''Creepshow 3'' is a 2006 American
comedy horror
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three ty ...
film, and a
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
to
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
and
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
's horror
anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme ...
s ''
Creepshow
''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 ...
'' (1982) and ''
Creepshow 2
''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 ...
'' (1987). It was directed and produced by Ana Clavell and James Dudelson.
The film stars Kris Allen,
A. J. Bowen
Alfred Charles "A. J." Bowen Jr. (born December 21, 1977) is an American actor and producer. He starred in '' The Signal'' (2007) and ''A Horrible Way To Die'' (2010).
Early life
Bowen was born in Marietta, Georgia, and attended the University ...
, Emmett McGuire and Stephanie Pettee.
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
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-195 ...
angle this time around. The film was panned by critics.
[
]
Plot
Wraparound story
Unlike the first two ''Creepshow'' installments, in which the wraparound element linking the stories was a horror comic
Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...
, ''Creepshow 3'' takes an approach similar to Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
's ''Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...
'' 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
A brochure is originally an informative paper document (often also used for advertising) that can be folded into a template, pamphlet, or leaflet. A brochure can also be a set of related unfolded papers put into a pocket folder or packet or ca ...
, ads" \n\nads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is an initiative from IAB Technology Laboratory. It specifies a text file that companies can host on their web servers, listing the other companies authorized to sell their products or services. This is des ...
, 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
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
(i.e., the "Color and Hue
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called Color appearance model#Color appearance parameters, color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a Stimulus (physiology ...
Settings" button makes her family turn African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, and the "Subtitles
Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...
" button makes her family turn Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
). 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
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
. Notable in this story is the link to Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...
''. Victor, the vampire, makes an appearance in this story.
The Radio
Jerry is a part-time security guard
A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...
who buys a radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
from a homeless street vendor
In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...
to replace his old one which has stopped working; however, this mysterious new radio is far from ordinary as it can have a conversation
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
with Jerry. Very soon, Jerry is stealing money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
and murdering people, all at the whim of his new radio.
After escaping with a hooker who lives in his building, Jerry is told by the radio to kill the hooker or she will kill him. He refuses and destroys the radio. Right after, the hooker 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, Rachel, also makes an appearance in this story, as well as the pimp and the two boys from "The Professor's Wife".
Call Girl
Rachel, a murderous call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...
, receives a request from a shy man named Victor, her newest client. Rachel thinks he will be just another easy victim. When Rachel 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.
Rachel 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." Rachel removes the pillow and reveals a gruesome creature with a large, toothy mouth. It is then revealed that Victor is an actual vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
. He kills Rachel 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
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
, which the professor has supposedly spent the last 20 years working on in his laboratory
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
. 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
Voodoo may refer to:
Religions
* African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups
* African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo
** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...
kit from the homeless street vendor
In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...
to put Kathy back together in time for the wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
.
Rachel, the killer call girl, makes a brief appearance in this story.
Haunted Dog
A cruel, miserly doctor
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
** ...
, Dr. Farwell, is working a 30-day court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
-ordered sentence at a free clinic
A free clinic or walk in clinic is a health care facility in the United States offering services to economically disadvantaged individuals for free or at a nominal cost. The need for such a clinic arises in societies where there is no universa ...
, 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
A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...
and mocks an elderly woman who is going blind. One day, he buys a hot dog
A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced Hot dog bun, bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener (Vienna sausag ...
.
Dr. Farwell accidentally drops it on the ground. He sadistically decides to give the dirty hot dog to a homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
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
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
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
"Alice"
* Stephanie Pettee as Alice
* Simon Burzynski as Harry the Postman
* Rami Rank as Neighbor
* Derek Schachter as Neighbor's Kid
* Snowball as Alice (Rabbit Form)
Alice family #1
* Roy Abramsohn as Alice's father/ Detective Jacobs
* Susan Schramm as Alice's mothe
Susan Schramm imdb
* Bunny Gibson
Kathleen Elizabeth "Bunny" Gibson (born January 19, 1946) is an actress and former regular dancer on the American Bandstand television program. Teen magazines referred to her as "American Bandstand's Sweetheart" and Dick Clark called her a "n ...
