Welcome to Haunted MTL’s ongoing coverage of Shudder’s original series, Creepshow. Tonight featured two segments, a genuinely great tale in the classic sort of horror anthology and weird tale mold. The other was a half-cooked, scattershot revenge story that really showcased the budget-crunch of Creepshow. It was a half-hour of undead highs and lows this week.
“Night of the Paw”
John Harrison, a Creepshow veteran, returns to direct this classical tale of wishes gone horribly, horribly wrong. This is, by far, the most stylized segment on the series thus far, and really took advantage of the comic book theming of the overall show. This is, sadly John Esposito’s first written episode of the series, but with any luck, he will be back more than once in season two. This episode is just that good.
The episode really has two principal actors; Bruce Davison and Hannah Barefoot spend most of the episode together, though other credits include Susannah Devereux and Ryan Clay Gwaltney. Graze Toso also deserves a nod for her work as zombie Marjorie. Bruce Davison is a veteran actor of film and television who is a real get for the episode who really sells the character of Avery.
The episode has a feeling of artifice that runs through it, though this is not a bad thing. The cemetery of Avery’s tale looks like a set, “action” scenes are instead tackled through comic book panels, and the color and lighting are tailored to emphasize the artificial nature of the episode. This feels very much like something from an E.C. Comic brought to life, as though panels were made three dimensional.
The story is nothing extraordinary, as it is the trope of the Monkey Paw after all. Why the segment works so well, however, is that the performances of Davison and Barefoot are magnetic in telling such a dire tale of wishes gone bad.
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This could have easily been a segment in the first Creepshow film. It is that good.
Bottom Line
While nothing about “Night of the Paw” is really all that surprising or shocking (with the exception of the cutting off of two broken fingers, wow) it still works. The segment plays out exactly as you would expect, but that doesn’t matter because it’s just so satisfying to see it all play out.
(4.5 / 5)
“Times is Tough in Musky Holler”
Unfortunately, the second segment of the night might be the weakest link in a generally strong season. It’s incredible considering that John Harrison directed this segment as well. The segment, written by John Skipp and Dori Miller just does not deliver outside of delivering some good gore. The episode stars Dane Rhodes, Karen Strassman, Tommy Kane, Tracey Bonner. David Arquette is also along for the ride.
When zombies rise in the world, possibly due to the final wish of Angela from “Night of the Paw,” the worst sort of people take it upon themselves to spread their will over the people around them. “Times is Tough in Musky Holler” ends up being a small revenge story at the end of a brutal regime that was instituted by a used car salesman in the post-apocalyptic world.
This zombie story is more Z-Nation than The Walking Dead, however. Nobody really comes off as particularly interesting and what little glimpses of the regime’s brutality render largely as just… there. The punishment used by society, fittingly the last time it will ever be used, is comical in its cruelness. But it is a payoff that never really feels greater than an excuse to try a new effects technique in which a zombie rips off a human face.
Granted, it is a very well done kill, and it is the highlight of that segment. The problem is, the segment feels more like it was written around the idea of “how do we have a zombie rip this someone’s face off? The episode features a whole host of representatives of the previous regime, but they get little to do. David Arquette is particularly wasted.
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As a whole, the segment feels a bit more like an effects school student’s short film than an anthology tale.
Bottom Line
Either the team needed something very short to fill in the episode behind “Night of the Paw” or the temptation to rip off a person’s face was far too great. In either case, this might be the weakest segment on the show.
(2 / 5)
The Creep Factor
There was surprisingly little of the Creep this week. The episode was bookended near entirely with animation and the wonderful Creep animatronic is nowhere in sight.
It pains me to say this as an animation fan, but the animated segments of Creepshow largely do not work. The animation itself is decent enough, but the illustrations feel very flat. This is likely due to the shading style. For the inevitable season two, I would prefer to see the show moving away from this style or at least give the illustrations a more comic-book appropriate coloring style.
Or better yet, just use that fancy-ass animatronic Creep!
We hope that you enjoyed our coverage of the fifth installment of Shudder’s Creepshow. Creepshow will air on Thursdays around 9 PM EST on Shudder. Haunted MTL will be covering the whole 6 episodes of the first season.
We’ve reached the final episode of American Horror Stories, season three. After the ups and downs of the season, I didn’t know what to expect. I felt that we were due a big finish, Killer Queens. But I feared we were in for a big letdown.
As it turns out, The Thing Under The Bed was neither.
The story
We begin our story with a little girl named Mary, who is scared of something under her bed. She sneaks out of her room, only to be caught by her father and sent back to sleep. And of course, there is something horrible waiting for her under her bed.
This scene cuts away to a woman named Jillian. She has strange dreams, including one about Mary. But her husband, Mark, doesn’t want to hear about it. He’s only interested in a little lovemaking because he wants a baby. Jillian doesn’t, which makes total sense because she’s already married to one. But her irritation with her childish husband goes away when he goes away. And by goes away, I mean he’s sloppily devoured by something vicious under their bed.
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What worked
In short, this episode just worked. The acting was professional and believable. The cinematography and lighting work were wonderful, adding spooky effects and startling moments without impairing visibility.
Best of all, the story was solid. There were no plotholes to be found. Our main character, Jillian, was relatable and sympathetic.
This was maybe my favorite part of the story. I thought Jillian was a remarkably sympathetic character. She was dealt a hand she never asked for, having her husband slaughtered in their bedroom. I don’t think she missed him, so much as she was afraid of the legal ramifications of being caught with literal blood on her hands.
