So by now you will have worked out that I have a thing for horror, and my favourite kind by far, is what I refer to as classic, comic book horror if you will.
Therefore, when we subscribed to Shudder at the start of Lockdown in the UK (thank YOU Shudder for an amaze-balls dealio) and I realised that they had re-imagined Creepshow, my mind was blown.
I have always loved this type of show – Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, even things like X Files and Supernatural I think kind of fit into this category.
Creepshow combines some of my preferred horror elements – an intriguing story, relatable characters all festooned with a decent proportion of gore, and just a little bit of humour.
Season one was made up of six two-part episodes, so twelve individual stories in total. They were all completely unique, each written by someone different. You might have heard of some of the writers. The first episode contains a story written by a Stephen, um, King? He sounds vaguely familiar. And to round off season one, there is a little tale by Joe Hill? I wonder if they’re related? Hmmm ...
Anyhoo.
The show obviously and rightfully pays homage to the original film written by King back in 1982, which featured an acting role for The Legend himself (plus Joe, playing King’s son). The graphics and SFX are a lot cooler now, but other than that, it still holds that classic horror feel. Dark, clever, funny.
Greg Nicotero of The Walking Dead fame does a great job with the episodes he worked on, but all of the individual directors work their asses off to make this show great and it shows.
It doesn't try too hard. It doesn’t end up being all hipster and trendy but no-one gets it. The show does what horror does best - it makes you think WTF??? NOOOOOOOOO!!! Or, fuck yeah take that mother-fucker. And so on.
I thoroughly enjoyed all 12 stories but there were a few that stood out for me, and this is possibly a reflection of my own tastes.
The Finger was amazing and I actually thought the little creature was kinda cute when it wasn’t ripping people’s hearts out …
Night of the Paw was really clever and reminded me of a kind of old school Hammer in a way.
Times is Tough in Musky Holler was fun and had definite TWD undertones, especially if you’ve read Kirkman’s comic books. Nice amount of blood.
The man in the suitcase was dark and funny. Again, I kinda liked the bad guy and all I’m saying is karma’s a bitch!
But my joint favourites were All Hallows Eve and The Companion. All Hallows Eve was a doozy because I LOVE Halloween and this story was right up my street. The Companion equally had a lovely nostalgic feel, it could have been set in the IT universe quite comfortably. Both of them reminded me of a King short even though neither of them was. I think it was the feeling of kids getting revenge.
All in all, we bloody loved this show. We watched the entire season over a week or so. Each episode is the perfect length and the little flashes of comic book animation in between the stories were just awesome. There were a few famous faces and it would be cool to see some more cameos from the horror world popping up.
10/10 and can not wait for season two. I would say this show alone pays for the subscription fee.
Janine Pipe is a Horror lover and writer who was first introduced to the genre at the tender age of 9 by reading 'Salem's Lot - and she hasn't looked back since. She is inspired by Stephen King and cites Glenn Rolfe and Jonathan Janz as her favourite current writers. She likes to shock with her writing, there is usually a lot of gore and plenty of swearing ... She is very thankful to her biggest cheerleaders, her husband and daughter and her mentor, Graeme Reynolds. She reviews and chews the fat with fellow authors on her blog - Janine's Ghost Stories and is a guest reviewer for Gingernuts of Horror.