as Alice's grandmother/ Dean Thompson
* Matt Fromm as Jesse
Alice family #2
* Nathan Kirkland as Alice's father
* Selma Pinkard as Alice's mother
* Kalena Knox as Alice's grandmother
* Brian Jacobs as Jesse
Alice family #3
* Leonardo Millan as Alice's father
* Magi Avila as Nurse Jacobs/ Alice's mother
* Margarita Lugo as Alice's grandmother
* Robert Gonzalez as Jesse
"The Radio"
* A. J. Bowen
Alfred Charles "A. J." Bowen Jr. (born December 21, 1977) is an American actor and producer. He starred in '' The Signal'' (2007) and ''A Horrible Way To Die'' (2010).
Early life
Bowen was born in Marietta, Georgia, and attended the University ...
as Jerry
* Elina Madison
Elina Madison is an American actress, writer and producer.
Early life
Elina was born on September 27, 1976 in Sioux City, Iowa and showed a passion for acting at a very young age and knew early on that she was going to be an actress. At the a ...
as Eva
* Akil Wingate as Leon
* Cara Cameron as The Radio
* Elwood Carlisle as Legless the Homeless Man
* Justin Smith as Ronald
* Karen Agnes as Sherry the Hooker
* James Dudelson as TV-operator
* Scott Dudelson as Passed-out Junkie
"Call Girl"
* Camille Lacey as Rachel
* Ryan Carty as Victor
* Moya Nkruma as Street Girl
* Eileen Dietz
Eileen Dietz is an American actress who is best known for her appearances in many horror films such as the face of the demon in ''The Exorcist'' and for her portrayal of characters on the soap operas ''Guiding Light'' and ''General Hospital''.
...
as Claire the Homeless Woman
* Pablo Pappano as Fat Joe
* Frank Pappano as Father
* Margaret Pappano as Mother
"The Professor's Wife"
* Emmet McGuire as Professor Dayton
* Bo Kresic as Kathy
* Michael Madrid as Charles
* Ben Pronsky
Ben Pronsky is an American voice and television actor.
Career
Pronsky studied regularly at the Larry Moss Studio and was founder and director of the Edgemar Film Festival in Santa Monica, California. He currently resides in Los Angeles. He has a ...
as John
* Joseph Russo as Father Russo
"Haunted Dog"
* Kris Allen as Dr. Farewell
* Ed Dyer as Cliffie
* Leigh Rose as Mrs. Lensington
* Dean Dinning as Stephan Rhodes
* Katherine Barber as Dusty Rhodes
* John C. Larkin as Security Guard
* Mike Dalager as Dr. McKinney
* April Wade
April Wade is an American actress, film producer and screenwriter.
Wade is best known for films and television series such as '' April Showers'', '' Happy Endings'', ''Creepshow III'', '' Day of the Dead 2: Contagium'', ''Opie Gets Laid
''Op ...
as Nurse
* Greg McDougall as Hot Dog Man/Creep
* Andre Dupont as Ambulance Attendant-1
* Christopher Estes as Ambulance Attendant-2
* Dean Battaglia as Dino
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
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was i ...
'' in the special effects department.
Release
The film was released on April 24, 2006, in Bristol, Rhode Island
Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England.
The population of B ...
, in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
by HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
in 2007, and in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
on October 20, 2008, by Anchor Bay UK.
Reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 0% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10.
Steve Barton at ''Dread Central
Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
'' called it an "in name only" sequel and that it was "void of any character, depth, integrity, scares, or feeling."[ 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."][ Rob Hunter of '']/Film
''/Film'', also spelled ''Slashfilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005.
Podcasts
Six podcasts have run on the site. ''The /Filmcast'', hosted by David Chen, De ...
'' panned the film as "bad" and said "the film never feels like a ''Creepshow'' film."
References
External links
*
{{The Creepshow Trilogy
2006 comedy horror films
2000s monster movies
American comedy horror films
American horror anthology films
American monster movies
American sequel films
Direct-to-video sequel films
Direct-to-video horror films
American vampire films
Parodies of horror
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
Creepshow films