| Creepshow III | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Ana Clavell James Dudelson |
| Produced by | Ana Clavell James Dudelson Stanley E. Dudelson Robert F. Dudelson |
| Written by | Ana Clavell (Alice) James Dudelson (The Professor's Wife) Scott Frazelle (Haunted Dog) Pablo C. Pappano (Call Girl) Alex Ugelow (The Radio) |
| Starring | Roy Abramsohn Kris Allen Magi Avila A. J. Bowen Elwood Carlisle Ed Dyer Bunny Gibson Bo Kresic Camille Lacey Elina Madison Emmett McGuire Stephanie Pettee |
| Music by | Chris Anderson |
| Cinematography | James M. Legoy |
| Editing by | Ana Clavell |
| Studio | Taurus Entertainment Company Creepy Film Productions |
| Distributed by | Taurus Entertainment Company HBO Home Video |
| Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.5 million (est.) |
Creepshow III is a sequel to the 1982 horror anthology classic, Creepshow, by Stephen King and George A. Romero. The film, like the original, consists of five 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 made in 2006, and it was released to the public in early 2007. No one from the production of either Creepshow or Creepshow 2 (namely King and Romero) was involved in the production of this film. The film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, released in 1990, was referred to by Tom Savini as "The real Creepshow 3".
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Unlike the first two Creepshow installments in which the wraparound element linking the stories was a horror comic, Creepshow III takes an approach similar to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, in which characters from each story collide with each other during the film. There is also a hotdog stand as a common element in the movie. Brochures, ads and other things from the hotdog stand are peppered throughout.
Alice (Stephanie Pettee) is a stuck-up, snotty teenager who comes home to find her father meddling with some kind of universal remote. Whenever she 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 obvious link to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Victor, the vampire, makes an appearance in this story.
Jerry (A. J. Bowen) 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 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, Rachael, also makes an appearance in this story, as well as the pimp and the two boys from "The Professor's Wife".
Rachel, a murderous call girl, 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, suffocate him by 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 a vampire. He kills Rachel and hangs her in the room with the house owners whom he's already killed. The two young men from Professor's wife and the pimp from The Radio appear in this segment.
Two former students come to visit Professor Dayton and meet his fiancee, 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. 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.
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, which was poisoned and intended for him.
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, which is no doubt a reference to the somewhat similar "Thanks for the ride, lady!" line from Creepshow 2's final story, "The Hitch-Hiker". The Hispanic woman from "Alice" also makes an appearance in this story. Also, it is revealed that the street vendor/homeless man got the two radios from the professor in "The Professor's Wife".
The film was released May 15, 2007, in the United States by HBO through their parent company Warner Home Video. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2008, by Anchor Bay UK.
Creepshow III 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.
James Glenn Dudelson, who directed Creepshow III, is currently attached as an executive producer on the upcoming Warner Bros. sequel, Creepshow 4, but it is understood that he will have no creative input.
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