The Poor Man's Creepshow

What do you get when you combine the campy horror stories of Creepshow and the charismatic likeness of Vincent Price? Well, you get a poor man’s Creepshow knock-off known as From A Whisper To A Scream, which was alternatively called The Offspring. Essentially Price places an old bookkeeper for a town that has a dark history. A friend of his niece visits him right after she was executed to ask questions pertaining to her and Price begins to talk about the town’s dark history. It’s a horror anthology and it’s told as though we were reading history books on this town. But how is it a poor man’s Creepshow you may ask?

Well, there are two major similarities that the film bares to Creepshow but than again that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a rip-off. You know what they say everybody steals from everybody. The first similarity is that they both employ an over-the-top, ham-handed, corny story that’s usually just fun to watch. The stories in The Offspring (this is the short title), are not scary at all. In fact, a lot of them are so tacky and so exaggerated that they come off as either boring or just plain funny. A great example of this would be the story about the kids that torture the Civil War soldiers. It’s a direct copy of Children of the Corn only far more cheesy. Even the story about the glass-eater was so rushed that the acting was poor and story was uninspired. Creepshow’s stories were hammy but they were visually appealing. The Offspring has the veteran acting talent of Clu Gulager while Creepshow has the talent of E.G. Marshall so they both have some star value to them. The main point that I am making is that The Offspring’s stories were rushed and therefore they were very unappealing but Creepshow’s stories were stylized giving us something to enjoy about.

The last similarity, and this may only pertain to Creepshow 2, but they both have a very charismatic yet imposing host. Creepshow 2 had The Creep who was just like a cheesy TV host; he made a lot of sarcastic one-liners, he spoke in a deep creepy voice, and he was fun to watch because he was so physical. If I’m not mistaken Tom Savini played The Creep. However, The Offspring has got them beat when it comes to hosts because they had veteran horror movie icon Vincent Price play the bookkeeper for the town. His screen presents in magnetic in the sense that you can’t take your eyes off of him. Seeing him sit in his library, holding up a glass of wine, dressed in a robe and speaking in such a clear but pronounced voice made this a treat for any horror fan. It’s shame that he wasn’t in Creepshow as well.

I’m not merely saying that every anthology horror movie is a rip-off of Creepshow but I found that The Offsping really kept a lot of the aspects that made Creepshow what it was. Sure there was other movies like Body Bags or Tales From The Dark Side but The Offspring was way before this. It’s not a completely bad movie but it only made me want to watch Creepshow despite the presence of Price. But for a campy 80s horror tale… it’s worth a look.

Creepshow: Creepy Poetic Justice

To continue my ‘double-feature post’ on Creepshow, as I said in my previous post on the ashtray, the segment entitled They’re Creeping Up On You deals with the best kind of revenge. Much like every story (except for The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill) deals with revenge but in this segment, it’s poetic justice. According to a class book I have, poetic justice is “an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate.” I think this segment really fits with this literary device. Let’s look at the plot:

The story is centered on Upson Pratt, a Howard Hughes inspired millionaire. Right off the bat we understand that he is having a serious cockroach problem and we know that he loathes cockroaches. During this time he converses with one of his employees about a corporate takeover of another company, but when the employee says that the owner shot himself because of it… Pratt smiles and says good riddance. In another conversation, he threatens to fire an employee who is on vacation if he does not fix his roach problem. Then, in another conversation, the widow of the man who killed himself calls as Upson mocks her and her husband’s death. Why does he do all this? He thinks that everybody, except him are nothing but a bunch of cockroaches.

“You have to watch them. Castonmeyer, Reynolds… bugs. That’s all they are. All of them. And although they’re essentially brainless… you have to watch them… ‘cause they creep up on you.”
- Upson Pratt

It’s a wonderful juxtaposition to the characters that Upson Pratt interacts with throughout the segment. As the characters become more hurt by Pratt, the cockroach problem becomes worse. Then, when the blackout hits the cockroaches decided to frighten Pratt by attacking him in swarms. When the emergency power comes back on, Pratt decides to lock himself in his bedroom only to have cockroaches burrowing out of his stomach, throat and mouth till his death. It’s one of the best stories in the whole anthology.

Here, the cockroaches don’t just act as typical bugs; they are representing all the men and women that Pratt looks down upon. They represent all the people that Pratt has ruined, fired and harassed throughout his life. Since he compared those people to cockroaches and bugs, it’s fitting to see cockroaches attack him. The roaches kill him before he could kill them, and if you look at it as poetic justice, all the people that Pratt ruined finally got revenge on him. I compare it to when Ellie Driver hides the black mamba in Bud’s money suitcase, because Ellie uses the black mamba to kill Bud in Tarantino's Kill Bill. The Bride’s codename was Black Mamba so that you can argue that The Bride did get revenge on Bud in some sense.

