I haven't read much on this or seen any reviews but I picked up the recent Universal 2-disc UK release of the original CREEPSHOW and a cursory inspection has me very impressed. No doubt an R1 edition will follow.

The keepcase artwork is done in a comic-book style in keeping with the movie but the slipcase is a restrained affair with the glossy logo picked out on a matte-black background.

Of particular interest is some 12 minutes of deleted scenes (including the "infamous" morgue-trolley shot) that I'd only seen on a n-th generation workprint bootleg. Additionally there is about 30mins of Savini's forward-thinking video diary of effects work from the set (he was very astute to make these educational recordings at the time whether or not he realised their potential marketing value at the time). Both of these VHS-sourced (1st or 2nd Generation) sequences are presented windowboxed and look very good.

There's also a feature-length making of documentary and trailers/still galleries that I've yet to explore. All this on the second disc with a feature-length commentary on the first disc (featuring Romero and Savini).

Victor

Yeah, it's a nice set - the commentary and doc are quite good, too. They mention in the commentary that it's a UK set, which kinda suggests to me that there may be no R1 version coming for some reason.

It's a very nice set, with a solid making-of documentary, albeit sans King. I wish the deleted scenes would have been remastered from film unstead of from a VHS, but I imagine that their held in Warner's US vault and since it was a Universal UK disc, access was probably denied to the Red Shirt folks.

It's a shame that TPTB at Warners think that a special edition of CREEPSHOW is of absolutely no interest. I'd love to have it in high-definition, as well, but I imagine I'll be waiting a long time for that.

The CREEPSHOW project was done for Universal UK exclusively. WB turned down my proposal and I've never heard any inklings of reconsidering it for release here in the U.S.

I imagine it will happen someday though...

Interestingly, the newly created downconverted HD master that Uni used for the DVD came from the WB.

Go figure.

Thanks, Michael.

Were film elements for the deleted scenes not accessibly from Warners or have they gone missing?

WB wasn't exactly forthcoming with me on what they had, but quite frankly since the film was a pick-up rather than a homegrown production, and also since the footage was cut before it was delivered to WB, there's a good chance they don't even have it vaulted.

In fact, the footage might be with a couple other parties/owners, but I was not able to find out where it was kept, if it was kept at all.

Perhaps someday, it will be possible to do a more thorough examination of the wreckage...err I mean vaults.

Sorry, I went a little RED OCTOBER for a second...happens sometimes.

Thanks, Michael.

Weren't the deleted scenes originally included with the film when it was screened at Cannes, but cut at Warners behest to get it down to two hours?

I imagine those would be with Laurel and probably didn't travel to Warners.

Yes, WB asked for an under-two-hour runtime, and so about 8 minutes worth of material was excised shortly after the Cannes Premiere.

My instincts tell me that unless the labs were cleared out wholesale and everything (including the trims) was sent to WB, those excised moments most likely remained under Laurel's control.

However since the assets of CREEPSHOW and Laurel have been spread to several different entities, it's been very hard to determine where those film elements are currently, if they were even saved in the first place.

If WB ever decides to push the button on CREEPSHOW again in the future, I'll do a more detailed search if they'll let me.

Now, I saw this in the theater, and before that I saw Tom Savini display latex pieces at a convention at the Roosevelt Hotel and pretend to come up with a concept for the poster right in front of us (since a bunch of us had already seen said poster, Tom was being a bit of an a**hole even back then), and I have the comic book version - but I have to ask - is this mainly a cult hit? Frankly, I never thought it was very good, except for maybe the WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF-esque "The Crate."

With two "coming back from the dead" tales, I'd say that was one too many.

You may recall I asked the friendly and still gorgeous Ms. Barbeau at a more recent con if she remembered looping one of her lines to soften the language, which she couldn't recall.*

The sequel is beneath contempt. It's got a cute guy in a revealing Speedo, but it's still beneath contempt.


*When "Billie" refers to "one of those etiquette crots," I believe her mouth is actually saying the nasty C-word. Check it out and see what you think.

There are never too many "coming back from the dead" tales, you silly man. :P

She is, indeed, Bob. It's on the DVD in its full glory, and Barbeau's line reading is a scream. It was on youtube for awhile, as well.

It's a shame that you've never taken to it; I adore CREEPSHOW. It captures something that I can't fully explain, and the combination of the stylish visuals, use of color, black humor, a score that's twice as good as one could expect, and a really superlative cast of character actors, all make it just wonderful to me. I wasn't allowed to see it when it came out, but heard tons about it, had the comic book, which I read to tatters, until I finally got to see it on HBO a couple years later. My brother was 4 years older and rubbed it in that he could see it, and went to a convention where Savini was showing off Fluffy and tortured me with tales of how cool it was...

Scared the bejeepers out of me. My brother used to torment me with the shock music cue of Nathan's hand popping out of the grave, before I saw the film.
Must be nostalgia week for me!

Oh yeah, it's a really fun film, totally captures what it's shooting for, that EC combination of humor and the macabre with great lurid visuals (I was never much of a fan of HBO's TALES FROM THE CRYPT because it never seemed to get the mix right).

I could see how it might not work for some, but for those raised on 70's horror comic rags like the Warren titles, CREEPSHOW is just the ticket (okay, yeah, maybe two "risen from the dead" stories might have been much but I love "Father's Day" and "Something to Tide You Over" was filmed in my backyard! Maybe they needed one of those "ironic punishment death" stories). I still have my Varese Sarabande CREEPSHOW soundtrack vinyl (great stuff).

All this discussion made me go and order the UK 2-disc. Thanks, ya'll!