CREEPSHOW - SEASON 2 - Episode Guide, Recaps, and Reviews

Review Score:

Episode 1a - Model Kid

Director: Greg Nicotero
Writer: John Esposito
Stars: Brock Duncan, Tyner Rushing, Jana Allen, Kevin Dillon, Chris Schmidt, Nick Morgan

Summary: When an abusive uncle bullies him over his love of horror, a boy obsessed with movie monsters gets revenge in an unusual way.

Synopsis:

Obsessed with classic horror movies and building monster models, bullied loner Joe Aurora enjoys a loving relationship with his cancer-stricken mother June in 1972 Illinois. June dies one evening while watching “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” with Joe on a film projector.

Three months later, Joe’s caring Aunt Barb and abusive Uncle Kevin move in and become Joe’s guardians, although Kevin lost his job and needed a place to stay anyway. Kevin repeatedly calls Joe a “freak,” breaks one of the models June got Joe, and threatens to throw out all of Joe’s horror movie memorabilia.

Joe fantasizes about his Frankenstein’s Monster poster coming to life and killing Billy Niles, a bully who regularly hassles Joe over his love of monster movies.

After a call from his former employer confirms he will remain jobless, Kevin throws out Joe’s models during a tirade that terrorizes Joe and Barb. That same night, Joe dreams of his projector turning on by itself. Film footage shows Joe’s mother rising from her grave. June tells her son that she and his monster friends are watching over him. June presents a Creepshow comic book toward the camera. Joe wakes to find his actual Creepshow comic opened to a mail order page for a model kit called “The Victim,” which Joe likens to Kevin.

After receiving and painting the model, Joe uses it as a voodoo doll to twist Kevin’s ankle. While Barb is at work, Kevin threatens to break down Joe’s bedroom door after hearing noises that disturb his sleep. A creature and a mummy from “Gillman Meets the Mummy” appear and attack Kevin. Joe breaks his victim model to disable Kevin. The monsters tear Kevin apart.

Barb screams when she returns home and sees Kevin torn in two. Barb finds Joe dressed like Dracula sitting calmly on his bed. Using a Bela Lugosi voice, Joe speaks with satisfaction and shows his fangs, implying he fulfilled another fantasy by becoming a vampire. The camera pans to show a diorama where models of the Gillman and the mummy loom over Kevin’s corpse.

Review:

One of the grumbles people posted about the first season of “Creepshow” was that Shudder’s episodic series didn’t consistently convey the same vibe as the films. Some criticized humor-heavy segments for being too cartoony with their comedy. Some felt a few stories appeared too cheap to take seriously. In one of my reviews I mused that “Creepshow” echoed “Tales from the Darkside” more than the eponymous movies, which could be splitting hairs since “Darkside” and “Creepshow” share some of the same creators. Regardless of the reason, it wasn’t uncommon to hear someone say “Creepshow: The Series” wasn’t enough like the original George A. Romero and Stephen King collaborations.

No one can accuse “Model Kid” of not “feeling” like “Creepshow” because this second season kickoff is basically a 25-minute ‘Extended Cut’ of the 1982 anthology’s wraparound. I’m picturing a meeting where producers must have specifically commissioned a story that, beat for beat, is virtually identical to those memorable “Creepshow” bookends simply to stop naysayers from repeating the above complaint. Otherwise, if writer John Esposito pitched “Model Kid” completely cold, I imagine he would have been promptly booted out of the office for plagiarism.

In that classic “Creepshow” vein, which of course is the same as the classic EC Comics vein, “Model Kid” is a story of supernatural comeuppance. Instead of Joe Hill, we get Joe Aurora, who also happens to live in the Illinois town of Aurora, in case anyone misses the first wink at the famed model kit company. Joe is a prototypical ‘monster kid.’ While others are out skateboarding and playing football here in 1972, Joe happily holes up in his room, which he decorates as a haven for all things horror. Dressed like Dracula, Joe paints models, watches old fright flicks on a small projector, and imagines fantasies straight out of any creature feature fan’s dreams.

Joe’s only human friend is his loving mother June. Uh-oh. June wears a kerchief around her balding head, which is the unmistakable cinematic sign of an illness forecasting impending doom. It’s not so much a tug as a violent yank on our sympathy strings, though the sight of Joe and June watching “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” together in the boy’s bed makes for a sentimentally sweet moment nonetheless.

Things change dramatically for Joe when caring Aunt Barb and abusive Uncle Kevin become his new guardians. It seems someone told Kevin Dillon he was acting in a comic book-inspired horror show lathered with dark comedy. Perhaps not knowing exactly what that meant, Dillon lasers in on the “comic book” component of that description with a four-color caricature that’s as subtle as King Kong tiptoeing across grandma’s good china. Glazing enough ham to last a lifetime of Easters, Dillon lays on the “mean uncle” bit thick by contorting his face into Tex Avery sneers, adding maximum Jerseyness to his accent, and strutting with a Yosemite Sam stride. In Dillon’s defense, being dialed up a notch, or in his case six notches, is kind of a “Creepshow” thing. Besides, it’s not like Tom Atkins’ take on the same role was the epitome of a restrained performance either.