I was always fascinating by the idea of poetic justice and when I first saw this segment, I didn’t really like it all that much. I looked at it as a lame idea and I hated that they used cockroaches of all things. Of course, I was ignorant back then but now as I look at it… it’s a great segment and probably one of my favorites. I have to thank all these film classes that I am taking because without them, I would have never analyzed this segment and found pure poetic justice.

Creepshow: The Deadly Ashtray

The other night I watched one of my favorite horror anthologies… Creepshow and I noticed something, something that a lot of other people noticed besides me so I kind of feel weird posting about this but I figured I’d look deeper into it. In every short story, we see that marble ashtray somewhere in the background (with the exception of Father’s Day). Why is it there? Does it mean something? Was it supposed to be a gag or a just a reoccurring element? Well, I think that I have discovered why it’s used in almost every scene and keep it mind, I am only guessing on this, this is only my interpretation of it.

First, lets look at its structure. It’s dark and almost Gothic looking piece and it’s sort of creepy in a way, which should tell you right off the bat that this is a piece that is not supposed to be nice. The design, from what I can see, is that of a little boy sitting up against a tombstone looking down into the ‘tray’ part as though he was looking into a grave. This symbolizes death, which is ironic because the ash goes into the ‘grave’ almost like it was saying that smoking would eventually cause death. The first time we are introduced to the ashtray, it was shown as the object in which one of the characters kills her father with, setting up that this piece causes death. It’s like an omen of sorts, whenever a person is about to die or is going to die; this piece is somewhere in the scenery or next to something that is important.

Below, I have screen captured all the scenes that had this ashtray so that you can see where it fits in with everything.

Father’s Day

Here, the ashtray is used to kill the Father. Nothing special but as I stated before, it is supposed to set up that this ashtray is not meant to be a good sign when you see it. You can argue that the ashtray is still a murder weapon, just not directly.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

In this segment, it doesn’t really have a meaning like how Father’s Day was an act of revenge. Here, it’s foreshadowing that Jordy will eventually die, but Jordy is very nice but goofy kind of a person. So I guess it’s his own stupidity that causes his end.

Something To Tide You Over

As you can see, the ashtray is not on the desk of Richard Vickers just after he got done sadistically murdering his wife and her secret lover by buying them in the sand while the tide came in. The ashtray is symbolizing that Richard is about die a very harsh death because of his coldblooded actions and again, it’s out of pure revenge.

The Crate

In this scene, after realizing his friend was telling the truth about finding a monster in a crate and that it killed 2 people, Henry decides to lure his drunk and emotionally abusive wife to the monster so that he can get rid of her. The ashtray is right next to the letter that would lead his wife Wilma to the college where she would be eaten. Another act of revenge foreshadowed by the ashtray.

They’re Creeping Up On You

This is the best example of poetic justice that I will later elaborate on in another post. Here, we see Upson Pratt washing his hands after spraying a few roaches. Soon, the roaches invade his penthouse and they kill him. The ashtray symbolizes the best kind of justice, the revenge from all the ‘roaches’ that Pratt killed and destroyed.

Soundtracks - Creepshow (1982)

I am really happy because I finally got my “Creepshow” soundtrack in the mail today and I uploaded the tracks to my playlist. I am a huge fan of John Harrison, especially his work on ‘Day of the Dead.’ It is interesting because “Creepshow” is one of my favorite horror movie soundtracks, although on the track listed Until Next Time there are some points where it seemed a bit corny to have la-la-laing.

This soundtrack also had specific feel to it… not so much the main themes but rather the scores to each individual stories. The sound soundtracks sounded as though they were grindhouse/exploitation soundtracks. Funny enough, the track entitled Father’s Day was used for Eli Roth’s faux trailer “Thanksgiving.”

Like I said, the main problem that I had with this soundtrack was the la-la’s and what I mean by that is… for those who have this score… on Until Next Time around 2:24 and again around 3:20. For me, it just kind of breaks the mood but it is still a good track.

Tracklist:

1.     Prologue – Welcome to Creepshow

2.     Father’s Day

3.     The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

4.     Something To Tide You Over

5.     The Crate

6.     They’re Creeping Up On You

7.     Epilogue

8.     Until The Next Time (End Titles)

Suites from ‘Tales from the Darkside’

9.     Satanic Piano

10. Everybody Needs a Little Love

11. Sorry Right Number

12. Overture (Mansions of the Moon)

From Shoobie Doobie Moon

13. Main Title Song

14. You Make Me Feel Like A Monster

1

My Magazines Arrived!!!!

I am so happy right now… my Ebay purchase finally came in the mail and now I own an original copy of the “Creepshow” magazine and a reprint of issue #1 of the ‘Tales from the Crypt’ magazine. Although, they are in pretty bad condition, I will have to put them in plastic or something.

But it is my “Creepshow” magazine that I am most proud about because now I can finally watch the movie and read the magazine… the only thing that I wish I had was the ads for the invisible coats, x-ray glasses and the voodoo doll.

Now that I own it, maybe I too can see The Creeper, I have so much to ask him.