Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (24 page)

The Crate (1979) 

The Crate
is one of King’s quirky horror tales in the tradition of EC Comics. It was first published in a men’s magazine,
Gallery
for July 1979. Within months King had included a revised version of the story in his 1st Draft Screenplay of
Creepshow
and the story also appeared, again revised, in the graphic collection of the same name released in 1982. A separate chapter of this book reviews the
Creepshow
screenplay. 

This chapter concentrates on the text version, to which too few King fans have had access. We presume that, after using the story for the
Creepshow
“comic” book and film, King saw no need to allow its reproduction in one of his prose collections, as it had already “appeared.”  

Some faint hope remains that King will one day allow stories such as this and
Weeds
to appear in one of his short story collections. In the meantime readers will need to acquire
Gallery
, which resells for over $100 per copy, or one of the anthologies that included the story. They are:
Fantasy Annual III
, edited by Terry Carr (Timescape Books, 1981);
Arbor House Treasury of Horror & The Supernatural
, edited by Bill Pronzini, Barry Malzberg and Martin Greenberg (Arbor House, 1981);
Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural
, (Galahad Books, 1985);
Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural
(William Morrow/Avon Books, 1991);
The Giant Book of Horror Stories
(Magpie Books, 1991); and
Shivers VI
edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2010). All these anthologies with the exception of
Fantasy Annual III
and
Shivers VI
were edited by Pronzini, Malzberg and Greenberg and are basically the same volume published under different titles. 

In this America Under Siege tale a dropped quarter leads to tragedy and release. When a janitor flipped a quarter but failed to catch it the coin rolled under the basement stairs of Amberson Hall, the Zoology Department building at Horlicks University. Looking for the quarter, he discovered an unusual crate carrying the date June 19, 1834 and bearing the inscription “Arctic Expedition.” He contacted Dexter Stanley, who noted from the stencils on the box it had first come from Paella. He later told his friend Northrup:  

Paella is a very small island south of Tierra del Fuego … Perhaps the smallest island ever inhabited by the race of man. A number of Easter Island monoliths were found there just after World War II. Not very interesting compared to their bigger brothers, but every bit as mysterious.  

When Northrup later pointed out that Tierra del Fuego is near the
Antarctic
, not the Arctic, Stanley replied that in those days the terms sub-arctic, Antarctic and Antarctica had not been invented. “In those days there was only the north arctic and the south arctic.” 

Together, Stanley and the janitor opened the crate, Stanley telling Northrup later, “We opened the crate … God help us, Henry, we opened the crate.” As the boards were removed a strange whistle began to emanate from within, “…no cheerful whistle this, but something like an ugly, hysterical shriek by a tantrumy child. And this suddenly dropped and thickened into a low, hoarse growling sound. It was not loud, but it had a primitive, savage sound that stood Dex Stanley’s hair up on the slant.” A strange creature then grabbed and killed the janitor, “...something with huge claws. It tore at the janitor’s straining, knotted throat and severed his jugular vein.” Stanley froze, watching the body being slowly dragged into the crate before finally running for help, right into graduate student Charlie Gereson who, when told what had happened, was clearly disbelieving. Gereson insisted on investigating and was also killed. As it savaged Gereson “…the thing raised its head and those small green-gold eyes stared balefully into Dex’s own. He had never seen or dreamed such savagery.” 

Stanley ran again, this time to confide in his good friend Henry Northrup. Henry, conceiving a plan, drugged Dexter and left a note tricking his own shrewish wife Wilma into coming to Amberson Hall later that night. He then pushed Wilma to the creature and her death (“Just tell it to call you Billie, you bitch”). Northrup cleaned up and disposed of the crate, creature and victims intact, into the depths of Ryder’s Quarry. Henry received some small payback for his deed when he peered into the crate, “I saw Wilma’s face, Dex. Her
face
… I saw her eyes, looking up at me from that box. Her glazed eyes.” 