After Uncle Kevin’s angry hands first throw out Joe’s horror crap, then start smacking his wife and nephew around, Joe gets revenge in a manner anyone can see coming from minute one. Clipping a coupon out of his “Creepshow” comic, Joe orders a model kit called ‘The Victim,’ who looks a lot like Uncle Kevin and would make a delicious plaything in a diorama with Joe’s mummy and lagoon creature figures. I’m not sure why ‘The Victim’ works exactly like a voodoo doll when it’s a model, but hey, it’s technically a different toy, so not exactly the same situation as the original anthology’s wraparound, right?

“Model Kid” is a little slow to get into it. Some blubber bloats the waistline too. A subplot with a neighborhood bully doesn’t particularly pan out. A Universal monster rally riff called “Gillman Meets the Mummy” opens the episode on a terrific throwback tone, although it provides more padding than necessary, not to mention its weird decision to be a silent film when “Phantom of the Opera” is the only classic creature tied to that era.

Once nits are picked, set aside and forgotten, it’s hard to be cross with something that earnestly desires to be a love letter to all of us who’ve been teased for a lifelong love of monsters. Sure, “Model Kid” is redundant in general, even more so as an entry in “Creepshow” canon. But in paying homage to the black-and-white classics that shaped us, and recreating a bedroom sanctuary where we erected our B-movie shrines, the episode pierces an admirable arrow into horror-loving hearts. That’s kind of “Creepshow’s” thing too. The brand has always refashioned childhood creeps for adult appetites. “Model Kid” follows a formula, but at least it picks a reliable one to copy. And for anyone out there who considers the TV show to be a listing ship, it makes sense for something safe, simple, and satisfying like “Model Kid” to correct the course’s direction.

Episode 1b - Public Television of the Dead

Director: Greg Nicotero
Writer: Rob Schrab
Stars: Mark Ashworth, Marissa Hampton, Coley Campany, Peter Leake, Todd Allen Durkin, Ted Raimi, Jason Kehler

Summary: Chaos consumes a TV station’s studios after an antique show host inadvertently reads aloud from the Necronomicon.

Synopsis:

At Pittsburgh PBS station WQPS, Mrs. Bookberry, who hosts the popular children’s reading show ‘Mrs. Bookberry’s Magical Library’ with her hand puppet Henrietta the Bear, shows her true arrogant and racist offscreen personality when she demands that station manager Claudia Aberlan give her a more favorable timeslot. Claudia is forced to cancel the wholesome ‘Love of Painting with Norm Roberts’ show to free up the slot, even though Norm’s director George reminds Claudia that Norm is a caring person despite the terrible things he likely repressed to survive The Vietnam War.

In another studio, Goodman Tapert hosts an episode of ‘The Appraiser’s Road Trip.’ Goodman’s guest is Ted Raimi, who brought his family’s copy of an ancient book to be appraised.

Using a key that Ted provides, Goodman unlocks the book, which Goodman identifies as the Necronomicon. Goodman reads some of the Sumerian text aloud. Ted becomes possessed and turns into a deadite. Ted stabs Goodman in his forehead with the book key and Goodman becomes a deadite too. Ted and Goodman go on a violent rampage in the studio.

Meanwhile, Norm records his final painting show on an adjacent stage. Ted interrupts to attack George. Norm stabs Ted in the head with a paintbrush, punches him, and sets Ted on fire. Norm and Claudia rescue George before escaping. Ted resurrects and moves on to transform Bookberry into a deadite.

Norm, Claudia, and George find the massacre in the other studio. Playback footage reveals what happened after Goodman read from the Necronomicon. Norm and Claudia reason they can reverse the curse by using the same book. Goodman reveals he has the Necronomicon. Before Goodman can attack, George plays audio feedback over the studio speakers that causes Goodman to flee.

With Ted and Goodman acting as her crew, Bookberry begins reading from the Necronomicon during a live broadcast for the Chicago affiliate. Norm, Claudia, and George enter the studio to fight the three deadites. Claudia beheads Bookberry, but her Henrietta puppet continues reading the Necronomicon aloud. Norm rips the key from Goodman’s head, kicks the puppet, and locks the book. The deadite curse seemingly ends.

Weeks later, Norm’s painting program is back on the air. Claudia and George discuss how Chicago wants Norm’s show to go national and how the public dismissed Bookberry’s decapitation as a publicity stunt. Meanwhile, two children watching at home are shown with white deadite eyes.

Review:

Those who aren’t thrilled when “Creepshow” dunks deep into silliness won’t respond well to “Public Television of the Dead,” which might be the series’ boldest blend of splatter and snark. Then again, provided they’re “Evil Dead” fans, the segment could still redeem itself in the eyes of harrumphing viewers since “Public Television of the Dead” (PTotD) features a meta element that lets it double as an unofficial companion piece to the Bruce Campbell-led franchise.

