lives in a messy house and has a lot of anger at her husband. One night very late, a door-to-door salesman shows up with a very special vacuum. The user can remove all dirt and evil, but must be careful where they point it. This gives the woman some terrible ideas.

Entertaining stuff. There is no nudity, a little gore, and quite a lot of dark humor. Rated: PG.

As horror compilations go, this one is one of the better ones. Of course, there aren't many out there. But there should be.

If you ever liked Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt, you'll like this one. In some respects it's better. All the stories are classic horror/gore mix with some ghoulish humor thrown in. My personal favorite is the one called "Sucker." The "Wrap-around" -- the segments between the segments -- is a bit cheesy, but deliberately so. Too bad all the drive-ins are gone. This one would be fun to see at midnight in the open air.

Watch this one with your favorite date and snuggle close. You're in for a good time!

CREEPTALES is a horror anthology film consisting of six short segments. They are:

WARPED- A woman seeks revenge for an incestual rape she suffered as a child. This one has some very nice, unexpected twists.

SNATCHER- A purse-snatching punk picks on the wrong old lady and her handbag from hell.

THE CLOSET- A boy who's afraid that there's a monster in his closet finds out that some nightmares are real.

GROOVY GHOULIE GARAGE- Two young men get stranded in a small town that seems to be frozen in time.

HOWLING NIGHTMARE- A weak, blessedly short film about werewolf hunters. It's gory, but lame.

SUCKER- The best of the bunch. A traveling vacuum cleaner salesman sells a strange and sinister product. This one is lots of fun!

All of these little movies are watched by a group of popcorn-munching monsters in their living room on Halloween night...