While there is a long history of anthology horror movies, TV has proven to be the format's natural home. In recent years, anthologies have become increasingly popular--from American Horror Story/Stories and Monsterland to Black Mirror and the reboot of The Twilight Zone, the hunger of fans for short, sharp doses of terror shows little sign of abating. Creepshow is Shudder's small screen update of the classic 1982 George Romero/Stephen King movie, and it's now back for its third season, only a few months after the release of Season 2.
The format remains comfortably familiar. Like the film, Creepshow is a homage to the gaudy, controversial 1950s horror comic books that Romero and King grew up reading. Each story starts the same way, showing us the panels of a comic story, with the skeletal Crypt-Keeper introducing us to this particular tale of terror. The stories are short--each 45-minute episode contains two--and usually fairly light-hearted. They traditionally end with the story's main characters either meeting a gruesome end or exacting some equally unpleasant comeuppance on their adversaries.
With Creepshow Season 3 arriving to Shudder on September 23, we got a look at the first episode of the new season, and overall, the stories so far deliver another satisfyingly varied mix of ghoulish storytelling. The first, "Mumms," focuses on a young kid named Jack, growing up on a remote farm with his troubled mom and paranoid, gun-loving dad, played by Ethan Embry. When Jack discovers that his mom has met a nasty fate and is buried in the garden, he takes matters into his own hands. The second story, "Queen Bee," features a trio of teenagers who break into a hospital where their pop idol, Regina, is about to give birth to her first child. Unsurprisingly, the birth isn't exactly a normal one.
Three seasons in, the series has hit an easy, deceptively comfortable groove. Creepshow isn't a show to challenge its audience, and despite some swearing and plenty of gore, it's got a deliberately old-fashioned, retro feel that makes it comfort-viewing for fans, especially those who grew up loving the original film. Part of the show's charm is the way it ties into the movie, and into the wider community created by Romero and King. Showrunner Greg Nicotero was a protége of Romero's make-up effects genius Tom Savini, while "Mumms" is based on a story by King's son Joe Hill.
Nicotero is one of the founders of Oscar-winning make-up effects company KNB, and his commitment to practical effects remains admirable. In Season 3, he continues to honor Savini's work by ensuring that the monsters, aliens, throat-slitting, and killer vines are rendered in-camera with models, masks, and old-fashioned stage blood. There was undoubtedly some digital help in post-production, but for the most part, there's a physicality to the effects that is refreshing in this era of CGI (because let's face it, digital blood rarely looks any good). It's also impressive that despite the variety of directors involved, a consistent and inventive visual feel is maintained throughout, with frequent use of odd camera angles, stylized lighting, and overlaid comic book frames.
Like all anthologies, the quality of individual segments varies, and the compressed running time of Creepshow's stories can be both a hindrance and a help. Keeping things short and tight works really well in the case of "Mumms"; this is a simple, archetypical tale that is well balanced in terms of build-up and pay-off. "Queen Bee" never quite takes flight, however, with its more ambitious story of a pop star's dark secrets needing more space, and the overtly comic tone stops it from building any sense of menace.
But while it's easy to suggest that Creepshow Season 3 is "more of the same"--even though it basically is--that implies that this sort of show is easy to do well. Nicotero and his team of writers and directors (including genre faves Joe Lynch and Rusty Condieff) might be working from a template laid out decades ago, but there's a reason the series is one of the most popular things Shudder has ever made. The mix of laughs, scares, monsters, and splatter is as finely tuned as any horror anthology currently out there--and let's face it, way better than many. For all the flaws of any individual story, Creepshow remains the perfect viewing for those long, horror-filled October nights that horror fans anticipate every year. Here's hoping Crypt-Keeper will be around for years to come.
