Prologue Billy Hopkins, a young boy, gets disciplined by his abusive father, Stan, for reading
Creepshow, a horror comic. Not wanting his son to be exposed to the comic's content, Stan throws it in the garbage while ranting on stories like people coming back from the dead and people turning into plants. As Billy sits upstairs, wishing that his father rots in
Hell, he hears a sound at the window. The source of the noise turns out to be the Creep, the host of the comic book, who beckons him to come closer. The scene transitions to animation as the Creep removes the trash can's lids. Then the first story is shown.
"Father's Day" Sylvia Grantham meets her nephew Richard and niece Cass, along with Cass's new husband Hank Blaine, at the Grantham estate for the family's annual dinner on the third Sunday in June. They proceed to tell Hank about the family
matriarch Great Aunt Bedelia and of how it is an
open secret in the family that she murdered her father: the miserly and domineering Nathan Grantham who had accumulated the family's fortune through
bootlegging,
fraud,
extortion, and
murder-for-hire. Many years earlier, Bedelia was rendered an unstable
spinster, the result of a lifetime spent putting up with her father's incessant demands and
emotional abuse, which got even worse after he suffered a
stroke and she was made to nurse him full-time. The torture culminated with Nathan orchestrating a fatal "hunting accident" which took the life of his daughter's fiancé, Peter Yarbro, in order to keep her under his thumb. That
Father's Day, Nathan starts making petulant demands for his Father's Day Cake while insulting Bedelia. Driven into a murderous rage, Bedelia bashes her overbearing father's head in with a marble ashtray (which is hidden throughout the other stories). In the present day, Bedelia arrives at Grantham Manor that evening. She stops by the family cemetery just outside the mansion to lay a flower at her father's grave. She drunkenly reminisces about the murder and reveals that Sylvia staged the killing as an accident in order to steal and distribute Nathan's fortune among the rest of the family. She accidentally spills her
whiskey bottle in front of the
headstone. Just then, Nathan emerges from the burial plot as a putrefied maggot-infested
zombie, still demanding the Father's Day cake he never got. He avenges himself on Bedelia, strangling her. He proceeds to systematically wipe out the rest of his family: telekinetically crushing Hank to death with a gravestone, then twisting Sylvia's neck; he also kills the Granthams'
cook, Mrs. Danvers, possibly to cover his tracks. As a gruesome final joke, Nathan surprises Cass and Richard by presenting them with his Father's Day cake: Sylvia's severed head, covered with frosting and lit candles.
Interlude #1 An advertisement of
Bolt: the family newspaper that nobody knows about, where selling them can get you prizes like bows and arrows, pistols and rifles, surveillance equipment, cannons and tanks, and nuclear warheads. Then there are some Creepy Correspondences in which fans have their questions answered by the Creep. Returning to animation, the Creep turns the comic's page to the next story.
"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" Jordy Verrill, a comedic and dim-witted yokel who runs a gas station, watches as a
meteorite crash lands on his farm. Observing the crash site, Jordy gets his fingers burned when he tries to touch the meteorite. In a fantasy sequence, Jordy imagines selling the meteorite to the local college's "Department of Meteors", hoping that the sale will provide enough money to pay off a $200 bank loan. Taking precautions, he douses the meteorite with a bucket of water, causing it to crack open and spill a glowing blue liquid. In another fantasy sequence, Jordy reimagines the "Department of Meteors" refusing to purchase the now broken meteorite. Resolving to try to glue the halves together in the morning, Jordy nonchalantly dumps the liquid from the meteor into the soil, but not before it makes contact with his skin. As time passes, Jordy finds his fingers being overcome by what appears to be grass. He attempts to call a doctor, but he reconsiders doing so when he imagines (in another fantasy sequence) that the doctor will chop the afflicted fingers off without
anesthetic. Over time, the strange substance continues to grow all over Jordy's farm, everything Jordy has touched, and even on Jordy's body, which causes him to itch furiously. Jordy panics as he discovers the increasing growth, and tries to calm himself by pouring himself a bottle of
vodka and mixing it with
orange juice. Soon after, Jordy falls asleep in a drunken stupor. Jordy wakes up sometime later, believing the experience was a dream, but his hopes are dashed when he sees that the plant growth has reached inside the house and, in a mirror, discovers that he has now grown a green beard. He starts to draw a bath to relieve the itching, but the ghost of his deceased father appears in his mirror, warning him against it, saying that water is what the plants want. Grimly rationalizing that not getting in would only delay the inevitable, Jordy laments that "[he's] a goner already." When the itching from the growth on his skin becomes unbearable, Jordy succumbs to temptation and collapses into the bathwater. The next morning, as
The Farm Report plays on TV, Jordy's farm has been completely coated with dense layers of the
alien vegetation, and Jordy himself has been transformed into a human-shaped collection of plant matter. In despair, he reaches for a
coach gun, prays to God that his luck will be in just this once, and blows the top of his head off, killing himself. Immediately afterward, the weather announcement mentions that moderate temperatures and heavy rains are predicted as the plants spread down the roads to other towns. The Creep mentions in a panel about the rain and the Verrill luck being in again.
