Roughly around the time of 1947, a young man named William Gaines inherited EC Comics from his recently deceased father. Having previously been focused on stories of history, science and the Bible to little success under the supervision of his father, William soon began publishing tales of horror, suspense and science fiction. This new approach was one of monumental success, with sensational stories and art of the highest quality while also tackling issues of racism, sexism and the very fabric of our way of life. EC Comics brought to the world the Crypt Keeper, who introduced the Tales From The Crypt series and Mad Magazine, which ended up becoming one of the most renowned Horror publications in the country. The comics became known for their 'shock' endings, dripping with irony and poetic justice they were, often taking the reader greatly by surprise. There had never been anything quite like it and they dared to mix politics and fantasy, revulsion and poignancy in ways that most had never dared. But soon the comics industry on a whole became the target of much backlash and criticism with EC Comics taking the brunt of it. Soon the Comics Code Authority was formed and while EC never truly went away, the horror comics suffered greatly and Gaines had many struggles with the CCA in trying to keep the comics free of censorship. The comics were not without their fans, however, and soon young readers such as Stephen King, Tom Savini and George Romero grew up and tried to revive the series in their own special way. Such were the beginnings of the film that came to be called Creepshow. Romero approached King with his idea of doing an anthology of sorts, inspired by EC, with four or five stories that were all different but filled with all the dark humor, gore and social satire that one would expect. The idea resonated with King greatly and they set out to do justice to the comics that had inspired them to move down the path that they did. The film plays out much like a comic book would, using animation of comic panels and whatnot to segue between each individual tale. The tales themselves vary greatly in their quality and effectiveness and some are far funnier than others, though whether that is intentional or not is certainly up for debate. I remember watching the fourth story of the anthology, "The Crate," as a child and finding it to be truly terrifying, disturbing even, but now I find it to hardly be the most effective in the bunch. The first story, "Father's Day" is more of a straight up gore affair but the true horror comes in watching a very young Ed Harris engaging in some very awkward disco dancing. ""The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" is the second of the bunch and at first glance is more goofy than anything, with Stephen King himself playing a dimwitted farmer being consumed by the after effects of a crashed meteorite. But I now find the undertones of it all to be very creepy indeed. The third tale, "Something To Tide You Over," had always been my favorite of the bunch growing up, mostly for its use of Leslie Nielsen as a vengeful husband tormenting his wife's lover, played by Ted Danson. The greatest segment of the film, however, comes as the last of the five. "They're Creeping Up On You" stars E.G. Marshall as a miserly, racist and cruel man of wealth who confines himself to a sanitized, upscale apartment and is eventually consumed quite literally by what he fears the most. It moved in true EC tradition, using both metaphor and terror to drive a very real point home about the state of racism and privilege in this country while also being disturbingly creepy in its execution. Creepshow works for the most part because it is so varied in its presentation. It is a fun horror movie, full of shock and gore, but it also has a deeper level in some instances and it is the combination of the two that makes it so special; it can cater to both sides of the aisle. And as far as its placement on the list of the '100 Greatest Scary Movies,' 99 is an appropriate placement in my opinion. It is something to be acknowledged, for sure, but there have no doubt also been far greater scares within the realm of cinema.