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Friday, 10 December 2010

Creepshow (George Romero, 1982)


As stated in my Trick 'r' Treat review, I have something of a soft spot for anthology horror. The filmic equivalent of a book of short stories, there's something I find hugely enjoyable about seeing a series of short films that a quick, snappy and to the point.

With the added pedigree of Stephen King and George Romero, Creepshow feels very much like a visual accompaniment to early King collections like Night Shift of Skeleton Crew (in fact, the story featuring Ted Danson and Leslie Nielson is effectively King's short The Ledge with an added supernatural element). Whilst featuring a wicked sense of humour, helped somewhat by an over the top cameo from King himself, the film at times is also deeply unsettling, especially during the aforementioned Danson/Nielson story. In true King fashion each of the five stories ends with a bleak outlook and leaves many of it's more outlandish elements unexplained (eg: why does the father in Father's Day come back to life in the first place?).

Not great by any means but it has a humorous mean streak and imagination in spades. I'm surprised there haven't been many more movies like this (also see: Creepshow 2, Tales From the Darkside & Trick 'r' Treat).

4/5

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