The next morning Northrup calmly told Stanley what he’d done, “I’ve killed Wilma. Ding-dong the wicked bitch is dead … I’ve killed my wife, and now I’ve put myself into your hands.” After again considering Wilma’s nature (“He thought of his friend, at last free of that other species of Tasmanian devil that killed more slowly but just as surely – by heart attack, by stroke, by ulcer, by high blood pressure, yammering and whistling in the ear all the while”). Stanley agreed to keep their secret, “Dex smiled slowly, ‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘After all, what are friends for?’” 

Of course the story was adapted in King’s own screenplay for a segment in the 1982 George Romero directed movie,
Creepshow
. In
The Crate
segment Hal Holbrook played Henry Northrup, Adrienne Barbeau appeared as Wilma Northrup and Fritz Weaver as Dexter Stanley. 

Beahm states:
⁴⁸
 

The original inspiration came from a real-life incident at the University of Maine at Orono, where an old crate dating back to the previous century had been discovered in the basement of one of the buildings on campus. What, King thought,
could
have been in that crate?  

This story is set in August of 1974, while the
Creepshow
segment (the only one given a timeline) is set in August of 1980. 

In the
Introduction
to the anthologies listed above edited by Pronzini, Malzberg and Greenberg, King acknowledges “ripping off” a device from Poe’s
The Tell-Tale Heart
when a cackling Henry Northrup pushes his wife to the creature, and death: 

In the Poe classic, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the murdering narrator tells his story in a kind of cackling frenzy, laughing as he explains how cleverly he got rid of the old man’s body … (and I quite consciously ripped the device off in my own story, “The Crate,” where the narrator laughs uncontrollably as he pushes his bitch of a wife under the stairs where she is awaited by a monster of such ferocity that it is really a cartoon).
 

There are a couple of very interesting links from this story to other King fiction. Stanley and Northrup teach at Horlicks University (although no town and state is given). This university also appears in
The Raft
, also first published in
Gallery
. The unfortunate victims of the creature in the lake in that tale were students. There is no timeline for that story, but we know it occurred after 1981, which also means after the events covered by
The Crate
.  

In the clearest of links King toys with hard-core fans in his 1983 novel,
Christine
. There Jimmy Sykes’ uncle said there was an opening for a janitor at the unnamed college where he worked, because the other janitor had disappeared! Regina and Michael Cunningham, the parents of Christine’s owner Arnie, taught at Horlicks before their deaths at the hands of the demonic car on the same day as their son, 19 January 1979.  

In
From a Buick 8
, Curtis Wilcox wanted to take some science courses at Horlicks and even wore one of their t-shirts. This was the first mention of Horlicks in a King story since
Christine
was published, nineteen years earlier. Of the various tales
The Crate
tells us the most about Horlicks, which was founded in 1672. Female students were first allowed to attend in 1888. Amberson Hall was also known as the “Old Zoology” building and was being replaced by the new Cather Hall.  

Ryder’s Quarry, into which the Crate was dumped, has a tragic history. Twelve miles from Horlicks University some said it was over 400 feet deep. A dozen people had drowned there between 1944 and 1974. It is only in
The Raft
that readers discover Horlicks is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania connection remains in
Christine
and
From a Buick 8
, despite the location of Horlicks not being clearly identified in those novels. 

There is one apparent error in the tale. The early part of the story, describing the creature’s seizing of the janitor, reads: “Something as dry and brown and scaly as a desert reptile came out of the crate – something with huge claws.” Later, when the creature caught Gereson, Stanley “…caught a glimpse of a furry, writhing shape spread-eagled on the young man’s chest…” And, later again, when Northrup described what he saw of the creature to Stanley, “‘I saw something else, too. Something white. A bone, I think. And a black something. Furry. Curled up. Whistling, too. A very low whistle. I think it was sleeping.’” It seems unlikely the creature could be scaly
and
furry. 

