Creepshow 3

Last updated
Creepshow 3
Creepshow III movie poster.jpg
German DVD artwork.
Directed by
  • Ana Clavell
  • James Dudelson
Written by
  • Ana Clavell
  • James Dudelson
  • Scott Frazelle
  • Pablo C. Pappano
  • Alex Ugelow
Produced by
  • Ana Clavell
  • James Dudelson
  • Stanley E. Dudelson
  • Robert F. Dudelson
Starring
CinematographyJames M. Legoy
Edited byAna Clavell
Music byChris Anderson
Production
companies
  • Taurus Entertainment Company
  • Creepy Film Productions
Distributed byTaurus Entertainment Company
Release dates
  • April 24, 2006 (2006-04-24)(Bristol, Rhode Island)
  • May 15, 2007 (2007-05-15)(DVD premiere)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.5 million (est)

Creepshow 3 is a 2006 American comedy horror film, and a sequel to Stephen King and George A. Romero's horror anthology films Creepshow (1982) and Creepshow 2 (1987). It was directed and produced by Ana Clavell and James Dudelson. [1] The film stars Kris Allen, A. J. Bowen, Emmett McGuire and Stephanie Pettee. [2] Like its predecessors, the film is a collection of tales of light-hearted horror: "Alice", "The Radio", "Call Girl", "The Professor's Wife", and "Haunted Dog", although there is no EC Comics angle this time around. The film was panned by critics. [3]

Contents

Plot

Wraparound story

Unlike the first two Creepshow installments, in which the wraparound element linking the stories was a horror comic, Creepshow 3 takes an approach similar to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in which characters from each story interact with each other during the film. There is also a hot dog stand as a common element in the movie. Brochures, ads, and other things from the hot dog stand are peppered throughout.

Alice

Alice Jacobs is a stuck-up, snotty teenager who comes home to find her father meddling with some kind of universal remote. Whenever he presses one of the buttons on the device, the whole family except for Alice changes ethnicity (i.e., the "Color and Hue Settings" button makes her family turn African-American, and the "Subtitles" button makes her family turn Hispanic). During this, Alice gradually mutates into what is supposedly her "true form".

Just when Alice thinks everything is back to normal, her father presses another button, revealing Alice's true form. Her family is absolutely horrified at the sight of Alice. The story ends with Professor Dayton, the mad scientist from down the street, using another remote control to turn Alice into a white rabbit. Notable in this story is the link to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . Victor, the vampire, makes an appearance in this story.

The Radio

Jerry is a part-time security guard who buys a radio from a homeless street vendor to replace his old one which has stopped working; however, this mysterious new radio is far from ordinary as it can have a conversation with Jerry. Very soon, Jerry is stealing money and murdering people, all at the whim of his new radio.

After escaping with a sex worker who lives in his building, Jerry is told by the radio to kill the sex worker or she will kill him. He refuses and destroys the radio. Right after, the sex worker finds his gun in the car and shoots Jerry, killing him. Moments after she kills him and wipes the gun clean, she is shot in the head. The shooter is revealed to be the pimp living in the same building as Jerry. When the pimp returns to his car, another radio tells him to go and start a new life.

Alice's father Detective Jacobs also appears in this story, investigating the various murders and strange goings-on taking place. The killer call girl, Rachael, also makes an appearance in this story, as well as the pimp and the two boys from "The Professor's Wife".

Call Girl

Rachael, a murderous call girl, receives a request from a shy man named Victor, her newest client. Rachael thinks he will be just another easy victim. When Rachael gets there, scenes of a murdered family with their necks ripped out are flashed on-screen, and there is no evidence of Victor living in the house.

Rachael then chains him to the bed and proceeds to stab him in the chest, places a pillow over his face, and then has a quick shower. She then keeps hearing Victor's voice saying, "You killed me." Rachael removes the pillow and reveals a gruesome creature with a large, toothy mouth. It is then revealed that Victor is an actual vampire. He kills Rachael and hangs her in the room with the house owners whom he's already killed. Blood starts pouring down her neck in a strange way indicating she will become a vampire. The two young men from The Professor's Wife and the pimp from The Radio appear in this segment.

The Professor's Wife

Two former students come to visit Professor Dayton and meet his fiancée Kathy. Having been victims of his practical jokes in the past, they suspect that Kathy is actually a robot, which the professor has supposedly spent the last 20 years working on in his laboratory. She also behaves like a robot and does not eat or drink, which further indicates that she is probably mechanical.

When the professor is out of the house, they decide to dismantle Kathy to see what she looks like on the inside. To their utter horror, they learn that Kathy really was a human being after all and that she was a mail-order bride. The professor later buys an 'advanced' voodoo kit from the homeless street vendor to put Kathy back together in time for the wedding.

Rachael, the killer call girl, makes a brief appearance in this story.

