Is Creepshow Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot

A father's day cake that was a long time coming

A boy named Billy Hopkins is scolded by his father Stan for reading a horror comic called Creepshow, and Stan throws it in the garbage. The Creep, the comic's host, appears at Billy's window and opens the trash can, and the first story starts. In "Father's Day," the Grantham family gathers for its yearly Father's Day dinner, and Hank, Cass's new husband, hears that Great Aunt Bedelia killed her father, Nathan. Nathan was a rich, bullying man who had abused her for years, and he had her fiance killed. On one Father's Day, she hit him over the head with a marble ashtray when he demanded cake. In the present, Bedelia visits his grave and spills her whiskey on it. Nathan climbs out as a rotting zombie, still demanding that cake, and kills most of the family before serving Sylvia's head to the survivors as the cake.

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A meteor that makes a very poor houseguest

In "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill," Jordy, a dim-witted farmer who runs a gas station, watches a meteorite land on his property. He burns his fingers on it, and he imagines selling it to a college for enough money to pay a $200 bank loan. He pours water on it to be safe, the meteorite cracks, and glowing blue liquid spills out. Jordy dumps the liquid into the soil, but it touches his skin first. Grass starts growing from his fingers and then across the farm, and Jordy panics and drinks until he falls asleep. In the morning, the plants have reached the house and he has a green beard. His late father's ghost appears in the mirror and warns him not to take a bath, since water is what the plants want. The itching gets worse, Jordy gets in, and the plants cover him. He shoots himself in the head.

A beach house with a very specific burial plan

In "Something to Tide You Over," Richard Vickers, a ruthless millionaire, visits Harry Wentworth, who is having an affair with Richard's wife, Becky. Richard takes Harry to his beach house at Comfort Point and has him dig a hole in the sand and bury himself up to the neck below the high-tide line. He sets up a camera and a monitor, and he shows Harry that Becky is buried farther down the beach, with the tide already reaching her face. Richard says they can survive by holding their breath until the wet sand loosens. Then he goes inside, drinks a cocktail and watches them drown on video. Harry looks into the camera and promises revenge. Later, Harry and Becky return as waterlogged revenants, ignore Richard's bullets and bury him on the beach. As the story ends, the tide reaches Richard's mouth.

A crate that does not stay in the quarry

In "The Crate," a janitor named Mike Latimer finds a wooden crate from an Arctic expedition under a basement staircase at Horlicks University and calls Professor Dexter Stanley. The crate opens to reveal a small, shaggy, fanged creature that eats Mike and leaves only a boot behind, and then it kills a graduate student, Charlie Gereson. Dexter tells his friend Henry Northrup, whose wife Wilma, called Billie, is a drunk who insults him constantly. Henry sees a convenient solution. He drugs Dexter's drink, writes a note blaming him, and lures Billie to the stairs so the creature will eat her. By morning, Henry assures Dexter that the crate is at the bottom of a quarry and the creature has drowned. It did not. In the last panel, it is tearing the crate apart underwater, and the Creep tells Henry that fears don't drown that easily.

A penthouse with excellent locks and no pest control

In "They're Creeping Up on You!," Upson Pratt is a cruel business owner with a fear of germs who lives in a sealed penthouse full of locks and cameras. During a stormy night, he hears from an employee that his company has taken over a rival, and the rival's owner killed himself. Pratt starts finding cockroaches around the apartment, and the owner's widow keeps calling to curse him. The building handyman, Mr. White, says he is calling a fumigation service, and then a blackout hits. This is the scene to brace for, and it happens near the end: hundreds of thousands of cockroaches pour out of every crack in the apartment. Pratt locks himself in a panic room, finds that they have followed him, and has a fatal heart attack. When the lights return, the roaches are gone. Then Pratt's body twitches, and the cockroaches come out through his mouth and chest.