Word: screenplay
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...Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead), the Pittsburgh poet of zombie cannibalism, and Stephen King (Carrie, The Shining), the man who took horror out of the subconscious and put it back on America's supermarket shelves; one of the last of the true B movie filmmakers directing a screenplay by the foremost purveyor of mass paperback horror. Unfortunately, a potentially interesting juxtaposition fails. Romero's shock tactics end up being overwhelmed by King's schlock tactics, and the result, Creepshow, is certainly not worthy of the fetid--but rich--soil from which it sprang...
...their collaboration, Creepshow represents another first for both Romero and King. This is Romero's first film released by a major studio, and the constraints of commercial moviemaking seem to have dulled his atmospheric B movie sensibility. And it's the first time King has ever directly written a screenplay; up to now, his books have always been adapted by others, sometimes quite successfully, as in the case of Carrie. Perhaps if both men each return to their previous status they will once again be at the vanguard of horror entertainment, but here they have failed. Creepshow...
...Hinton. Hunter and Charlie Hass who adapted the novel They pepper Tex with homespun locutions. "I'don't like all that femalism stuff," one soon-to-be says. "You men he got an entire woman pregnant?" another asks later. More important, though, and more interestingly, much of the screenplay's success results from lines that are never spoken. Many people get into fights in Tex, but no one ever says. "I'm sorry," as if a simple apology could erase heartfelt disagreements that prosent no easy resolutions. Instead the characters learn to view difficult situations through the eyes of others...
...film contains some problems. Several revelations arrive completely unexpected, other scenes seem unnecessarily melodramatic if not unnecessary altogether. And Estevez's Johnny Coles remains a flat character throughout. But Metzler's Mason and Dillion's Tex carry a film greatly helped by a wonderful screenplay...
Directed by Don Siegel Screenplay by Bert Blessing and David Newman