Being a fan of writer Rob Schrab’s quirky comedy style certainly helps a whole lot too. “PTotD” is peak Schrab, starting with pitch perfect parodies of PBS staples like a children’s reading program that mashes up “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and Shari Lewis. Even better is “Love of Painting with Norm Roberts,” a Bob Ross spoof that’s so on the money, you’d think the real thing was on TV if you weren’t looking closely. Mark Ashworth earns the episode’s MVP trophy as the hilariously soft-spoken Norm/Bob, whose sweet demeanor works overtime to suffocate the psychological horrors of a Vietnam veteran. I want a sequel to this episode simply to see more of this character painting happy little trees while his producer and station manager look on adoringly, then he unexpectedly starts slaughtering zombies with devilishly shell-shocked glee.

Making more referential in-jokes, Ted Raimi shows up as himself. Hoping he can come up with enough cash to blow on a Camaro, or maybe a hot tub, Raimi brought a rare book to be appraised on an “Antiques Roadshow” clone. Goodman Tapert, this time nodding at Sam Raimi’s longtime producing partner, immediately identifies the skin-bound tome as the fabled Necronomicon. If he can recognize the ghoulish grimoire on sight, you’d think Tapert would know better than to read its Sumerian text aloud. He does anyway of course, swiftly turning Ted Raimi into a white-eyed deadite in the process. Once Ted takes to a stuntperson’s wire to float around the studio, he passes his curse on to others as chaos consumes the station.

“PTotD” gets pretty goofy, yet signals its tongue-in-cheek tone at the outset, so there’s little cause to complain. Let’s not forget Ashley J. Williams and company aren’t entirely serious either. Should you come out the other side of this story without having had a smoky hit of riotous fun, that might have more to do with bad faith expectations than anything inherently “wrong” with the episode’s entertainingly irreverent attitude.

I believe The Powers That Be originally intended a different pairing for the second season’s first episode, but this one complements “Model Kid” nicely. Greg Nicotero’s direction on both gives the combo consistency. “Model Kid” covers living a horror lifestyle while mirroring EC’s macabre moral code. “Public Television of the Dead” goes a little more extreme with wild wackiness, though the callback to “Evil Dead” replenishes its clout. “Evil Dead” might be one of the top twenty franchises in horror, at least in terms of faithful fanbases. It’s a smart tactic to play up that appeal. If you’re not into what this second season starter episode offers, “Creepshow” might not be your thing, because “Model Kid” and “Public Television of the Dead” establish a clearer direction for where the show is likely headed. I for one think that’ll be an intriguing tour to take.

By the way, one of the other common criticisms of “Creepshow’s” first season had to do with its lackluster host. KNB FX agreed ‘The Creep’ needed a makeover, and probably came to that conclusion long before fans groaned a single word. I’m not sure what happened to that plan. In this second season premiere, The Creep still does next to nothing, merely giggling a little bit over the first segment’s faux film clip. By the end of “Public Television of the Dead,” he’s downgraded to a few frames of animation. Bad habits die hard I guess. The Creep still, uh, “needs work” to put it kindly. It’s also a little early to write off his remake as another wreck. So we’ll see what future installments do to make The Creep a consistent character who actually looks like an icon instead of a Jeff Dunham nightmare dressed in old hobo tatters.

Episode 2a - Dead and Breakfast

Director: Axelle Carolyn
Writer: Michael Rousselet, Erik Sandoval
Stars: Ali Larter, C. Thomas Howell, Iman Benson, Pamela Ricardo, Starr La Joie, Dominique Harris

Summary: Desperate to drum up business for their murder-themed bed and breakfast, siblings welcome a true crime influencer who uncovers the truth about their family home’s grisly history.

Synopsis:

Review:

When I visited London years ago, I naively wandered around Whitechapel expecting to find plaques identifying Jack the Ripper murder locations. There weren’t any.

What I embarrassingly realized upon later reflection is that commemorating notoriously horrible homicides is a uniquely American thing. In Dallas, an X literally marks the spot in the street where Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullets struck JFK. Official markers dot highways across the country to recognize sites where various figures from the Wild West and pioneering days met untimely ends at the hands of another person. Deadwood has signs for where Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back as well as for the exact spot where his assailant was apprehended.

We’re not just talking about historically significant events or reverential memorials either. Our fascination with murder gets much more macabre than that. Among other places, the Massachusetts house where Lizzie Borden allegedly “took an ax” is open for overnight accommodations, with guests able to choose from several bedrooms where Lizzie once slept and family members were slain.

“Creepshow” episode “Dead and Breakfast” parodies this peculiar pastime with the ‘Spinster Murder House,’ where siblings Pam and Sam try capitalizing on their grandmother’s 1939 slaughter spree by inviting patrons to stay in the home where those deaths supposedly occurred. “Dead and Breakfast” keeps the satire coming with rival venues ‘Dahmer Apartment’ and ‘John Wayne Gacy Circus Tent,’ which are not makeshift motels in reality like the Borden B&B is, but would undoubtedly enjoy booming business from curious kooks if they were.

Problem #1 for Pam and Sam is they can’t prove granny was a killer because no bodies were ever found. To drum up business since nearly no one is interested, they invite a popular true crime vlogger to stream her stay in the home. Problem #2 for Pam and Sam is that the vlogger’s investigation turns up rust, not blood, solidifying the suspicion that the only thing cursed about this house is the plumbing.