Unlike the film version this original story clearly underlines the depths of Henry Northrup’s motivation in killing his atrocious wife, Wilma:  

Three years before, Northrup had made a run at the vacant English department chairmanship. He had lost, and one of the reasons had undoubtedly been his wife, Wilma, an abrasive and unpleasant woman … it seemed he could always recall the hard mule-bray of her voice, telling some new faculty wife to “call me Billie, dear, everyone does!”  

At one point we learn, “…when Wilma insisted on a thing, she did so savagely.” 

Henry had tricked Wilma into coming to Amberson Hall using her own nature. The note Henry left said Stanley, his only real friend and the only part of his life Wilma could not control, had gotten into trouble through an indiscretion with one of his female grad students. When Wilma arrived she was “excited and happy … because she was finally going to get control over that last … little … bit” of Henry’s life. By this point the reader is unlikely to have any sympathy for Billie as she suffers her demise. 

We have more reason to dislike Wilma in this version compared to the film or comic book as King has the opportunity to delve more deeply into her character. We are normally only
satisfied
by death in a horror story when it is a villain who expires. The satisfaction readers derive from Wilma’s fate comes from seeing her, rather than the monster in the crate, as the true villain of this tale. 

In a classic piece of King prose we read toward the end of the tale, and just before Stanley agrees to go along with Northrup, he, “… thought of the janitor, casually flicking his quarter, and of the quarter coming down and rolling under the stairs, where a very old horror sat squat and mute, covered with dust and cobwebs, waiting … biding its time …” 

The story is remarkably effective, well paced with perfectly timed flashbacks, full of intrigue and motive. Most of those attributes were somehow lost in the
Creepshow
version and it is therefore to be hoped that King will one day relent and give the full text version of the tale a much wider circulation. 

⁴⁸
The Stephen King Story
, George Beahm
,
p.299
 

Creepshow
–
Screenplay (1979)

The material in this chapter was compiled using a copy of King’s 1st draft screenplay, dated 1979. While the screenplay has never been published, copies of it circulate freely within the King community. Due to use of that version, the only draft publicly available, readers should note that the screenplay varies in places from the final film version.

The screenplay includes three original King stories as well as two which previously appeared in other versions. The stories from
Creepshow
were also published in a graphic novel. The five stories are:

Father’s Day
(the only versions of this story are the screenplay and the Graphic Novel);

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
(previously published in two early men’s magazines as
Weeds
but sometimes titled
Will Be Necessary to Stop the Weeds
);

The Crate
(originally published in
Gallery
magazine for July 1979);

Something to Tide You Over
(the only versions of this story are the screenplay and the graphic novel); and

They’re Creeping Up on You
(the only versions of this story are the screenplay and the graphic novel).

The graphic novel was a movie tie-in, published by New American Library in 1982. The art is by Berni Wrightson and the cover art by Jack Kamen. Interestingly, King has not collected a single one of these stories in one of his mainstream text collections. King’s screenplay was produced as the movie
Creepshow
and released in 1982.

Members of
www.imdb.com
give the movie the slightly high rating of 6.5 out of a possible 10. George A Romero was the director. The main actors were big screen veteran Hal Holbrook as Henry Northrup, Leslie Neilsen of
Naked Gun
fame as Richard Vickers, E. G. Marshall as Upson Pratt, Ed Harris as Hank Blaine, with
Cheers
and
Becker
star Ted Danson as Harry Wentworth.

Producer Richard P. Rubinstein told a magazine King had written the screenplay in two months and Stephen Jones claims
⁴⁹
that Romero shot virtually the exact script, as written, a very unusual event in the movie industry. Made on an $8 million budget, the movie grossed nearly $20 million in the US market, half of that on its opening weekend, Halloween. It was released on DVD in 1999.

As Beahm points out
⁵⁰
King’s participation in this project marked his first professional involvement in the film and television industry. In
Stephen King: The Art of Darkness
, Winter describes the film as “…a studied tribute to E.C. Comics …” – Winter’s chapter on this work is highly recommended.

