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Upson Pratt is the main villainous protagonist in the 1982 horror anthology film Creepshow, in the final story "They're Creeping Up on You".
He was portrayed by the late E.G. Marshall.
Biography
Upson Pratt was a neurotic business tycoon who lived in a sterile, white penthouse apartment atop a skyscraper in a major city. He communicated with the outside world via the telephone, treating his employees and subordinates in a cutthroat, heartless manner. George Gendron, one of Upson Pratt's executives, informed him that Norman Castonmeyer, had committed suicide because Pratt took over his company, Pacific Aerodyne. Upson Pratt seemed delighted rather than upset because Norman was dead and Pratt wouldn't have had to offer him a seat on the board of directors.
Upson Pratt was obsessed with cleanliness and has a huge phobia of bugs. Unfortunately, he kept finding cockroaches in his apartment, which set him on a rampage to correct the situation. One of his other employees, named Carl Reynolds, called Upson Pratt and told him that he and his wife took the kids to Disney World on vacation. Upson Pratt told Reynolds that if he doesn't hear from White and the exterminators within a space of a half an hour, he will have no job by midnight and then next year he can take the kids to Disney World on his welfare check. Not too long after, building superintendent named White rang the door bell at Upson Pratt's apartment and talked about the bug problem and then told Upson Pratt that he can get the Porelli Brothers there to get the bug problem fixed. Upson Pratt made thinly veiled racial slurs in an attempt to intimidate the man.
As Upson Pratt found more bugs in his apartment, someone gets through on his private line. Norman Castonmeyer's widow, Lenore, called Upson Pratt to hold him personally responsible for her husband's death. Upson Pratt was amused by her melodramatic sadness, until the cockroaches multiply. He found them in his food processor, bits of them surfacing in the grain cereal he eats. An electrical blackout occurred, and the roaches attacked, swarming by the thousands everywhere in Upson Pratt's apartment. Upson Pratt retreated to his "safe room", a climate-controlled sleep chamber, just as the phone rang. Lenore Castonmeyer's voice told him over and over, "I hope you die! I hope you die! I hope you die!", and Upson Pratt discovered his bed swarming with roaches. The roaches quickly covered him and Upson Pratt suffered a heart attack. The power returned, the lights came back on, and the roaches were nowhere to be seen. Upson Pratt's body laid inside the glass sleep chamber. White, the superintendent, rang the door bell at Upson Pratt's door and laughed when Upson Pratt didn't answer, asking, "What's the matter, Mr. Pratt? Bugs got your tongue?" Suddenly, swarms of roaches burst from Upson Pratt's body, so many that they nearly filled the glass chamber.
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