- "It's SHOWTIME!"
- ―Richard Vickers
Richard Vickers is a character in the 1982 Stephen King horror anthology film Creepshow, in the segment entitled "Something to Tide You Over". He was played by the late Leslie Nielsen, who also played secret agent WD-40 Dick Steele in the 1996 comedy film Spy Hard and Dracula in the 1995 Mel Brooks comedy film Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
Biography[]
Richard Vickers was a wealthy, authoritarian and very controlling man. His delusional belief about his failing marriage is that although he did not care for his wife nor did he want her, he also did not want anyone else to have her, due to him seeing her more as an 'object' of his property than a person. His younger wife, Becky, was seeing a man named Harry Wentworth cause she wanted to get away from Richard, and when he found about the affair, he took Becky to his beach property, which he calls "Comfort Point" and buried her up to her neck in sand and put a video camera there to watch her as the tide was coming in.
Richard goes to Harry Wentworth's house and when he is forbidden to enter the house, he blackmails Harry with his knowledge about Harry's affair with his wife Becky and warns him that he bring harm to both him and Becky if he wasn't allowed into the house to discuss the situation. The reluctant Harry allows Richard to enter his house, and Richard talks to Harry, and he tells Harry that something very nasty is about to happen to her. He lets Harry listen to a tape recording of Becky pleading for Harry's help. Richard gets Harry to come with him to Comfort Point and takes him to the beach and shows Harry a pile of sand and he goes there and sees nothing but a hole in the sand. Richard pulls out a gun and forces Harry to jump into the hole and if he does, he will see Becky. Harry tries to yell for help, and no one can hear him since Comfort Point is Richard's private property. Harry knows he has no choice but to jump into the hole. Richard makes Harry kneel and start burying himself in the sand. Although reluctant at first, Harry does as he's told after Richard fires a warning shot
Now that Harry is buried up to his neck in sand, Richard tells him that he keeps his promise, and he will see Becky. An hour later, Richard drives to where Harry is buried and brings CCTV cable, a TV, a video camera, and a VCR and hooks it up to record everything. Richard shows Harry in the monitor, Becky, who is buried like he is and is suffering cause of the tide coming in. A horrified and angry Harry tells Richard that he is insane and begs him to let him and Becky go free but Richard rebuffs his remark and tells Harry that he and Becky actually have a chance for survival—if they are able to hold their breaths underwater long enough for the tide water to loosen the sand around their necks. Richard leaves Harry and tells him to "enjoy the show".
Later in the evening, Richard drives back to his house, which he calls "Comfort Station. He then presses a hidden button that reveals a secret panel behind a painting where his CCTV system is connected. He prepares himself a drink and gets ready to watch Harry and Becky on his CCTV, and he is seen enjoying himself and laughing as he watches Becky and Harry suffer in agony as the tide approaches.. Harry looks up at the camera and yells: "I am going to get you!", for what Richard replies, "You got to hold your breath there, Harry... you have got to hold your breath". Hours later that evening, Richard drives back to the beach where Harry was at, and sees no sign of either Harry or Becky, thinking the tide probably got them.
Later, Richard is about to take a shower but hears a noise and goes to see what it is, thinking about the possibility that Harry may have survived. As he opens the door, he sees Harry and Becky there, but as revenants. Richard tries, in vain, to shoot and kill them. The two revenants then tell Richard they “want him to come to the beach”. Richard tries to escape and locks himself in the bathroom, but as he turns around, Harry and Becky have already managed to get inside by unknown means. Richard, out of options, recognizes he is doomed, and screams in terror. Harry and Becky use the same insults Richard used on them prior to their deaths, telling Richard "If you could hold your breath", to what Richard laughs uncontrollably having lost his sanity. Not so long after, Richard is right where Harry and Becky were, on the beach and up to his neck in sand with a camera recording him. After Harry and Becky bury him in the beach exactly like he did with them, the lovers return to their watery graves together and Richards yells at them, vowing, "I CAN HOLD MY BREATH... FOR A LONG TIME!!!" before then the tide comes up to him, leaving his fate unknown.
Quotes[]
|
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He drives a modified 1976 Jeep CJ-7.
- His signature firearm is a Chater Arms Undercover with the 2" barrel design, chambered in .38 Special.
- Interestingly, although Richard seems to be a fairly wealthy and pompous man, this revolver was not one of the finest or most expensive of its time, so his possession of it could be because he was not a man who commonly resorted to the use of firearms or simply preferred a practical and simple gun in case of emergency.
- An alternate ending (scripted but then rewritten) for STTYO finds two policemen dropping by to investigate Richard's panicky-but-true claims of Harry and Becky invading his beach-house. When the cops (predictably) laugh at his story -- thinking he's drunk -- Richard attempts to prove this by showing them camera footage of both undead stalkers. Instead, the television plays his incriminating conversation with Harry before and during the latter's burial-by-the-sea. Richard protests that he's been set up, that this is the wrong tape. "Oh, it's the right tape all right, pal!" the police answer. "And speaking of rights...!" The film smash-cuts from there to Richard's murder trial; he is convicted and sentenced to death row. Another smash-cut finds Richard in the gas chamber, laughing hysterically even while his life is choked out of him: "I can hold my breath for a long, long time...!"
- It's unknown whether Richard died at the end of the segment or somehow managed to escape. While in the Creepshow Universe it's always possible things may not always turn out as they seem, it's most likely that he drowned, just like his victims.