Then, when it would have been safest for her to just lay low and save up for a good defense attorney, she instead goes into unlikely hero mode. She does her best to save people, putting herself in legal and physical danger. It’s hard not to root for her.
It’s also a little hard not to root for the antagonist, too. I don’t want to ruin the twist for you, so I’m going to tread lightly here. But it’s great when you have an antagonist who might be off their rocker, but also maybe has a point.
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What didn’t work
I can only really think of one complaint with this episode. And that is how frequently one character says the word Chickadee. And if you’ve seen the episode, you know what I am talking about.
I get it, he has a pet name for his daughter. It’s adorable. It’s meant to convey that the two of them have a healthy loving relationship and I get it. We all get it. Blind monks get it. But the fact remains that no parent on Earth calls their kid by their pet name every single time they speak an individual sentence to them. It was just too damn much.
All in all, this was a good episode. It was a classic story, turned on its head, told by professionals from start to finish. And I hope that if there is another season, we see more stories like this one. But after the efforts put into this season at large, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last we see of American Horror Stories.
If you’ve watched enough short-form horror anthology shows, you’ll notice that some stories are mainstays. Each show seems to put on the same sort of episodes, with the occasional surprising storyline that we’ve never (or at least rarely) seen before.
Leprechaun was an example of a repeated story—the story of a greedy thief whose punishment far outweighs the crime.
The story
We begin our story in 1841, with a drunk man leaving the bar one late night. He’s distracted by something glowing at the end of the well. When he reaches down for the glowing thing, he falls in. Moments later, he screams.
We then cut to the modern day. The well is still there, and now it’s surrounded by a dying town. In this town lives a young man named Colin. He’s married, his wife is pregnant, and he’s out of work. Like many of his friends.
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Desperate for cash, Colin and his friends decide to rob a bank. They put together an Equate version of Ocean’s Eleven, and break in one night. But, of course, they find that the gold is nothing more than bait. And the creature waiting for them is something they never expected.
What worked
The first thing I want to point out is how real this episode felt. At least to anyone currently living in the same small town they grew up in. These characters felt like guys I went to school with. Guys I would see at the bar.
I appreciated the real anger and frustration these characters are feeling. Especially Colin. He’s bitter, and maybe he has a right to be. He did exactly what he was supposed to do to succeed. He went to school and invested in his career, and yet now he’s out of work and struggling to support his family. I probably don’t need to tell you how that feels. Because of this, we can all kind of understand why he was tempted to rob a bank.
I also want to talk about the fact that this was, as I said, an often-explored story. That can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. This story is told over and over because it’s a good story. A relatable story. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
What didn’t work
That being said, this version didn’t try to do much to break out of the mold.
Because we have seen this story so many times, most of us could tell the story themselves. I would have expected something new, or some twist. But, in the end, the story didn’t bring anything new to the discussion.
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Maybe because of this, the ending left a lot to be desired. Trapped in the basement of the bank, everyone just sort of stares at everyone else, until the thieves give up. And that’s it. The ending wasn’t scary, shocking, or funny. It was just sad, on multiple levels.
Overall, this was an okay story. It was entertaining, if not surprising. I would compare this episode to homemade macaroni and cheese. Everyone’s got their own version, they’re all pretty good, and none of them are exciting.
There’s just one episode left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope they’ve saved the best for last.
We begin our story late at night, with a hospital security guard named Malcolm. He is frightened one night when he sees a woman with a distorted face in the hospital parking lot.
We then joined an RN named Claire. She’s doing her best to explain to a struggling mother that the hospital will not be able to treat her son with cancer because she can’t afford the treatment.
Not like she’s happy about it.
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Fortunately, Dr. Nostrum, played by the legend Henry Winkler, swoops in at the last moment to tell the mother that her son qualifies for a special place in his cancer treatment clinic.
Claire is lamenting the fact that she became an RN to help people, but it feels like she isn’t doing anything good. Then, she and her friend Lilly stumble upon the same woman who menaced Malcom the night before.
While Claire is trying to figure out what’s wrong with this woman, she brutally slaughters an orderly and vanishes into the hospital. But not before struggling to say two words to Claire. Ward X.
What worked
I want to start by praising the effects of this episode. Because they were fantastic. Aided by the black and white filming, the bloody and distorted faces of Alice and her fellow victims are nightmarish. They look like a horrific version of Lockjaw taken to a terrifying extreme.
I also want to discuss the fantastic work of Henry Winkler. He is an absolute legend and never has a bad project.
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Winkler’s character in this episode was exactly what we’d expect from him. He seems genuinely warm and kind, concerned about others’ well-being. Even when he’s planning to kill Claire, he comes off as such a caring guy.
Finally, I want to talk about the historical significance of this story. Because, like I always say, the scariest stories are the ones based on truth. And I’m sorry to say, this story has a basis in truth.
Mankind has a dark and twisted history when it comes to medical advances. Most doctors and scientists are good, moral people who abide by the first line of the Hippocratic oath, to first do no harm. Some, historically, are little more than monsters in white coats. Consider the Tuskegee Experiment, Unit 731, and the horrific acts of Josef Mengele. If you’re going to look up that middle one, be warned that it is NSFL.
While this episode of American Horror Stories was a work of fiction, it wasn’t that far off. I don’t think many of us want to admit how close to real life it was. This is the gift of good horror, to force us to come face to face with the worst aspects of humanity. To acknowledge them, accept them, and change them.
All in all, this was a perfect episode. The acting, the effects and the story were all top-shelf. And it’s certainly a story that will stick with you.
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There are just two episodes left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope that they reach closer to the quality of X, and away from the dull and dismal episodes that began the second half of this season.
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