31 More Days of Horror: Creepshow (1982)

Simply the best horror anthology, I though I’d reviewed this gem of a collection before. With the collaboration of director George A. Romero and writer Stephen King, Creepshow is a perfect balance of campy and creep. The cast is to die for and with Tom Savini applying his trademark gore; the film is a real classic!

The Crate with Hal Holbrook will have you rethinking warning signs. A crate is discovered under the stairs in the base of the university. It contains a hungry monster that Prof. Northrup has decided to use on his badgering wife Wilma. The strongest of the five stories, it is certainly the most memorable with monster gore.  The dream sequences of Holbrook imagining his shrewish wife's death are hysterical.

Jordy Verrill (Stephen King) is a self-described lunkhead who makes contact with a meteorite. The evolution of the story is a more funny that horrific. It’s the special effects that are the real treat.

On Father’s Day a murdered man returns to from the grave to strike back as his good-for-nothing, greedy relatives. The patriarch might have been a beast while alive; but he's come back as a monster!  Dependent on make-up and lighting, this gem is more a must see for a young Ed Harris and his dance moves.

My favorite stars Leslie Nielson as a diabolical husband who buries his cheating wife and her lover (Ted Danson) in the sand up to their necks and walks away. He assumes that the tide will take them down. You know what they say about assuming… This one is perfectly nuanced, claustrophobic, and dark.

And finally, the creature feature that centers on cockroaches. As someone with a great fear (thanks X-Files) of these little buggers, this one freaks me out!! A Scrooge-esque business man Upson Pratt lives in a bubble. The purpose of his newly designed uber –clean, highly sanitized, futuristic apartment is to prevent the creepy-crawlies from getting in. Epic fail! And the cockroaches come after him in a bad way. The climax here is a heebie-jeebies inducing nightmare!!

Each story is book ended by a boy who loves comic books, but whose stressed-out dad is a total douche. Jumping off the page and onto film, Creepshow is a perfect mash-up of gore, humor, creep and thrills. A real classic!!