Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Creepshow’ on Shudder, a Throwback To The Ghoulish 1980s Horror Anthology

Shudder’s new horror anthology series Creepshow is the latest evidence that any franchise from the 1980s is fair game for reanimation in the streaming era. The original 1982 film consists of five shorts directed by none other than George Romero, and written by none other than Stephen King; they were an homage to the grim weirdness of old 1950s EC Comics such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, which upset the sensitive sensibilities of many people who probably needed their sensitive sensibilities upset. A couple of forgettable Creepshow sequels, mostly minus the big names, followed the successful original, and now, the series is exhumed for a bit of throwbacky (insert evil cackling here) FRIGHTFUL FUN!

CREEPSHOW: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An old crate, chained shut and covered with creepy-crawly spiders and icky-sticky cobwebs, sits in some long-forgotten gloomy, shadowy heckhole. The side of it reads “ARCTIC EXPEDITION, JUNE 19, 1834,” a callback to the original Creepshow short The Crate.

The Gist: The debut episode consists of two 20-minute shorts bookended by wordless intros courtesy the Creep, a skeleton-guy in a hooded cloak who thumbs through old comic books and cackles like the demented undead madman he is. Hee hee hee, and all that.

First is “Gray Matter,” inspired by a Stephen King short story and directed by showrunner Greg Nicotero (a Romero protege who did makeup effects for Day of the Dead and dozens of other films, and later became executive producer and primary director of The Walking Dead). It’s 1960ish in a small seaside town; a hurricane is about to make landfall. General store proprietor Dixie (original Creepshow star Adrienne Barbeau) just reaped the rewards of locals who stocked up on food and supplies; she hunkers down with Doc (Giancarlo Esposito) and Chief (Tobin Bell of Saw fame) to weather the storm. But the door opens. Young Timmy (Christopher Nathan) needs to get the usual — a case of beer for his drinky ol’ dad, who hasn’t been the same since Timmy’s mom died. And today, he’s especially not the same, so Doc and Chief grab their flashlights and head out to see if he’s OK. Not a spoiler: he’s not OK.

The second GLEEFULLY MACABRE tale is “The House of the Head,” written by Bird Box novelist Josh Malerman and directed by another Romero acolyte, John Harrison. A little girl named Evie (Cailey Fleming) has a big, beautiful new dollhouse, inhabited by a mom, a dad, their son and the family dog. She calls them the Smith Smiths. As any dolls in a horror anthology would be, they look ever-so-slightly not-right, but she doesn’t seem to notice while she poses them in mundane nuclear-family scenarios. One day, she comes home, and notices the dolls are in different places, as if they’ve moved around when nobody’s looking, you know, kind of like Buzz and Woody. Curious! Then, she spies a miniature severed zombie head on the miniature coffee table. Extra curious! She touches it and gets bloody goop on her finger. She glances away/the camera cuts, and when she/it looks back, the dolls have moved again. You’d think she’d show it to her parents or maybe get a match and turn the house into kindling, but no — she watches with peculiar fascination as the poor Smith Smiths endure the stuff of horror movies.

Our Take: Old-school emphasis goes a long way with this regurgitation of Creepshow: simple stories with classical-horror twists, a ghastly sense of humor and lots of ooey-gooey practical effects. I’ve long argued that the best horror isn’t just soaked in dread nihilism or suffocated by atmosphere, but cuts its shocks with a nice line of gleeful comedy. Those with similar sensibilities will find their cockles tickled by the new Creepshow, which meets modest expectations.

That isn’t to say this opening salvo of shorts is perfect. These two stories don’t quite invoke the progressive moralizing of classic EC Comics — you know, a jerk gets his come-uppance via a bit of morbid, black-comic irony — but they’re steeped in the traditions that’ll scratch most horror mavens’ itches. “Gray Matter” builds to a satisfyingly gruesome reveal, but concludes on a narratively chaotic, almost incomprehensible note. It also indulges in some CGI that may cause any gristly old cranks in the audience to bristle a bit. “The House of the Head” is quieter, funnier and better-lit, generating chills with clever editing — we never see the dolls move of their own accord. But it also seems as if Malerman didn’t quite know how to end the story, and settled on a conclusion that’s more simple and obvious than suggestive.

The buffer material between shorts is fun and clever, directly referencing the comic books that inspired it — an animated version of the Creep turns pages past ads for scammy mail-in junk, etc. And some scene transitions in the shorts themselves cleverly pull back into pulpy panel-frames. If only it could recreate the musty smell of an old attic, eh?

Sex and Skin: Lots of skin — sloughing off in a gooey, slimy, nauseating manner, mu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Parting Shot: In extreme closeup, the Creep stares directly at us with his terrifying plastic eyeballs and cackles. What a FIEND!

Sleeper Star: Among the cast, ever-loving B-movie queen Barbeau is the tongue-in-cheekiest. How do you not love seeing her again, after The Fog and Swamp Thing and The Cannonball Run and Escape from New York and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death and multiple episodes of Fantasy Island?

Most Pilot-y Line: “My daddy. He’s changed.” — Timmy, grossly understating the very gross thing that’s happening to his old man

Our Call: STREAM IT. By their very nature, anthologies are hit-and-miss. But even when the stories don’t quite work, Nicotero nails the aesthetic. He knows what diehard Creepshow freaks want.

Your Call:

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Creepshow on Shudder