Countdown to Halloween: What’s the matter, Mr. Pratt – buuuggs got your tongue?

I’m going to go out on a limb and make a declaration: Creepshow is one of the best comic book movies ever made.

Granted, it’s not based on any one particular comic, but it is a love letter to the old E.C. horror comics to a point that it wears its rotting heart on a bloody, stump-filled sleeve. And no, it’s not a particularly “good” movie in the most accepted definition — most of the acting is hammy and played broad, marrying well with the often bargain-rate sets and special effects.

But that’s kind of the point. The horror comics that inspired Creepshow were over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek violent and playfully grisly in ways that were nightmarish and fun. The movie gets it perfectly right with a tone that makes viewers giggle while covering their eyes. As an added bonus, crazy camera angles and garish splashes of retina-burning color are a nice homage to Creepshow‘s unapologetic comic book ancestry.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, and some genuinely hair-raising vignettes. One of them featured Adrienne Barbeau, for God’s sake, which should sell you on it right there. Another — about an embittered millionaire germaphobe holed up in his hermetically sealed penthouse — stars character actor E.G. Marshall trying to kill some cockroaches. Lots and lot of cockroaches.