Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Jordy plunge into the extra-alluring bathtub water because the itching finally got to him...or were the alien plants already taking over his mind and he was seeing the water through their perspective and was thus driven to dive in? Complicating things is that Jordy himself admits that it's a bad idea, but that it would simply speed up the inevitable since his condition is already terminal.
After watching Henry be verbally abused and belittled by Billie (not to mention her showing intense interest rather than concern at another girl being allegedly attacked by his friend Dexter), it's very refreshing to know she gets her just desserts at the hands of the yeti.
There's also the payback that Billy (the boy from the framing story) manages to get on his abusive father via voodoo doll.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Jordy Verrill from the second story seems to have become one, possibly due to being the only sympathetic fatality in a film full of Asshole Victims.
Heartwarming Moments: A pretty dark example, but after Richard Vickers is buried up to his neck in sand by the undead Harry and Becky, the last we see of them are their footprints headed back out into the sea, implying that they're finally at peace and Together in Death. How romantic! Bonus points for the fact that Harry genuinely seemed to be in love with Becky, while her husband was implied to be distant and only viewed her as his "property."
He Really Can Act: Stephen King is mostly known for being an author and most of his roles have been cameos, but his performance as Jordy Verill is cited as one of the film's highlights for being simultaneously funny and campy, yet sincerely tragic and moving at the same time.
The comic-book-loving boy in the Framing Device that is punished for having a horror comic is played by Joe Hill, who grew up to write some creepy comics of his own and once said in an interview that he doesn't allow his kid to read his comics.
The film's CryptkeeperExpy, the Creep, is portrayed as a decaying corpse, as opposed to the Cryptkeeper of the comics who was just a somewhat ugly though living human. When Tales from the Crypt was made into a TV series at the end of the '80s, the Cryptkeeper would in fact be redesigned as an undead corpse similar to how the Creep looked.
Now hold on...a movie directed by George A. Romero that features a man by the name of Henry in a dreadful marriage who murders his wife? Is this Creepshow or is it Bruiser?
Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen,) keeps a lionfish in his home aquarium. In The Naked Gun, Nielsen, as Frank Drebin, accidentally skewers and kills Vincent Ludwig's lionfish with Emperor Hirohito's pen.
John Amplas, who played Martinez in "Dawn of the Dead," and later, a larger supporting role, Dr. Ted Fisher, in "Day of the Dead," plays the physical role of zombie Nathan Grantham in "Father's Day. In both of Romero's films, Amplas' characters are killed off, but both are shot, and neither become a zombie on-screen.
Ho Yay: Dexter and Henry, according to the documentary Just Desserts.
Inferred Holocaust: The ending of "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill."
Jerkass Woobie: Bedelia may not be the nicest person in the world, but if you grew up under the monster that was Nathan Grantham, you'd be a bit of a jerk, too.
Nathan Grantham crosses it by having Bedelia's fiancé Yarbro, her chance for happiness away from him, killed so he could keep her under his thumb.
Richard crosses it with his sadistic Disproportionate Retribution toward his unfaithful wife and her lover, burying them in the sand up to their necks and letting the incoming tide slowly drown them.
Narm Charm: The film is very knowingly campy and a love-letter to the equally camp EC Comics, so there's plenty of moments that are both unintentionally funny and genuinely scary at the same time.
The creature popping out of the crate to kill Billie is somewhat narmish, as if it's saying, "HI!" The "Just tell it to call you 'Billie'!" doesn't help.
The scene at the end of Something To Tide You Over is actually genuinely unnerving, with Leslie Nielsen still remaining scary even when being threatened. However, you then see him buried in the sand, and...well, see the above Narm Charm quote.
Questionable Casting: A cartoonishly goofy hick played by the author and non-actor Stephen King. Apparently King stepped in because no one else would ham it up enough. Oddly enough, it actually works and King's performance fits right in with the film's knowingly campy tone.
Sequelitis: Downplayed with the second movie. It was criticized for only having three arguably less interesting stories but is still seen as a solid horror anthology overall.
The 2006 unofficial threequel, however, plays it straight. It didn't involve King or Romero whatsoever. Rumors are flying around that there's going to be another Creepshow, but only time will tell.
Averted with the Creepshow series that debuted in 2019 on Shudder. The first season received critical success and has four season as of 2023.