At first, “Dead and Breakfast” lets the inherent absurdity of “horror hotels” cover “Creepshow’s” characteristic gallows humor quota. It works for a while, then gets far less subtle as the brightly bouncy “bumpa dumpa doo” background music sells a setting that’s more campy than creepy. Finding the sweet spot between horror and dark comedy is the key to making any episode live up to its namesake’s legacy. “Dead and Breakfast” isn’t the least successful blend of both, but it’s also not at the top of the list. Depending on how often this particular point pops up, I may have to go into deeper detail on the difference between “cartoony” and “comic book-y” since several episodes seem to think they’re synonymous. For the time being, I’ll simply say “Dead and Breakfast” has an animated “Tales from the Cryptkeeper” vibe as opposed to that of a sly “Tales from the Crypt” fable.

A couple of other weird wobbles keep the atmosphere off balance. Little niggles like a ‘One Year Later’ epilogue where more guests than the house could possibly hold line the walkway outside, or some filler scenes that seem like stalling tactics, bring up questions about the creative process that thought such odd inclusions were helpful for setting the scenes. “Dead and Breakfast” lands in a limbo where disbelief is too high for frights to really register. The episode comes out as a baseline installment of “Creepshow.” It’s intermittently indicative of the series’ overall tone and content without being an outstanding example of either one of those things.

Episode 2b - Pesticide

Director: Greg Nicotero
Writer: Frank Dietz
Stars: Josh McDermitt, Keith David, Ashley Laurence

Summary: Tables turn on an unscrupulous exterminator when a mysterious benefactor contracts him for an unusual assignment.

Synopsis:

Review:

I don’t know if “Creepshow” is budgeted for individual episodes or as an entire season. I’m inclined to think it’s the latter, because “Pesticide” looks like a cheap “checkbook equalizer” meant to balance other episodes that spent bigger chunks of the collective cash pool. An abandoned warehouse location opens up the production a tiny bit. Otherwise, cramped confines, shockingly poor puppetry, and only three speaking parts give the impression that getting away with as little as possible was a chief priority on the agenda.

“The Walking Dead’s” Josh McDermitt plays schlubby exterminator Harlan King. Harlan self-centeredly sees himself as a true “king” when it comes to crushing vermin, living out a fantasy of superiority every time he stomps unwelcome critters. He’s crass too, carelessly interrupting a therapy session in a client’s home office to insist on reconciling an invoice. When she tries getting him to recognize his rudeness, Harlan retaliates by secretly releasing more cockroaches into her house.

Keith “Can Do No Wrong” David channels his Mr. Simms shtick from “Tales from the Hood 2” as Mr. Murdoch, a mysterious businessman whose cryptic speech and manicured appearance instantly deliver the impression of something nefarious being afoot. Murdoch wants Harlan for an unusual assignment. He needs pests eliminated from a property he’s developing, except these pests are of a homeless human variety.

What’s weird about this is that “Pesticide’s” premise amounts to entrapment. Harlan isn’t a man who murdered his wife or committed a crime that deserves comeuppance. Sure, he shouldn’t have purposely put roaches in Ashley Laurence’s place. But he misread a situation due to his social awkwardness and she responded with what he felt was a condescending insult. To suggest Harlan’s relatively minor transgressions of obliviousness, arrogance, and fraud earn the fate Murdoch sets him up for is a confused interpretation of how a typical EC morality tale should play out.

“Pesticide” still has a chance to turn Harlan into a villain when he accepts the lucrative offer to exterminate the people plaguing Murdoch’s business expansion. But Harlan has second thoughts while standing over an alleyway barrel of community stew. Harlan instead continues being a victim of circumstance when a vagrant aggressively attacks him, causing Harlan’s poison to inadvertently drop into the barrel and forcing Harlan to kill the homicidal hobo in self-defense. This is about as backwards of a way to create a character worthy of “getting what’s coming to him” as any installment of “Creepshow” has conceived.

What’s even weirder are the Muppet-esque puppets populating Harlan’s hallucinatory visions. “Pesticide’s” story skimps on meat, so side plates are served up with nightmare sequences where massive flies and spiders torment the man. Chuck E. Cheese is more lifelike than a giant rat that bites off Harlan’s hand. McDermitt bugs out his expressions in these scenes. Coupled with the cringingly cheesy sight of him wrestling against a fake fuzzy rat head, viewers are far more inclined to react with incredulousness than amusement.

More so than Secretariat winning a race against a dead slug, it’s a safe bet that “Pesticide” won’t become anyone’s favorite episode thanks to shaggy staging and a nonsensical narrative (Why does Keith David show up as Ashley Laurence’s new exterminator at the end?). I remain a fan of “Creepshow,” and an apologist for some of its understandable faults. But cheapies like “Pesticide” are tough to defend when a Negative Nelly wants to say, “I told you so” about the show’s tug-of-war with budgetary restrictions.