Haunted Dog

A cruel, miserly doctor, Dr. Farwell, is working a 30-day court-ordered sentence at a free clinic, where he is very insolent and rude towards his patients. He even goes as far as to show no sympathy towards a young girl with a brain tumor and mocks an elderly woman who is going blind. One day, he buys a hot dog.

Dr. Farwell accidentally drops it on the ground. He sadistically decides to give the dirty hot dog to a homeless man who has been bothering him for some spare change. The homeless man dies after taking one bite, and he returns to haunt the cruel doctor. The story ends with the doctor having a heart attack from having had too many encounters with his ghostly stalker. Victor from "Call Girl" also appears in this segment, and he seems to be in cahoots with Dr. Farwell. The homeless man can be heard muttering, "Thanks for the good dog" to Dr. Farwell throughout the segment, an allusion to Creepshow 2's "The Hitch-Hiker". The Hispanic woman from "Alice" also makes an appearance in this story.

Epilogue

It is revealed that the street vendor/homeless man got the two radios from Professor Dayton in "The Professor's Wife". After this tale ends, it then shows Professor Dayton at his wedding with his resurrected wife (who is bandaged up from being murdered in "The Professor's Wife") with a huge crowd around them. It shows Professor Dayton and his wife driving off. Alice's mom states that Alice will look so beautiful on her wedding day to which her family agrees as Alice's rabbit form is in the back seat of Professor Dayton's car. The priest asks the husband how Carol is with the response that she's not well at all and still believes that she has a daughter named Alice. It then zooms in on the back of the hot dog guy's head. He turns around, revealing that he was the Creep (resembling the version from Creepshow 2) all along.

Cast

Production

Creepshow 3 was backed by the Taurus Entertainment Company and directed by James Glenn Dudelson and Ana Clavell. The film's special make-up effects were created by Greg McDougall, who has also worked on Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds in the special effects department.

Release

The film was released on April 24, 2006, in Bristol, Rhode Island, in the United States by HBO in 2007, and in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2008, by Anchor Bay UK.

Reception

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 0% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10. [3]

Steve Barton at Dread Central called it an "in name only" sequel and that it was "void of any character, depth, integrity, scares, or feeling." [1] James Butane, also of Dread Central, rated it 2/5 and said "This is not a movie worthy to be called Creepshow for any reason, believe me." [2] Rob Hunter of /Film panned the film as "bad" and said "the film never feels like a Creepshow film." [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cats Eye</i> (1985 film) 1985 American anthology horror film directed by Lewis Teague

Cat's Eye is a 1985 American anthology horror thriller film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories, "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's 1978 Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The three stories are connected by the presence of a traveling cat, and Drew Barrymore both of which play incidental roles in the first two and major characters in the third.

<i>Creepshow</i> 1982 horror comedy anthology film by George A. Romero

Creepshow is a 1982 American horror comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King, making this film his screenwriting debut. The film's ensemble cast includes Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E. G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ted Danson and Ed Harris, as well as King himself. The film was primarily shot on location in Pittsburgh and its suburbs, including Monroeville, where Romero leased an old boys' academy to build extensive sets for the film.

<i>Tales from the Darkside: The Movie</i> 1990 film by John Harrison

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a 1990 American comedy horror anthology film directed by John Harrison, serving as a spin-off of the anthology television series Tales from the Darkside. The film depicts the frame story of a kidnapped paperboy who tells three stories of horror to the suburban witch who is preparing to eat him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kane Hodder</span> American actor, stuntman, and author

Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor, stuntman, and author.

<i>C.H.U.D.</i> 1984 American horror film

C.H.U.D. is a 1984 American science fiction horror film directed by Douglas Cheek, produced by Andrew Bonime, and starring John Heard, Daniel Stern, and Christopher Curry in his film debut. The plot concerns a New York City police officer and a homeless shelter manager who team up to investigate a series of disappearances, and discover that the missing people have been killed by humanoid monsters that live in the sewers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Final girl</span> Trope in slasher horror films

The final girl or survivor girl is a trope in horror films. It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including Psycho, Voices of Desire, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. The term "final girl" was coined by Carol J. Clover in her article "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film" (1987). Clover suggested that in these films, the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experienced a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.

<i>Creepshow 2</i> 1987 American comedy horror anthology film

Creepshow 2 is a 1987 American comedy horror anthology film directed by Michael Gornick, and the sequel to Creepshow. Gornick was previously the cinematographer of the first film, and the screenplay was written by George A. Romero who was director of the original film. The film's stars were Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, and Tom Savini. It was once again based upon stories by Stephen King, and features three more horror segments consisting of "Old Chief Wood'nhead", "The Raft" and "The Hitchhiker".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrienne King</span> American actress

Adrienne King is an American actress and artist. She made her film debut in the television film Inherit the Wind (1965)—followed by uncredited roles in Between the Lines (1977), Saturday Night Fever (1977), and Hair (1979).