This was only the second visual adaptation of King’s work in which he appeared, on this occasion wonderfully made up in the role of the hapless Jordy Verrill. King’s son, Joe, also appeared as Billy, the original owner of the
Creepshow
comic book
⁵¹
.
A full listing of King film and television projects, including his screen appearances, appears as a feature panel.

A sequel,
Creepshow 2
, was released in 1987. That movie included an adaptation of King’s story
The Raft
, along with two new pieces,
Old Chief Wood’nhead
and
The Hitch-Hiker
. King did
not
write these latter stories. George Romero wrote the overall screenplay. King played a cameo role as a Truck Driver in
The Hitch-Hiker
segment.
Creepshow 2
was released on DVD in 2001.

The quick summary of the
Creepshow
script from
The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King
reads:

In which a father returns from the dead in a foul mood; a man becomes infested by an alien growth and takes the only course of action open to him; a hen-pecked professor finds an ingenious way of riding himself of his wife; a man takes revenge on his wife and her lover, using the ways of nature to prolong the agony; and a man with a cleanliness fetish, and a disrespect for other humans is visited by his worst nightmares.

How about that for succinct?

No timelines are given for the action in the screenplay, other than
The Crate
segment, which is set in August 1980. In the following pages we summarize each story segment, providing considerably more detail.

Wrap-Around

The screenplay includes a “wrap-around” segment. It is set in the wonderfully anonymous town of Centerville, USA, where a young boy named Billy had the First Issue Collector’s Edition of the comic magazine,
Creepshow
. Even though his mother defended his right to it, his father took the comic and threw it away. Later, a trash collector picked the book out of the garbage and pocketed it for his kids. Included among the stories shown in the actual comic book are all the segments we are to see in the movie.

The first issue advertised a “Genuine Haitian Voodoo Doll.” The cover of the second issue advertised Billy with a voodoo doll, which he was apparently using to attack his father!

The “character” introducing each segment is itself called Creepshow. This creature looks like an “old witch, or maybe a rotting corpse.”

Father’s Day

Father’s Day
is an original story, developed specifically for this screenplay. Its only other appearance is in the graphic novel,
Creepshow
. Apart from the Grantham home, described as a “Victorian monstrosity” (shades of
The Glass Floor
there), no setting is given for this America Under Siege tale. Nathan Grantham was buried in a graveyard behind the house.

On Father’s Day, seven years to the day after Bedelia Grantham killed her father with a glass ashtray, his reanimated corpse rose from the grave and strangled her to death. Nathan Grantham had made the Grantham clan’s money in bootleg, smuggling, extortion and murder-for-hire back around 1910. In his nineties he had a stroke and some time later Bedelia killed him, apparently as cold revenge for his arranging the murder of her handsome would-be lover, Peter Yarbro, in a hunting “accident” many years before. Bedelia had not been indicted for her father’s murder, apparently after her niece Sylvia helped cover up the evidence.

Nathan’s corpse also killed the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (clear homage there), and the other members of the Grantham clan
–
Sylvia; Cassandra and her husband, Henry Blaine; and Cassandra’s brother Richard.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

The storyline of
The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
had previously been published in two early men’s magazines as the short story
Weeds
. This book contains a separate chapter about that story, which has never been included in a King collection. It was originally published in a men’s magazine,
Cavalier
for May 1976 and republished in another so-called “skin” magazine,
Nugget
for April 1979.

In the prose version Jordy Verrill lived near Cleaves Mills, New Hampshire but for
Creepshow
his farm has relocated close to Castle Rock, Maine. It is therefore classified as a Maine Street Horror story. As a side note King’s editor at Viking from 1979 was Chuck Verrill, a relatively unusual surname and a probably homage, although this surname can be seen on certain mailboxes in western Maine on roads Stephen and Tabitha King (“Mrs. Todd”) would have regularly driven.

