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Remembering Romero: Spooktacular Creepshow Delivers Thrills and Chills
Creepshow is more of an event than it is a movie, and it’s one every horror fan should experience. Welcome back, my little Nasties! It’s your dearly departed pal Manic Exorcism here again ready to rifle the resting place of one of Horrordom’s most beloved masterpieces. So pick up a shovel and let’s dig right in.
Every now and then horror audiences are darkly blessed with a bloodcurdling extravaganza of ghastly sights, frights, and macabre delights! Creepshow happens to be one such movie.
In 1982 fans were treated to a grizzly smorgasbord of chills and thrills, as well as a few delightful kills, as three masters of the macabre combined their unique talents to give life to what quickly became a fan-favored masterpiece, Creepshow.
This unholy trinity of spine-tingling spookiness consisted of the gruesome visions of beloved director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Martin), a screenplay written by horror master-storyteller Stephen King (Pet Sematary, The Shining, IT) and was brought to life by special effects legend, Tom Savini (Friday the 13th parts 1 and 4, Dawn of the Dead, From Dusk Till Dawn) and quickly the little project became a cult classic.
United by their shared love for the old EC comics’ hair-raising library of terror (Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Tales From The Crypt) Stephen King and our dearly departed George A. Romero unleashed a film spectacular of screams and laughs so fine the Cryptkeeper himself would be proud to regale their spooky triumph.
These men are without any doubt among the finest in terror, and always will be. They not only got how to make us scream, but they (most importantly) understood how vital it is for an audience to have fun while watching a scary movie.
It’s a precarious line to balance between scares and comedy, one precious few can pull off effectively, and as in many instances, it’s proved how wrong things can go. Not so with Creepshow. It testifies to the one-of-a-kind brilliance that was Romero and King’s creativity and charming humor.
At its heart Creepshow is a fun, fun movie. In direct contrast to what we usually expect from horror cinema, this movie uses bright colors and well-timed comedy to deliver its shocks. And that’s part of the secret to its immortal charm.
In this film, Romero takes us back to a simpler time. Back to when we were kids. When we had to hide horror comics from our parents as if we were smuggling drugs through our sock drawers. Appropriately enough, the film opens with an infuriated father (Tom Atkins) sickened to discover his son’s Creepshow comic book under his roof.
Well not in this house, little mister! Poor Billy (Joe Hill) loses his beloved comic and gets the shit slapped out of him. Meanwhile, his cranky ol‘ dad promptly tosses the comic straight into the trash as though it was a sack of rotting rat guts, and thus unknowingly sets in motion darkly playful forces beyond his control.
Five lurking tales of terror await the viewer brave enough to still be found in attendance. A wicked pentagram of dripping horrors, of things that don’t want to stay dead (or not until they’ve had their cake at least), and of rightful comeuppance upon some very naughty scoundrels.
Remembering the legend who brought ‘Creepshow’ to life
George A. Romero recently passed away at the age of 77, and already our world is an emptier place without him. To those who knew the man best, he was a kind-hearted and gentle human being. Romero was a warm soul with an inspiring grin.
Had it not been for Romero’s contribution to horror over the years it’s doubtful we would have things like Resident Evil – which just celebrated another major success with the release of Resident Evil 7 this year – or the hyper-popular Walking Dead series. In fact, there are now entire franchises (as well as many careers) that owe all of their success to Romeo’s treasured legacy.
Romero single-handedly re-imagined zombies took them away from their voodoo roots and turned them into the living dead throngs with an insatiable appetite for the warm flesh of the unfortunate living. His ideas were groundbreaking, to say the least.
Why do the dead rise from the grave with an insatiable hunger for living flesh? Because Romero said they do. Why do you have to aim for the head to kill a zombie? Because Romero said so. And know what? We do not question these rules. They’re as common and fool-proof as a silver bullet is to a werewolf’s heart. Zombies live today all thanks to George A. Romero.
But there was so much more to the man than his rightly-praised Dead franchise. Let’s be frank here, had Romero only made three movies in his entire life (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead) he could have spent the rest of his days as a friendly convention regular and done pretty well for himself.
But he didn’t follow that path because the man was an artist and kept himself busy on projects up until we lost him.
Indeed there was so much more to the Godfather of Zombies than zombie films. Creepshow is one example among many of just how fun and talented he was, and proves the creative range Romero had as a storyteller.
George Romero also understood this vital point – sometimes we just need to shut the news off (or up), butter up some popcorn, then sit back and forget all about the drama of life through the vibe of a good movie. The kind gentleman gave us so many to choose from and his legacy will continue into the generations to come. His mark on horror will never be replaced or equaled.
So as we end Part I of a Creepshow retrospective, we honor the memory and career of a gentle human being who gave us all so many laughs and screams. You’ll be missed, kind sir. And never forgotten.
RIP George A. Romero.
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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