Horlicks University (The Crate/The Raft)

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Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
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Is Horlicks University only mentioned in these two stories? Or was it used more? I can't really find out anywhere or remember.

What I'm wondering is: both of these stories were filmed for Creepshow and Creepshow 2, yet they were written long before they were picked up for those movies. Why would they pick two stories taking place at the same university out of all the stories he has written? Clearly these stories were picked for their impact, not because they happened to have the same location.

The Crate was published in 1979 in Gallery. It was never collected. Creepshow is from 1982.
The Raft was published in 1982 also in Gallery. It was collected in Skeleton Crew in 1985. Creepshow 2 is from 1987.
So they weren't written specifically to be adapted.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Is Horlicks University only mentioned in these two stories? Or was it used more? I can't really find out anywhere or remember.

What I'm wondering is: both of these stories were filmed for Creepshow and Creepshow 2, yet they were written long before they were picked up for those movies. Why would they pick two stories taking place at the same university out of all the stories he has written? Clearly these stories were picked for their impact, not because they happened to have the same location.

The Crate was published in 1979 in Gallery. It was never collected. Creepshow is from 1982.
The Raft was published in 1982 also in Gallery. It was collected in Skeleton Crew in 1985. Creepshow 2 is from 1987.
So they weren't written specifically to be adapted.
....only those two as I recall.....Horlicks was his Miskatonic University......however, the Crate itself has appeared as an Easter Egg in season 5 of The Walking Dead....

the-walking-dead-george-romero-creepshow-amc.jpg


...it also had a cameo in Jason Goes To Hell:The Final Friday.......
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
Hadn't noticed that in Walking Dead!

Both The Raft the story and the first Creepshow movie came out in November 1982, which seems almost too incidental. Maybe working on Creepshow inspired him to use Horlicks again (although I don't know when he exactly WROTE The Raft, only when it was published) and also made him write one of his best short stories. The Raft is one of those stories with a big impact, one of those really visceral stories. Gramma and The Raft are my favourites from Skeleton Crew.
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
Could he have added Horlicks to The Raft at the last moment, to tie it in with Creepshow's The Crate, seeing they both came out in the same month? It just seems to much of a coincidence, especially since he only used it in those two stories.

He says in the intro to Bazaar of Bad Dreams that he keeps revising his stories over and over.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Could he have added Horlicks to The Raft at the last moment, to tie it in with Creepshow's The Crate, seeing they both came out in the same month? It just seems to much of a coincidence, especially since he only used it in those two stories.

He says in the intro to Bazaar of Bad Dreams that he keeps revising his stories over and over.
....seems possible......
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
I don't know exactly how he sells his stories. Do magazines come to him or does he send them out? When he started out he had to send them out and hope they would be accepted. In 1982 he's already famous though. It could be he told them, 'I have this film coming out in November, one of the best stories takes place at a university. Do you need a story? I got another one about some kids from the same university.'

It's most likely a huge coincidence though, because in the Raft it's mentioned, but it doesn't take place there. They're not linked in a major way, like say Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. I don't know if a magazine would publish it on those grounds, but more likely because they liked the story on the whole.