The Verrill farmhouse was just off Route 26 and about five miles from Castle Rock. It had seen better times, “probably around 1940.” It had junk in the yard, plastic on the windows and a lot of weeds grew around the house. The Bluebird Stream ran through the property. Jordy himself was a farmer aged about 45 and was not very bright.

One night he saw a meteor crash on his land. When Jordy investigated he found the meteor to be slightly bigger than a softball, regular and spherical. The poor farmer imagined he could sell the extraterrestrial object and pay off his bank loan with the proceeds. But, when he threw water on to the meteor to cool it, the object broke into two pieces. The centre was hollow and a gray liquid seeped from it. Unfortunately, the curious Jordy touched this liquid.

A green, grass like material grew rapidly from the liquid after the meteor split, taking over the farm and also spreading over Jordy’s body. It particularly benefited from access to liquid and when Jordy took a bath to alleviate the itch it brought on, the “weeds” gained a new burst of growth. They finally spread over his entire body and, in extreme pain, Jordy committed suicide by gunshot. Meanwhile, the “weeds” spread across the farmland, heading inexorably toward the nearby town.

The Crate

The Crate
was originally published in the magazine
Gallery
for July 1979 and was reprinted in a number of anthologies. This book contains a separate chapter about that story, which has never been included in a King collection.

In this America Under Siege segment a janitor finds an old crate that had apparently been addressed to a Julia Carpenter in 1834. Mike, working at Amberson Hall of Horlicks University, reported the find to Dexter Stanley, the handsome professor emeritus of the Zoology Department, which was located in the building. When they returned to check out the crate a creature from inside it killed and ate the janitor. When Stanley called a 23-year-old grad student, Charlie Gereson to assist the young man was disbelieving. Insisting on investigating he too was killed by the creature.

In panic Stanley next called upon his chess partner buddy from the English Department, Henry Northrup. Seizing a once in a lifetime chance Northrup used sleeping pills to drug Stanley and conned his own shrewish wife Wilma into meeting him at Amberson Hall. He then lured Wilma into her demise at the claws of the creature. Covering up the evidence of the creature’s killings, he was able to encase the crate in another large box, which he then dumped in the deep water at Ryder’s Quarry. Northrup then happily moved on with his life, without Wilma!

The Creature itself had been sent to Horlicks University in June of 1834, following an Arctic Expedition. It made a chittering sound and had large, green eyes with slit pupils. With a body like a whippet, it was furred, had six spider-like arms with claws, and large teeth. It made a whistling sound just before attacking. Despite Northrup trapping and dumping it in the water at Ryder’s Quarry it escaped. This contrasts with the original story, in which there was no indication of an escape.

This is the only story for which a timeline is given, that of August 1980.

Something to Tide You Over

Something to Tide You Over
is an original story, developed specifically for this screenplay. Its only other appearance is in the graphic novel,
Creepshow
.

The main settings for this story are Comfort House, Richard Vickers’ beach house at Comfort Point, almost certainly in the state of Massachusetts; and the nearby beach, of which Vickers owned “almost 70%.” The house was a tall angular Victorian, with gables, gambrels and turrets, “very much like Norman Bates’ home.” This segment is classified as an America Under Siege tale.

In the segment Vickers discovers his wife, some sort of star, has been having an affair with a bank loan officer, Harry Wentworth. Vickers was a very successful TV producer, with three top rating shows on network TV but was more than a little jealous. Vickers kidnapped Wentworth and, holding him at gunpoint, buried him up to his neck on the beach. After revealing the gun had not been loaded he forced Wentworth to watch Rebecca, who had also been buried, drown on the incoming tide. Wentworth then suffered the same fate.

However, a surprise was in store for our Mr. Vickers. That night the living corpses of Rebecca and Harry chased him. He shot the corpses to no effect and, in terror, he committed suicide by slashing his throat with a razor blade.

They’re Creeping Up on You

They’re Creeping Up on You
is an original story, developed specifically for this screenplay. Its only other appearance is in the graphic novel,
Creepshow
.