For those keeping score at home, The Creep is almost entirely absent from both stories in this second episode. He does an animated bit at the beginning, shows up for a quick live-action giggle, and then only appears in comic book panels for the remaining wraparounds. Whatever work went into his revamp, we still aren’t seeing it yet as The Creep is as inconsequential of an inclusion as ever.

Episode 3a - The Right Snuff

Director: Joe Lynch
Writer: Paul Dini, Stephen Langford, Greg Nicotero
Stars: Ryan Kwanten, Breckin Meyer, Gabrielle Byndloss, Kara Kimmer

Summary: A rivalry between a jealous astronaut and a brilliant scientist encounters an unexpected complication in outer space.

Synopsis:

Review:

Approaching the halfway hump of “Creepshow’s” second season and the live-action Creep finally makes a fully fleshy appearance. His gag of having a torn-out eyeball look into a telescope is barely amusing and not particularly inventive. But at least it relates to the story being set up and is better than his usual nothing?

Not to beat a dead horror host, but it’s probably worth getting used to the idea that The Creep doesn’t need to be a key feature after all. In thinking about it, The Creep wasn’t all that active in the films either, and he doesn’t possess the personality to compete with The Cryptkeeper anyway. If someone comes up with a clever conceit for a wraparound, great. Seeing as he’s just gravy however, money and creativity are probably better spent on the episodic stories since those budgets are thinned down to a gnat’s ass as it is.

Speaking of which, “The Right Snuff” is another case of cash, or rather the lack of it, necessitating cuts and compromises that create a confusing tone. “The Right Snuff” seems to be set in the 1960s. It’s not “our” 1960s, but an alternate version where we’ve already put a man on Mars and two other astronauts are aboard a space station researching an experimental machine. The two men, Alex and Ted, communicate with Mission Control and with a news reporter over black and white cameras. Reel-to-reel tape machines are seen in backgrounds along with bulky-buttoned old TV switchboards as instrument panels, like the original “Star Wars” used. Essentially, depicted technology dates the episode by about six decades, except the broadcast transmissions are conspicuously crystal clear with zero lag whatsoever. Video feeds flicker occasionally, but that’s the extent of the effort to accurately reflect the period’s telecommunications, making for a minor identity crisis regarding the era.

The episode uses a classic EC-style premise. Already living in his father’s shadow, Alex can’t stand that his partner Ted enjoys celebrity status as the brains behind their project. Alex becomes additionally envious when Ted takes priority as the person selected for a coveted outer space assignment. Alex aims to take Ted out of the equation so he can steal the glory for himself, but he doesn’t accommodate for an unexpected development that threatens to turn Alex’s fame into infamy.

“The Right Snuff” is a simple two-person story where the pleasant presences of Ryan Kwanten and Breckin Meyer make for magnetic characters who can deepen drama even when director Joe Lynch questionably peppers in illusion-breaking gags. I’m not sure if Lynch means to take the edge off some production design-related roughness by embracing a little corniness here and there. The plot eventually grows far darker in its implications than usual “Creepshow” fare, so winking references to KNB, HAL, and “G”erengi unfortunately do more to break the mood than affectionately accentuate it.

Really though, money is the outstanding issue with this episode. An alien confrontation at the end looks like an instance of Mork calling Orson. I half-expected the creature, which resembles an embiggened “Mars Attacks” knockoff toy, to say, “Nanu Nanu.” In spite of some staging getting goofier than the performances ever dare to do, “The Right Snuff” still survives as a decent installment thanks to its use of appealing actors and a tried-and-true “are humans worthy?” moral. In an ideal world, a doubled budget would have shaved down the shag and turned “The Right Snuff” into a more powerful piece of savage sci-fi.

Episode 3b - Sibling Rivalry

Director: Rusty Cundieff
Writer: Melanie Dale
Stars: Maddie Nichols, Andrew Brodeur, Ja’Ness Tate, Jerri Tubbs, Molly Ringwald

Summary: Convinced her brother is trying to kill her, a teen girl discovers the terrible truth is more monstrous than she imagined.

Synopsis:

Review:

“Sibling Rivalry” makes it clear that criticizing the ways in which “Creepshow: The Series” utilizes comedy, which leans wackier than the gallows humor of the films, is making a deaf ears argument at this point. Maybe the original anthology always wanted to be sillier yet the combination of vintage Tom Savini effects and big Warner Bros. bucks slickened scares with a smoother sheen. Regardless of how the movies balanced their blends of horror and humor, more and more it appears the TV show wants to be funny. Personal tastes have to either adapt to “Creepshow’s” reshaped identity or hitch a ride on a different highway.

“Creepshow’s” tongue-in-cheek tone is on full display when teenager Lola Pierce spits out a rapid-fire recollection of recent events to high school guidance counselor Miss Porter. Dialogue is delivered with self-aware sharpness that keeps quips crisp and sequencing snappy. There’s a Diablo Cody-like vibe to how exchanges play, requiring an affinity for trendy teen cadences to feel the full effect of the rhythm.

