Anatomy of a Creepshow Segment

"Or if ya wanna make friends at the ATM, you do the..."

This weekend has been Creepshow Weekend at Casa de Blogger, as I've spent time watching, or in one case re-watching, all the titles in that now-famous series, except for Creepshow 3, which I refuse to acknowledge as part of this series (I mean, seriously, Stephen King wasn't involved, George A. Romero wasn't involved, Michael Gornick wasn't involved, Tom Savini wasn't involved...in what way was that a Creepshow film? It didn't even have the comic book transitions and the Creep didn't show up!).

On the watch list were Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Creepshow the Shudder series and Creepshow Animated Special, the last of which I've already talked about.

I feel like the TV series has honored the spirit of the original in every important way. The ode to classic EC Comics, the appearance of the Creep, the involvement of King himself and Joe Hill, even just as writers allowing their material to be adapted, the embrace of comic-book cheese, etc.

Having refreshed my memory of all this, I thought I'd break down what makes a Creepshow segment.

Downer Endings: In nearly each case, the resolution of a Creepshow segment ends with a death, punishment of some sort or just a general feeling that not everything is okay. If there are exceptions to this rule, it's still kind of a sad ending, or at least one in which no one really gets what they hoped for. The only exceptions that I see are "House of the Head", "All Hallow's Eve", "Skincrawlers" and "By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain", though in each case I can think of something that makes it less than happy. Little Evie is clearly traumatized by what happened with her dollhouse, and her resolution, apparently, is to pass on the curse to someone else. The Golden Dragons may get their revenge, but it doesn't change what happened to them, and now it's implied they'll never see each other again. Henry may not have suffered the horrific fate of Dr. Sloan's "treatment", but he's still the fat loser he began as. And while Rose, Joseph and Leigh may be rid of a terrible person, and had some personal vindication for their departed husband and father, they're still broke, and have no proof they can show anyone of Champy's existence.

Deserving Victims: This one isn't as hard and fast, but it's still true of most segments. If you don't survive it, chances are high you didn't deserve to. Real stand-outs here are Richard from "Something to Tide You Over", Upson Pratt from "They're Creeping Up on You!", Sam Whitemoon from "Old Chief Woodenhead" and, to a degree, his goons, Annie Lansing from "The Hitch-Hiker", and from the series, Carla and Alex from "The Man in the Suitcase", Billy from "The Companion", Lester M. Barclay from "Times is Tough in Musky Holler" and Chet from "By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain". Possible exceptions include the Grantham family from "Father's Day", who don't appear to be guilty of much more than being rich assholes. Hank is only part of the family thanks to marrying in, and doesn't seem to be a bad guy at all, but he's the second victim, and we don't even see the horrible grandchildren's deaths. Bedelia, having murdered her father, certainly earned her death, though. Other exceptions; Jordy, even though he brings all his troubles on himself, and the Spruces, who aren't killed in a supernatural way, and it's their deaths that bring the Karmic deaths of their killers later on. The four teens in "The Raft" aren't exactly deserving, oddly enough except for Randy, who for a brief moment we believe will survive. They're seen doing weed, though, and for such sins in a horror film, one must pay. I would also suggest that Harry and Becky could fall under that category, as they were engaged in an affair, even if the man being cheated on was a monster. None of the victims from "Gray Matter" deserve it at all, and neither, really, does Blake from "Twittering From the Circus of the Dead", unless all teens are deserving of death for being bored and snarky. But they're the true exceptions within the series. "All Hallow's Eve" even changes the ending to make the Dragons' final victim a very willing participant, rather than just a new kid who tagged along, as in the comic.

Embrace the Cheese: The concept behind Creepshow has less to do with scares and more to do with paying homage to the horror comics of yesteryear, such as Ghosts, Twisted Tales and especially Tales From the Crypt, and as such ramp up the, well, comic nature of these stories. Colors are loud and glaring, we often get tonal backgrounds to heighten the feeling like we're watching a comic, the effects are practical and deliberately not very realistic, designed to look more like a comic panel than anything real, and blood is plentiful, even if it does look like colored corn syrup. The returned dead are always dripping with comical amounts of gore and blood, which look nothing like actual blood and gore. On an acting level, there's always a good amount of overacting, even from established veterans having the time of their lives.

Did It Even Happen?: Another non-rule, but a frequent theme. Did anything we see actually happen, or was it all in the victim's mind? Jordy Verrill is entirely alone with everything happens to him. In the story we get an ending POV from the plant beings, but in this one, for all we know he dreamed it all while dying from radiation poisoning after letting the "meteor shit" splatter on him. Pratt may very well be going crazy (the way he sees Mr. White may be another clue to this; whenever we see White outside his door he seems normal enough, but the image of him through the peephole is weird and distorted, and a bit threatening) and letting his mysophobia rage out of control. Even Richard may be dreaming the return of Harry and Becky. In the second film, I wondered throughout the last segment if Annie Lansing really was being pursued by a ghost or if she was just going mad, but the ending seems to confirm it was all real. This happens occasionally in the series, as well, particularly "The Finger", seeing as nobody sees Bob except for Clark, who's not exactly the most stable person. For that matter, "The Companion" leaves some room for this, given that Harold is the only one who finds the old farmer's letter, and even the ending could just be him killing Billy himself, while hallucinating the Companion.

One aspect of the film I don't hear referred to much is what Creepshow 2 does to the Creep himself. now, at the time, the first film was all we had, but the TV series returns to that version of the Creep; a desiccated Mummy who never speaks but has that trademark evil laugh, while in the second film, not only is the Creep far more verbose now, he also looks very different, more like a vampire with a scrotum-like chin. And this time he's not a puppet but Tom Savini in heavy makeup. Did this go over well at the time? I was a child, so I didn't hear about any backlash.

Actually, the first time I even heard of Creepshow was in a TV spot for the second film, in which the Creep invites us to come see it, and promises "And of course, I'll be there!" I can't find this TV spot anywhere, and I wonder if I imagined it.

All told, I'm a fan of the Creepshow franchise now, and I really hope it continues.