Interlude #2 Returning to animation, a gust of wind turns the comic book's page, briefly passing over an advertisement for a
voodoo doll that is missing its order form. The next page shows weird novelties like
disappearing ink, a secret agent periscope,
exploding cigarettes,
X-ray specs, an
electric buzzer, an authentic Egyptian
mummy, and
meat-eating plants. Then the next story is shown.
"Something to Tide You Over" Richard Vickers is a vicious and heartless
millionaire whose spry
jocularity belies his cold-blooded and murderous nature. He visits Harry Wentworth, the man with whom his wife Becky is having an
affair. Richard mentions that he and Becky never shared any actual affection, but such is beside the issue; Richard's point of honor is always keeping what's "his", a rule that he enforces no matter what. Rather than physically assault Harry, Richard plays a recording of Becky's voice, where she tearfully begs Harry to help her. Both men travel to Comfort Point, Richard's isolated
beach house. Richard points out what appears to be a burial mound in the sand. When Harry promptly runs to it, Richard pulls a gun on him. He forces Harry to jump into the empty hole and begin burying himself. Eventually, Richard finishes burying Harry neck-deep in the sand below the high-tide line. Richard then sets up a
CCTV camera and a
VCR to record Harry. He also brings along a monitor displaying Becky, who is also buried up to her neck, farther down the beach, where the rising tide is already washing over her face. Richard does tell Harry that he and Becky have a chance of survival: if they can hold their breath long enough for the sand to loosen once the seawater covers them, they can break free. With that, Richard abandons Harry and returns to Comfort Point. Sipping a
cocktail, Richard watches with great satisfaction as Harry and Becky slowly drown. Just before Harry is completely submerged by the advancing tide, he looks directly into the camera and vows revenge on Richard. Hours later, Richard returns to Harry's "grave" to collect the tape. He finds the ruined monitor, but no sign of Harry. Not disturbed, Richard writes this off as the body having been carried away by the current. Later that night, Richard hears voices calling his name, as a mysterious, unseen presence easily bypasses Comfort Point's extensive security system. The culprits turn out to be Harry and Becky, the two lovers having returned as waterlogged,
seaweed-covered
revenants intent on revenge on their killer. Richard shoots them, but when the bullets have no effect, he barricades himself in his bedroom, only to find Becky and Harry already inside. The two victims taunt Richard, who laughs insanely. Sometime later, the undead lovers buried Richard up to his neck on the beach. They have since disappeared together into the surf, leaving Richard's own seaweed-covered video camera to record his coming demise. The hysterical Richard screams that he can hold his breath "for a LONG time!" Some of the tide goes into his mouth as the story ends.
Interlude #3 Returning to animation, a stronger gust of wind blows the comic book out of the trash can and onto the street, where it opens to the next story.
"The Crate" Mike Latimer, a
janitor at Horlicks University, drops a quarter he was flipping, and it rolls behind a grate under a basement staircase. While attempting to retrieve the coin, he comes across a wooden storage crate marked "Ship to Horlicks University via Julia Carpenter -
Arctic Expedition - June 19, 1834" hidden underneath the staircase. He calls Professor Dexter Stanley to notify him of the discovery, drawing Dexter away from a faculty social gathering. Also at the gathering are Dexter's best friend, the mild-mannered Professor Henry Northrup, and Henry's perpetually drunk, obnoxious, and
emotionally-abusive wife, Wilma "Billie", who has a penchant for embarrassing herself, belittling her husband, and annoying or insulting everybody she meets. Henry regularly fantasizes about killing his horrific wife, but is far too timid to actually go through with it. Stanley meets Mike at Amberson Hall, where the former discovers the crate. Both men move the crate into a nearby
biology lab, where they tirelessly work to get it open. In the process, Mike reaches into the crate and begins yelling in pain. The crate opens to reveal its contents: a shaggy,
ape-like creature with sharp fangs. Despite its diminutive size, the creature promptly kills and devours Mike whole, leaving behind only his mangled boot. Fleeing the lab, Dexter bumps into graduate student Charlie Gereson, to whom he frantically relays what happened. While skeptical, Charlie agrees to investigate the professor's claims. The two find the lab covered in blood, with no sign of the creature or its crate. They discover that the crate has been moved back under the stairs, where they also discover Mike's boot. Wanting to measure the bite marks on the boot, Charlie examines the crate more closely. The creature pounces on Charlie and kills him, prompting Dexter to escape and take the boot with him. Traumatized and hysterical, Dexter runs to Henry's house after Billie leaves for the evening. He tells Henry everything that happened since the crate was discovered, and insists that the monster must be disposed of somehow. Seeing the supposed creature as an ideal way to rid himself of his wife, Henry appears to believe Dexter's story. To this end, Henry spikes Dexter's drink with sleeping pills and writes a note stating that Dexter had supposedly assaulted a female student. This brings Billie rushing to Amberson Hall, where Henry has since cleaned up the bloody lab. When Billie arrives, Henry lures her under the basement stairs, trying to awaken the creature. As Billie rants at Henry for dragging her out there in the middle of the night and assaulting her, the beast awakens and proceeds to consume her. The next morning, Henry tells Dexter that he secured the beast inside its crate and then dumped the crate into a nearby
quarry, watching as it sank to the bottom. He convinces Dexter that the creature has drowned, and both men agree to let the authorities handle the disappearances. Unknown to Henry and Dexter, the beast is still alive and is last seen tearing the submerged crate apart. A panel shows the Creep in goggles, saying, "You can't drown your fears that easily, Henry".