Lola includes all kinds of irrelevant asides while telling her scatterbrained story of her brother Andrew’s apparent attempts to kill her. From lusting after her BFF Grace’s brother as he pours slow-motion milk over hard abs to a tale of toilet papering an unlikable classmate’s house, Miss Porter mostly rolls her eyes at Lola’s verbal lollygagging. However, Miss Porter’s eyes widen in moments of misunderstanding when Lola talks about waking to find Grace kissing her during a sleepover and Andrew researching weapons. Alarmed, the counselor wonders if she has to worry about a possible school shooting and sexual assault. “Sibling Rivalry” doesn’t come close to getting that depressingly heavy. Lola clarifies her brother was only weirdly looking into swords and bisexual curiosities made her receptive to Grace’s advances.

Maddie Nichols has a perfectly perky personality for playing Lola as the sometimes oblivious, often emotional firecracker she is. Anyone could have played the seated role of Miss Porter and turned her into a simple straight man for Lola’s shtick. Knowing Molly Ringwald instantly makes anything better, producers wisely plugged her into the part instead, lifting a potentially negligible supporting player to a place where Ringwald can make it register as a fun little performance.

A half-attentive viewer can predict the twist well before it’s revealed, but getting ahead of the action isn’t the point. Lola’s suspicions about her brother’s homicidal intentions hold their intrigue long enough for an entertaining mystery to keep “wait, what’s really going on?” engagement running strong.

I have a feeling “Creepshow” will keep churning out humorous horror in the vein of “Sibling Rivalry” and I don’t anticipate that being a bad thing. No episode is going to be a universally tasty cup of tea, “Sibling Rivalry” included. But the mix of affable actors, savage slaughter, and peppy pacing easily outmatches any immaturity that’s off putting. When you have a veteran like “Tales from the Hood’s” Rusty Cundieff at the helm, “Creepshow” gets the committed professionalism that comes with experience, making “Sibling Rivalry” an enjoyable, if flighty, episode as a result.

Episode 4a - Pipe Screams

Director: Joe Lynch
Writer: Daniel Kraus
Stars: Eric Edelstein, Barbara Crampton, Selena Anduze

Summary: On a job for a racist slumlord, a plumber uncovers a deadly drain clog with a literal mind of its own.

Synopsis:

Review:

I wasn’t going to bring up The Creep this time around since we’ve been down that beaten path several times already. But “Pipe Screams” is such a slender story, it doesn’t leave much else to talk about. In that case, I might as well note that the only time The Creep appears in this episode is during a brief animated intro. So we’re still on the hunt for concrete evidence of “Creepshow’s” mascot developing into a true character, because it hasn’t happened yet in the second season.

In 2018, director Joe Lynch “moderated” a Q&A with filmmaker David Cronenberg during a Beyond Fest retrospective of Cronenberg’s career. “Moderated” is in parenthesis because what Lynch actually did was gush all over the legendary director with personal anecdotes that the annoyed audience couldn’t care less about. It was like being stuck in a meet-and-greet line at Comic-Con behind a fan obliviously talking a celebrity’s ear off, except it was happening publicly in front of 600 bored bystanders. More than one person shouted, “Let David speak already!” which was fortunate since it saved me from having to express the same sentiment. Our pained pleas falling on deaf ears, Lynch excitedly rambled on and on about seeing a Cronenberg film with his father and other irrelevant asides while the rest of us wondered if we were ever going to hear from the man we were really there to see.

I bring this up not to shame Joe Lynch’s questionable moderation skills, although it is an uncomfortable experience I hope to never endure again, but as illustrative evidence that despite his own career in horror filmmaking, Lynch can be another anxious fanboy around his idols just like a lot of us would be. That’s perfectly understandable in intimate convention or autograph encounters. It’s less than desirable in professional situations like conducting a Q&A in front of a paying audience or filming a TV show.

What’s relevant about the Cronenberg example is I imagine Lynch regarded Barbara Crampton with similarly fascinated enthusiasm. I totally get it. What monster kid who grew up on “The Fly” and “Re-Animator” wouldn’t marvel at the opportunity to share a stage or work directly with icons like Cronenberg and Crampton? Those are dreams come true. The problem though is the B-movie boy in Lynch’s heart seems to take over directing duties for “Pipe Screams,” permitting him to indulge in having flip fun with a childhood favorite instead of tying down a tighter tone.

Barbara Crampton is one Maltese dog shy of going full Leona Helmsley in “Pipe Screams.” Victoria Smoot, because even character names have to be jokey, isn’t a hotel empress like Helmsley. Smoot is a snooty slumlord, though she’s arrogant and racist enough to take the title as the new “Queen of Mean.”

Crampton plays on another level of camp than everyone else in this episode. Channeling her experience on soap operas, every exaggerated line delivery shows Crampton clearly relishing the opportunity to bathe in bitchy cartoon villainy. However, as with other such performances when “Creepshow” casts appear to be internally calibrated to divergent settings, there’s a vast gap between where Smoot’s dial points versus almost every other character. Joe Lynch lets Crampton off the leash to run rabid as an over-the-top mad dog, yet she’s running in a yard built for housecats, making her performance stick out like a red thumb that was stubbed by “do whatever you want!” directing, not awkward acting.