<i>Horror Express</i> 1972 film by Eugenio Martín

Horror Express is a 1972 science fiction horror film directed by Eugenio Martín. It is a loose adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella Who Goes There?, and stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, with Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, George Rigaud, Ángel del Pozo, and Telly Savalas in supporting roles.

"The Crate" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the July 1979 issue of Gallery. In 1982, the story was adapted as a segment in the movie Creepshow, and included in comic-book form in the Creepshow graphic novella.

<i>The Place Beyond the Winds</i> 1916 film

The Place Beyond the Winds is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse, and starring Lon Chaney, Gretchen Lederer and Dorothy Phillips. It was written by Ida May Park, based on the novel by Harriet T. Comstock. The director De Grasse also played a role in the film. The film's original working title was Mansion of Despair. A still exists showing Chaney in the role of Jerry Jo, the homeless man.

<i>Triangle</i> (2009 British film) 2009 psychological horror film

Triangle is a 2009 psychological horror film written and directed by Christopher Smith and starring Melissa George, Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung, and Liam Hemsworth. George portrays a single mother who goes on a boating trip with several friends. When they are forced to abandon their ship, they board a derelict ocean liner, where they become convinced that someone is stalking them.

<i>Wake Wood</i> 2011 film

Wake Wood is a 2009 Irish supernatural horror film directed by David Keating and starring Timothy Spall, Eva Birthistle, Ella Connolly and Aidan Gillen. An international co-production between Ireland and the United Kingdom by Hammer Film Productions, the film is set in Donegal, Ireland. The story revolves around a grieving couple, Patrick and Louise, who move to a rural village after the tragic death of their daughter, Alice. They encounter strange rituals led by Arthur, a veterinary colleague, that can bring the dead back to life for three days.

<i>The Ward</i> (film) 2010 American film

The Ward is a 2010 American supernatural psychological horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca and Jared Harris. Set in 1966, the film chronicles a young woman who is institutionalized after setting fire to a house, and who finds herself haunted by the ghost of a former inmate at the psychiatric ward. As of 2024, this is Carpenter's most recent film as a director.

Matt Wall, known professionally as Creep Creepersin, is an American film director, musician, screenwriter, producer, actor, and author.

<i>The Devils Carnival</i> 2012 American film

The Devil's Carnival is a 2012 American musical horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Briana Evigan, Jessica Lowndes, Paul Sorvino, Emilie Autumn and Terrance Zdunich. The film marks the second collaboration of Bousman and writer/actor Terrance Zdunich, their previous work being the musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera. The film also brings back several of the cast members of Repo!, such as Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Bill Moseley and Nivek Ogre. The Devil's Carnival has Aesop's Fables and other folklore at the core of its story, with the main characters each representing a fable. Flanery's character John represents "Grief and His Due", Evigan's character Merrywood represents "The Dog and Its Reflection", and Lowndes' character Tamara represents "The Scorpion and the Frog", an animal fable that seems to have first emerged in Russia.

<i>Scary or Die</i> 2012 American film

Scary or Die is a 2012 American anthology horror film directed by Bob Badway, Michael Emanuel, and Igor Meglic. The film was released on video on demand on May 1, 2012 and on DVD on September 11, 2012. Initially titled Terror Bytes, the film's name was later changed to coincide with a horror website by the same name that Emanuel ran with his co-director Igor Meglic and two other filmmakers.

<i>Afterlife with Archie</i> Comic book published by Archie Comics

Afterlife with Archie is a comic book published by Archie Comics beginning in 2013, depicting a zombie apocalypse that begins in the town of Riverdale in an alternative reality. It is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, with art by Francesco Francavilla, and is inspired by a zombie-themed variant cover which Francavilla did for an issue of Life with Archie.

<i>Frankenstein</i> (2015 film) 2015 American film

Frankenstein is a 2015 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Bernard Rose. It is a modernised adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film is told from the monster's point of view, as he is created, escapes into the modern world, and learns about the dark side of humanity.

Alice Johnson (<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i>) Fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise

Alice Johnson is a fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. She first appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) as a teenager that inherits dream superpowers from the victims of enigmatic serial killer Freddy Krueger. In this film, she was portrayed by Lisa Wilcox—who reprises the role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989).

References

  1. 1 2 Barton, Steve (May 3, 2007). "Creepshow 3 (DVD)". Dread Central . Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Butane, Johnny (January 28, 2007). "Creepshow 3 (2007)". Dread Central . Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Creepshow 3". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster . Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  4. Hunter, Rob (October 31, 2019). "'Creepshow 3' is All Trick and No Treat – and Possibly the Worst Horror Anthology Ever Made". /Film . Retrieved July 22, 2021.