Throw It In!: Viveca Lindfor's drunken monologue at Nathan Grantham's grave was improvised by Lindfors.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Granthams from the first story. They're not good people, but when you see the lengths that Nathan will go to get his "cake" and remember why he was murdered in the first place, you begin to wonder who's the real villain in the story.
Poor Jordy has no idea what he's gotten himself into. At least his luck finally comes in to save him from a Fate Worse than Death.
The little boy in the framing story who gets slapped by his father for reading a comic book, talking back, and snooping through his things. Luckily, his dad gets his...
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Lil' Yachty's cameo at the end of Shapeshifters Anonymous. Granted, the entire episode is campy, comedic, and borderline crazy, but Yachty clearly takes the cake, since he comes completely out of nowhere to take Phyllis home, get her $100 million at the bank, then make love to her all night. Even In-Universe, everyone is either confused, dumbfounded, or left in Stunned Silence.
Catharsis Factor: After spending his entire screentime being an abusive, pathetic asshole, Uncle Kevin getting his comeuppance by being beaten up and killed by the Gill-Man and the Mummy is insanely satisfying.
Lester M. Barclay is the former mayor of the titular Musky Holler city. After a Zombie Apocalypse plagued the world, Lester came into Musky Holler offering his aid to the townsfolk. As soon as he was elected mayor, he used his power in office to overthrow and kill his predecessor, along with anyone else who challenged him. During his time as mayor, Lester had his followers spread propaganda about his laws, sanctioned his police force to rape and murder as they pleased, and imprisoned anyone who spoke out against him. Lester also created a sadistic, publicized game called "Live Pie", where a group of civilians would slowly be swarmed by zombies headfirst with no way of defending themselves.
"Sheriff" Deke is the chief supporter of Lester's horrific regime. Allowing his police to brutalize and torture the populace at will, Deke gleefully fed Lester's enemies to zombies and assisted in the purges to bring Lester to power. To take his position as Sheriff, Deke viciously beat the honest sheriff to death with his pistol, forcing the man's son to watch and also raping the man's young daughter.
"A Dead Girl Named Sue": Cliven Ridgeway is the corrupt son of the mayor who uses his position to abuse and brutalize the townspeople. Cliven is known to have gotten away with anything, including murder, arson, and rape while he gleefully taunts others with how untouchable he is. Ultimately too much for the moral Sheriff Foster is the reveal that Cliven had kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered a little girl named Sue.
Growing the Beard: While Season 1 and the specials are great, the show is generally agreed to have really started firing in all cylinders in Season 2, which has more creative stories that dabble in various different genres of horror while still keeping up the same tone and being filled with love letters and homages to various horror classics.
Richie Grenadine from "Gray Matter", a man who was raised in the Men Don't Cry school of thought. This leads to him becoming The Alcoholic out of guilt for unintentionally causing the death of his wife when she ran out of the house during a vicious fight and into a storm. His bottling of his emotions leads to his becoming a blob monster thanks to a bad can of beer, and, as the story ends, is implied to soon cause The End of the World as We Know It.
Richard from "Survivor Type" is an unscrupulous surgeon with criminal connections and, among other things, carried heroin for drug runners and used his connections to get a bully killed, but he grew up with an abusive father and slowly goes insane from hunger and isolation, not to mention being forced to start eating parts of himself.
The Golden Dragons Club From "All Hallows Eve." As cruel as they are to the townsfolk, all they want is for their murders to be avenged so they can finally rest in peace. Even they're sick of the cycle, and barely manage to convince themselves to go through with it. They do, and at the end say a solemn goodbye as they return to the cemetery.
"Man In The Suitcase": The titular man in the suitcase appears to be a helpless businessman painfully folded into a suitcase who somehow produces gold whenever he is harmed. In truth, the man is a powerful djinn, far more cunning and in control than he lets on. Seeking out corrupt souls, the djinn feigns at helplessness to see who will try to harm a helpless man for money, even while being unable to repress a dry sense of sarcastic humor. After the segment's hero Justin is upset at the prospect of harming him for wealth, Justin's girlfriend Carla and best friend Alex betray and nearly kill him, whereupon the djinn gleefully takes the chance to present to them their own suitcases, saving Justin and taking the two off for a most unpleasant fate. He even sends a floral arrangement to Justin telling him that, should he ever have need of help, to just think of him and he'll be there.