Interlude #4 Returning to animation, the scene begins to rain as the comic book turns to the next page. There is a brief advertisement of the "Father's Day" ashtray, a "Creepy Cockroach", and a
Charles Atlas–type bodybuilding course. Then the next story begins.
"They're Creeping Up on You!" Upson Pratt is a ruthlessly cruel
business mogul who suffers from
mysophobia, which has rendered him living in a hermetically sealed
penthouse apartment outfitted with
electric locks and
surveillance cameras. His apparent contacts with the outside world are through the telephone and are primarily made to put-upon employees. One stormy night, Pratt receives a call from George Gendron, one of his subordinates, informing him that his company (Pratt International) has recently initiated a
corporate takeover of Pacific Aerodyne. Gendron also informs Mr. Pratt that the takeover caused a business rival, Norman Castonmeyer, to commit
suicide, much to Pratt's delight. During the call, Pratt slowly begins finding
cockroaches around his apartment. Being a fanatical insect hater, Pratt arms himself with
bug spray in an attempt to combat the insects. Before long, someone manages to get through on Pratt's private line. The caller turns out to be Norman Castonmeyer's widow, Lenore, who tearfully recalls her husband's final moments and curses Pratt for causing his death. After finding pieces of cockroaches in his
food processor, Pratt receives a call from the
building superintendent Carl Reynolds, currently on vacation in
Orlando. Despite his vacation, Pratt forces Reynolds to send the building's
handyman Mr. White to call an
exterminator under the threat of firing him. Soon after, Pratt discovers more cockroaches in a box of cereal, trying and failing to crush any that he can. Mr. White soon arrives outside Pratt's door, and tells him (speaking in a stereotypical
minstrel voice to mock him) that he is calling a 24-hour
fumigation service. A
rolling blackout then heads towards the building. During the blackout, cockroaches numbering in the hundreds of thousands begin pouring out of every nook and cranny in Pratt's apartment. As the insects overwhelm Pratt, he activates the emergency power and attempts to call the police for assistance. The police are unfortunately unable to help because of the blackout, nor is Mr. White, who is stuck in the elevator. At his wits' end, Pratt locks himself inside a climate-controlled
panic room to escape the growing swarm of cockroaches. He gets another call from Lenore, who continues to curse at him. It's during this call that Pratt finds his bed covers wriggling, and he removes them to discover that the cockroaches have already invaded the panic room. With no way for Pratt to escape, the cockroach swarm charges at him, which induces a
fatal heart attack. When electricity returns to the building, the apartment is utterly devoid of cockroaches. Pratt's corpse is shown in the panic room as Mr. White calls in to report. When he gets no answer, Mr. White mockingly asks Pratt, "Bugs got your tongue?" Pratt's body soon begins to contort as cockroaches burst out of his mouth and chest, re-enveloping the panic room. Mr. White continues to call Pratt's name to get a response, then calls him a bastard when he gets no answer. A panel featuring the Creep shows him stating that cockroaches can hide anywhere.
Epilogue The next morning, two garbage collectors find the
Creepshow comic book on the curb. They look at the book's ads for X-ray specs and a Charles Atlas–type bodybuilding course. They also see the advertisement for the voodoo doll, but lament that the order form has already been redeemed. They read the bodybuilding course advertisement, which also asks readers if they are tired of someone kicking sand in their face. Inside the Hopkins house, Stan complains to his wife that he has a stiff neck, figuring he must have strained it. Upstairs, Billy is revealed to have sent away for the voodoo doll and has decorated it with a piece of his father's clothing and some of his hair. Stan clutches his throat in
pain as Billy repeatedly and gleefully jabs the voodoo doll with a pin, finally getting revenge on his father for his abuse. The image of Billy jabbing the doll becomes the cover of the next issue of
Creepshow. The Creep is seen holding the same comic book, laughing sinisterly as a candle goes out. ==Cast==