A few months back I decided to make a convoluted method of randomly choosing what video game to play next, due to having such an insane backlog (that is literally thousands of games long). With that method a success I thought I would apply it to films and TV show also. The first pick that came up was the Creepshow series. Released in 2019, this series is obviously based on the cult classic anthology horror films of the same name (my Creepshow 2 review here). Currently streaming on Shudder, each season is made up of six episodes, with each episode featuring two short stories.
The show is presented as if it was stories that are taken place within the titular Creepshow comic. You get little wraparound segments featuring The Creep, either in puppet or cartoon form, and during the episodes there are sections when the action freezes and transfers over to a comic book format or vice-versa. Usually these comic book sections seemed designed to save on budget by having larger set pieces be in this form before heading to a more safe and static setting for the real life footage.
I initially watched the first episode a few years back and have to say I wasn't impressed much at all. I thought the effects seemed a bit poor and the stories didn't grab me. Thankfully, heading back I was delighted with many of the episodes, with rarely a bad story to be found. The season opens up with 'Grey Matter', an adaptation of a Stephen King story. Taking place during a tremendous storm, a boy recounts events that saw his alcoholic father transform into something...wrong. My notes from the time said that the creature effects actually did look good. It was also the first of many notable names to show up this season with both Tobin Bell (the Saw franchise) and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul TV shows) featuring in small roles. The second part of this first episode was 'House of the Head' which had an interesting premise. A young girl, Evie (Cailey Fleming - The Walking Dead TV show) gets a dolls house, but the dolls appear to keep moving around on their own, with it seeming that somehow this doll family's home is being haunted by a similar sized ghost. I thought that one was both clever and creepy, though didn't end on the most satisfying note.
Episode two opens with 'Bad Wolf Down', a werewolf story set during World War II. I loved the setting and thought this was enjoyable if a little predictable. It did show how varied Creepshow could be, that was something I really took from the first season - how many different feeling episodes there were. Following this is the delightfully demented 'The Finger'. Starring DJ Qualls (Z Nation TV show) as the fourth wall breaking loner - Clark Wilson, this sees him finding a weird monstrous looking finger and deciding to take it home. Over time the finger grows into a fully formed demonic creature who begins to kill in order to please Clark. I liked this one, the puppet looked great and there was a fun vibe, especially liking Clark who narrates directly to the camera, and even steps away mid scene to have a brief talk to the audience every now and again.
The third episode has two shorts that were both good in their own right. I loved 'All Hallows Eve' that sees a group of teens going 'trick or treating', with it slowly fed out over the episode just why everyone whose homes they visit are so terrified of them. 'The Man in the Suitcase' has to be the weirdest episode of season one. This has the surreal concept of a young man accidentally bringing home the wrong suitcase from the airport. Inside he finds a strange man painfully jammed into the luggage. The young man and his friends soon discover that pain causes the trapped man to vomit up gold coins, greed makes them do bad things to get more of this. It might have been a bit obvious where this was heading but it was unique feeling.
I loved fourth episode 'The Companion' about a boy discovering a killer scarecrow, the effects for that scarecrow in particular felt very cool, I loved how his 'fingers' of hay stretched out like tendrils. While the first film in this episode was good, it could also be accused of being a little too straight forward. I personally thought that the next short - 'Lydia Layne's Better Half' was the best of the season. This sees an influential businesswoman accidentally killing her girlfriend during an argument. She puts the body on an office chair and wheels it to an office elevator, with the intention of taking it to her car and disposing of it. Unfortunately, while in the elevator there is an earthquake and the lift gets stuck between floors. This had some creepy moments to it, with it not clear for much of the run time if the corpse is actually moving of its own accord when out of eyesight, or if it is the stress of the situation getting to the protagonist.
The penultimate episode begins with a take on the classic 'monkey's paw' plot device (being a literal monkey's paw that grants wishes, but typically twisted versions of what the user had intended). As simple and predictable as it was, I thought 'Night of the Paw' was a decent short that told the story in a simple yet effective manner. 'Times is Tough in Musky Holler' was the worst episode of the season, more that it was too ambitious than it was a bad short to watch. It takes place against the backdrop of zombie apocalypse with the tables having been turned on Musky Holler's mayor and his followers (including the sheriff played by David Arquette - Scream series of films) who had gotten power hungry and ran the town as a brutal dictatorship in the name of protecting the citizens. The whole short is the lead up to and reveal of his and his followers punishment. The bad thing about this one was that a giant chunk of the story took place as a comic book sequence. The whole zombie outbreak and the mayor's abuse of power all played out this way, obviously due to the limitations of the budget for actually showing this in live action. Many of the cast were also killed offscreen, with a scoreboard used to show the viewer they are being killed. Despite the short comings, the zombie effects were cool, and this really reminded me of a short story I once read.
The final episode of season one was another mixed bag. I really enjoyed 'Skincrawlers' and was definitely the most bloody and gross short to be found here. It has a species of giant leech being used by a company as a weight loss tool, due to them having the ability to only suck fat out of bodies. I liked this one. 'By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain' had a decent idea behind it, but I don't think it was executed that well. Directed by Tom Savini and based on a story by Joe Hill, this features a teenage girl who is determined to find proof of the Loch Ness style monster that legend says resides in a large lake near her home. I liked that her determination for finding the creature came from her father being a previous victim of it, but this felt a little too small in scale, and I thought the mother character was intensely irritating.
Truth be told, I didn't expect much but found I actually really enjoyed Creepshow. I enjoyed the wraparound idea of these all being tales from a horror comic, I loved all the famous actors popping up throughout, and this had some great variation in the type of stories being told. It is also very cool reading about the scores of easter eggs hidden throughout each episode, with nods to iconic horror films and books. I look forward to one day getting around to watch future seasons.
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