Smoot nearly cracks her neck looking upward when she hires Sasquatch-sized plumber Linus to fix a pipe problem in a rundown apartment building. Linus is one of only three speaking parts in the piece, which only has two sets too. Thus begins a time-stretching span of Linus tinkering about in a basement and then in an apartment before fighting with a sentient hair clog that feasts on human flesh. Needless to say, there isn’t enough beef in that setup to stuff a 20-minute sausage, even though Eric Edelstein adds to Barbara Crampton’s ham by bugging out his eyes and playing Summerslam with a basketball-sized blob of goo.

“Pipe Screams” would have paired well with “Pesticide” as a goofy duology about blue-collar contractors battling beasties. Then again, that would have been “Creepshow’s” weakest double billing since “Pesticide” owns the top spot for season two’s biggest letdown and “Pipe Screams” isn’t far behind thanks to its skeletal substance. Being balanced by “Within the Walls of Madness” works against this episode’s favor because by the end of that standout segment, it’s even harder to remember this story that preceded it. File “Pipe Screams” under M for “Meh.”

Episode 4b - Within the Walls of Madness

Director: John Harrison
Writer: John Esposito, Greg Nicotero
Stars: Drew Matthews, Denise Crosby, Brittany Smith, Nicholas Logan, Brooke Butler, Leonard Butler

Summary: A grad student working on a secret military project recounts the mystery of how multiple murders at an Antarctic research facility connect to ancient elder gods.

Synopsis:

At a remote Antarctic research station, quantum physics professor Trollenberg leads a scientific team that secretly investigates unusual phenomena for military applications. Trollenberg’s team includes head of security Carson and grad students Zeller and Mallory.

The station goes into red alert when a wormhole Trollenberg previously discovered disrupts the facility. A creature emerges from a wall and kills Mallory. When Carson and Trollenberg enter, they find Zeller covered in blood and holding an ax.

Zeller claims he fought off a creature that killed Mallory. Trollenberg leaves Zeller in Carson’s custody while she goes to review security footage to verify Zeller’s story.

Carson accuses Zeller of killing Mallory because he was jealous of her romantic relationship with Carson. Zeller reveals he and Mallory were having an affair and Carson hadn’t found out yet.

Trollenberg deletes the footage showing the monster killing Mallory. When she returns to the two men, Trollenberg tells them the video depicted Zeller murdering Mallory. Carson moves to kill Zeller in jealous anger, but Zeller splits Carson’s skull with the fire ax in self-defense.

Zeller questions why Trollenberg would cover up the truth about an interdimensional entity in the walls. Trollenberg explains she was the sole survivor of an expedition in the mountains six months earlier and discovered a fossil that could bend time and space by being played like a flute.

Trollenberg shows the fossil to Zeller. Trollenberg tells Zeller the instrument is a relic of ‘The Old Ones,’ ancient gods who are coming to reclaim the planet. When she saw the sights the gods showed her, Trollenberg succumbed to their superiority. Trollenberg tells Zeller to pray as she begins blowing into the fossil to create another dimensional rift.

Zeller kills Trollenberg to stop the summoning. An armed evacuation team arrives and arrests Zeller for the murders.

Attorney Tara Cartwright, who is only interested in fame from acquiring the licensing rights to Zeller’s outlandish claims of ancient creatures, a wormhole, and a flute-like instrument humans can’t hear, disbelieves Zeller’s version of events when he recounts what happened. Zeller still tells Tara that Trollenberg was looking into future and warns that the entities are trying to come through the walls. Tara goes on to make money from a book about the crazy case.

On the day of Zeller’s execution, the prison warden grants Zeller’s unusual last request to blow on the fossil. When he does so, tentacled creatures emerge from the walls and kill everyone in attendance, including Tara. From the past, Trollenberg briefly locks eyes with Zeller through the wormhole altering time and space.

Review:

“Within the Walls of Madness” is a comparatively complex episode of “Creepshow.” Most segments in the series feature three main characters at most, stages the size of a studio apartment, and simple setups that basically build to one-punchline payoffs. “Within the Walls of Madness” on the other hand, fills to the rim with six speaking parts, a nonlinear timeline with flashbacks and flash-forwards, intricate bits of backstory, and more content than an average three episodes of “Creepshow” combined.

You know that feeling when you see a feature film that should have been a short instead? “Within the Walls of Madness” is a rare reverse case of taking a feature film’s worth of fiction, then pristinely cutting, curing, and packaging it for a snack-sized 20 minutes of fully frightful entertainment.

The plot combines cues from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos with the paranoia suspense of John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” A skeptical attorney listens to an apparent madman, Zeller, as he recounts how several savage murders supposedly went down at a military-funded research facility in Antarctica. Zeller’s claims involve a flute-like fossil playing music the ear can’t hear, interdimensional wormholes bending time and space, and tentacled elder gods destined to retake Earth. Also in the mix is Denise Crosby as a quantum physics professor with her own “six months earlier” tale to tell, a love triangle involving a grad student and a security chief, and yet another side arc about the lawyer having taken this strange case purely for the moneymaking media rights. It bears repeating that “Within the Walls of Madness” is an absolutely stacked installment of “Creepshow,” and its robustness results in one of the show’s most satisfying installments.