"Stranger Sings": Miranda is a flesh-eating siren from the days of Ancient Greece. Seeking a normal life after having lured countless men to their gruesome deaths, Miranda uses her friend Sarah to entice the hapless doctor Barry into performing a surgery on her to remove the vocal cords and give them to Sarah. With the surgery being a success, Miranda becomes mortal again, and kills Sarah as she attempts to rape and kill Barry. Feeling regretful for all the trouble she's caused Barry, Miranda offers to take him on a date.
Moment of Awesome: One of these moments occurs at the end of "Skincrawlers", after the solar eclipse makes all the weight-loss leeches explode and kill everyone who had the procedure. After dropping a vending machine on one of the leeches, Henry, covered in blood, picks up a candy bar off the ground, takes in all the carnage surrounding him, and happily takes a bite. Considering that Henry is no more than Hollywood Pudgy, and how he mentions his lifelong struggles with body image and self-confidence, the moment is oddly triumphant, despite the gore.
Moral Event Horizon: Cliven Ridgeway in "A Dead Girl Named Sue" is a vile, gleefully unrepentant psychopath to begin with, but he travels well beyond the MEH when it is revealed that he kidnapped, brutally raped (when Chief Foster sics Sue Donovan's zombie on Ridgeway, she is forced to crawl in an unnatural and jerky manner with her legs askew, indicating that he broke or dislocated them at best and paralyzed her below the waist at worst), and murdered a young girl. Chief Foster is so horrified when he finds one of her blue scrunchies in Ridgeway's hideout that he goes back on his code of ethics and decides to turn Ridgeway over to the lynchmob that he had previously rebuked, and sets a reanimated and zombified Sue on him and lets her devour him alive in front of the lynchmob.
Nausea Fuel: "Survivor Type" goes into absurdly grueling detail (and imagery) as Richards chops himself up and eats his severed body parts.
Ugly Cute: Bob from "The Finger", a small, murderous creature with a creepy Eyeless Face, sharp fangs and long, clawed fingers... who also loves chilling on Clark's couch, munching popcorn and watching daytime TV like an old buddy of his.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Celia in "Lydia Lane's Better Half". The episode treats her like a typical innocent victim who Lydia wrongfully denied the role of CFO, but Celia expects to get the position solely because she's Lydia's secret girlfriend and assaults Lydia over it. While she does have a right to be upset since Lydia had promised her the position and is right that Lydia did it to sabotage her career out of jealousy, she expects the position mainly because of their relationship rather than because she's actually qualified and comes across as just as entitled as Lydia. She certainly didn't deserve to be murdered, but she comes across as more of a Jerkass than the writing seems to intend.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The series shows just how far along practical effects have come since the original film. There's still some CGI in the mix, but the show doesn't rely very heavily on it, with puppetry, animatronics, makeup and even stop-motion animation extensively used to great effect.
Timmy in "Gray Matter". His mother dies, which leads to his father becoming The Alcoholic. Then, after one contaminated beer, his father slowly mutates into a Blob Monster that develops a taste for human flesh, and self-duplicates at a rate that could bring about the end of the world in six days. And despite how much his dad changes, and how afraid he is, Timmy refused to give up on him to the very end.
Timmy: He promised me he was gonna quit [drinking]. He’s my Daddy. I love him.
Justin from "The Man In The Suitcase". Unlike his ex Carla and his roommate Alex, he's the only one to feel any remorse for tormenting the titular man in the suitcase for gold. When he tries to stop them by calling the police, Carla destroys his phone and then bludgeons him with a wrench which sends him to the hospital. Thankfully he survives (albeit with a severe head injury and a possible loss of an eye) unlike Carla and Alex.
Harold from "The Companion", who spends the story pursued by his abusive brother and the living scarecrow he accidentally awakens.
The scarecrow's creator, Brenner, is an even bigger example. His wife of 40 years dies of an illness, leaving him incredibly lonely. He creates the scarecrow to act as a companion, but watched it come to life and ruthlessly murder an innocent girl scout. The girl's death leaves him consumed with guilt, so he incapacitates the scarecrow by stabbing its crocheted heart with his cane, then goes to his basement and kills himself with a shotgun.
Rose in "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain" is one of the biggest, who lives with a monstrous stepfather, is slowly growing apart from her mother, and whose late father has been mocked relentlessly and thought to be a lunatic by the townspeople. If that isn't enough, nearly every single one of the poor girl's lines sounds like she's on the verge of tears.
is often unfairly overlooked, but it is fantastic.