The jury is still out onGreg Nicoteroas a storyteller, but the thing that makes that man and his gorgeous locks one of my favorite filmmakers working today is his commitment in the year of our lord 2019 to keeping horror practical. That ethos, dating back to his first VFX role onGeorge A. Romero’sDay of the Dead, has keptThe Walking Deadshambling along nicely even when the story juices run dry, and bleeds seamlessly intoCreepshow, Nicotero’s streaming revival of the classic 1982 horror anthology written byStephen Kingand directed by Romero. Those are twomightynames to live up to, but based on the one episode Shudder made available for review Nicotero has leaned hard into what made the original film and its sequel so endearing, creating a purposely cheesy ode to practical grossness and horror comics best read under the covers with a flashlight. I’m still not sure what the audience is like these days for anthology shows—the actual freakingTwilight Zonecame backthis yearand was met with a resounding “okay”—but for fans of a specific over-the-top B-movie sensibility, Shudder’sCreepshowis a treat.
The premiere episode consists of two horror tales. The first, “Gray Matter”, is an adaptation of a shortStephen Kingbody-horror gross-out with Nicotero directing andByron WillingandPhilip de Blasiproviding the script. This story starsTobin Bell(Saw) andGiancarlo Esposito(Breaking Bad) as smalltown cops investigating a local man whose infected beer appears to have transformed him into something truly grotesque. The second, “The House of the Head”, is an adaptation of a short story byBird BoxauthorJosh Malerman, who also wrote the script, withJohn Harrison(The Librarians) directing. “Head” follows a young girl whose dollhouse gets invaded by a mysterious severed head that won’t stop moving around—and, eventually, doing much worse things—when no one is looking.
Of the two, I definitely enjoyed “Gray Matter” more, but that’s speaking as a King diehard—and there’s certainly enough Easter Eggs here to keep you busy betweenCastle Rockseasons—and someone whose horror tastes lean toward monster mashes and rubber suit sci-fi creature features. The overall gooiness of the subject matter allows Nicotero to run wild with his FX roots, resulting in some truly stomach-churning imagery; there’s a scene featuring a slime-covered blanket that’ll have you headed for a shower. Again, the storytelling across the segment’s 20-ish minutes is a bit all over the place, but there’s an extremely charming sense that everyone involved is playing up those cheap B-movie sensibilities on purpose. Heavyweights Esposito and Bell aredelightful,using their obvious dramatic weight to build up to some A+ scenery-chewing.
Even though it paled in comparison, I do appreciate how different “House of the Head” is from “Gray Matter”, giving me optimistic thatCreepshow, like the best anthologies, will be first and foremost a diverse menu of scares. Unlike the opening segment, there’s no bombast or gore to “House of the Head”. It feels a lot like a classicTwilight Zoneepisode more than anything, pulling off a tremendous job of ratcheting up tension with little more than a doll’s head moving from a chair to the floor. Unfortunately, that tension builds to…nothing? The payoff of this episode’s second segment is such a puff of empty air it had me scrambling to find the original short story to see if it contained an actual ending.
Even still, there’s a lot to love here for fans of old-school horror, even more so specifically for anyone who loved the originalCreepshow. Shudder’s series maintains the same affection for EC Comics, including scene transitions that mimick the paneled layouts and speech bubbles of those pages, and yes, the Creep himself is back as your esteemed host. He’s a practical puppet, he’s wonderful, and we simply have no choice but to Stan.
With only one episode available, it’s tough to get a gauge of consistency, but the tone and aesthetic Nicotero is striving for, at least, fill my horror-loving heart with joy. There are some major names coming down the pipeline later in the season: Special effects iconTom Savinidirecting an episode based on aJoe Hillstory. An adaptation of theJoe R. Lansdaletale “The Companion”.Re-AnimatorlegendJeffrey Combsplaying a Nazi in a segment titled “Bad Wolf Down”. That allsoundsfantastic, and if future episodes can keep up this sense of gory good times,Creepshowwill once again be a destination for little slices of frights.
