When Billy Hopkins’ (Joe Hill) father, Stan (Tom Atkins) finds Billy reading a comic book he grabs it and throws it in the garbage. As Billy wishes hell and damnation on his father the Creep appears at the window. Silently the Creep presents the stories from the comic.
"Father's Day": Sylvia Grantham (Carrie Nye), her nephew Richard (Warner Shook), niece Cass (Elizabeth Regan) and Cass's husband Hank (Ed Harris) are waiting for Great Aunt Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors) to show up. While they wait they tell the story of how Bedelia was badly treated by her father Nathan Grantham (Jon Lormer), a rich but evil man who was responsible for Bedelia’s fiancé being killed. After years of emotional and verbal abuse Bedelia killed her father. Seven years later on father’s day he returns the favor.
"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill": Jordy Verrill (Stephen King) sees a meteorite crash not far from his old ramshackle farmhouse. Jordy thinks he’s going to be rich selling the meteorite. Since the stone is hot he throws a bucket of water on it. The meteorite breaks open spilling a blue liquid. Jordy is worried that he ruined the meteorite so he decides to glue it back together. He dumps the blue liquid on the ground but gets some of the blue “meteor shit” on his fingers. Soon a green substance begins to grow on his fingers. By morning Jordy’s body and his property have been overcome by the strange green plantlike substance. Jordy is now a giant Mossman.
"Something to Tide You Over": Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) and Becky Vickers (Gaylen Ross) are having an affair. Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen) finds out and pays Harry a visit. He plays Harry a tape of Becky begging Harry to help her. Harry goes with Richard to an isolated beach. Pulling a gun he buries Harry up to his neck in the sand. He then brings a closed circuit television and shows Harry that Becky is further down the beach and also buried in the sand. And the tide is coming in.
"The Crate": Professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook) is married to a loudmouthed alcoholic named Wilma “Billie” Northrup (Adrienne Barbeau). Billie’s pastimes are annoying everyone and degrading her husband. Henry is a Professor at Horlicks University. His co-worker and friend is Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver). Dexter is called away from a university function by Mike Latimer (Don Keefer), the university janitor. Latimer found a crate tucked underneath a staircase behind a grate. The crate says Horlicks University, Julia Carpenter, Arctic Expedition, June 19, 1834. When they open the crate it contains a fanged monster (Darryl Ferrucci). It kills and eats Latimer. In a panic Dexter flees and gets a graduate student, Charlie Gereson (Robert Harper). The creature once again pounces and eats Charlie. Traumatized Dexter races to Henry’s house and tells him everything. Henry spikes Dexter’s drink to put him to sleep and writes a note for Wilma to meet him at the university. He then introduces her to the creature under the stairs.
"They're Creeping Up on You!": Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall), a rich and ruthless business mogul, is a germaphobe. He lives in a fancy hermetically sealed high-rise. He finds and sprays to death a cockroach. When the cockroach gets up and walks away he begins chasing it around the apartment. Every time he kills it, the roach get up again. Eventually Upson is introduced to the invincible cockroach’s friends.
“Creepshow” was released in 1982 and was directed by George A. Romero. It is an American five story horror anthology in a portmanteau style. A comic book was made based on the stories from the film.
The stories were written by Stephen King. The story “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was based on King’s short story “Weeds”. Some of the stories were written expressly for the film.
The stories are quick, and efficiently done. With lots of stars and some great special effects and graphic effects. The movie is just fun to watch. The stories may not be all gems but there are a lot of them and there is something interesting in each one. In addition to Romero directing and King writing you get special make-up effects by Tom Savini.
Director Romero had said that the cockroaches were the most expensive part of the movie. At fifty cents apiece for 250,000 cockroaches the cost came to $125,000. The cockroaches were kept in a tub in a special trailer dubbed “The Roach Motel”. The marble ashtray used in the first story to kill Nathan Grantham was also placed in all the other stories as well as the wraparound story. The creature in the crate was named Fluffy. Fluffy is a combination animatronics and Darryl Ferrucci. The Creeper skeleton in Billy’s window was named Raoul. Billy was played by Stephen King’s son Joe King, billed as Joe Hill. He wrote the script for “Tales from the Darkside” TV movie in 2015 and a few of the 2019-2021 episodes of the Creepshow TV series.