It’s no secret that “Creepshow” is produced on the cheap. One look at almost any set can tell you that on first sight. Yet in addition to delivering a multilayered story, one more thing “Within the Walls of Madness” does better than many preceding peers is finding creative ways to swat at the moths in its empty wallet.

There’s a scene in this episode where Denise Crosby simply has to walk down a hallway of what’s supposed to be a labyrinthine science facility. In reality of course, everyone is actually on a tiny stage in a studio somewhere. What the clever crew comes up with to make this sequence work is a big bank of TV monitors connected by a mess of cables not unlike a Cthulhu creature’s tentacles. The camera pans from one screen to another, then tilts down to more monitors as Crosby’s amble occurs from angle to angle. The production is probably forced to redress and reuse the same space for each clip on these screens. But production design built this setpiece, the camera operator and editor orchestrated movements, and director John Harrison blocked the action to do something visually eye-catching for an otherwise ordinary establishing shot. Putting attention into details like this goes a long way toward masking the paltry parameters “Creepshow” crews have to work with.

Even though I’ve grown accustomed to “Creepshow’s” heavy lean into humor as the series rolls forward, it’s nice to have a “serious” episode for a change. Not a single laugh can be found anywhere in “Within the Walls of Madness.” Those who turned off the show because of its kooky comedy might want to come back for this one, though they should still be braced for a few rough edges characteristic of “Creepshow’s” overall aesthetic.

If naysayers still aren’t swayed, I don’t know what else to say except maybe this series is incapable of appeasing them. “Within the Walls of Madness” isn’t only a solid episode, it’s evidence of how far “Creepshow” can take a short piece of horror even on a low budget.

Episode 5 - Night of the Living Late Show

Director: Greg Nicotero
Writer: Dana Gould
Stars: Justin Long, D’Arcy Carden, Hannah Fierman

Summary: To escape his rocky marriage, a man invents a unique VR experience that immerses him in his favorite horror movie.

Synopsis:

Review:

Simon Sherman just finished creating ‘The Immersopod,’ a big breakthrough in virtual reality that allows users to immerse themselves in their favorite films. It’s an incredible achievement in intricate technology, and one that Simon apparently accomplished all by himself. Rather than a lab, he somehow did this in the dead center of his living room too. This makes it doubly odd that Simon covers his wife Renee’s eyes before unveiling his contraption because you’d think she would have already noticed the converted tanning bed taking up the space where their sofa should be.

Those observations are made for sarcasm more than for criticism. “Wait a minute” might be the first reaction to one man developing a device this complex while his wife remains relatively oblivious despite her husband’s life revolving around it. But remember we’re dealing with an episodic TV show whose installments usually run about 25 minutes. This is a circumstance where it’s okay to look the other way when establishing details take curious shortcuts to get the narrative ball rolling.

What’s the first thing Simon does with his Immersopod? He does what any horror film fanatic would do and dives directly into his all-time fave, which is 1972’s “Horror Express.” A cult classic like this affords Simon unprecedented opportunities to interact with Peter Cushing as well as Christopher Lee. More importantly, Simon can now meet his longtime fictional crush Countess Petrovska, kicking off an unlikely affair in digital indiscretion that endangers Simon’s already troubled marriage. In the meantime, “Night of the Living Late Show” beefs up by overeating a heaping helping of “Horror Express” clips, although there’s a reasonable explanation for the public domain gluttony.

Like the first season, “Creepshow’s” sophomore year was initially announced as six episodes with two stories in each. The Anna Camp-led “Shapeshifters Anonymous” was planned as a two-parter all along, but was repurposed as “A Creepshow Holiday Special,” perhaps due to COVID-19 creating havoc and/or the brand needing some content to carry Shudder through Christmastime. Abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson then scuttled the release of a segment he appeared in, further cutting “Creepshow” down to just four and a half episodes for season two.

From the look of things, it would appear the burden fell on “Night of the Living Late Show” to at least get back the portion that Manson cost the production. Someone likely looked at this episode’s nature and shrewdly asked, “Hmmm. Since we’re already using ‘Horror Express’ footage, can we edit in even more until we get the runtime back over 40 minutes?”

It’s not a bad idea for finding a creative way to compensate for cut content. But because I had a suspicion about what happened that made “Night of the Living Late Show” double its length, I watched the episode with an eye for how easy it would be to whittle down “Horror Express” excess. Even without knowing the backstory, viewers will still notice how many minutes “Horror Express” composes and wonder, “Why are they showing so many scenes from that movie?”

When the clips involve Simon, the gimmick works well. Writer Dana Gould wittily integrates preexisting dialogue from the movie’s characters so actor Justin Long’s anxious awkward guy shtick unfolds organically rather than feeling like Simon was shoved somewhere he doesn’t belong. I can’t help but think of how much smoother the episode would play if it trimmed the footage that wasn’t required to begin with. But if nothing else, extraneous time spent with “Horror Express” is additional time spent with Cushing and Lee, never a bad thing, plus it may inspire more people to seek out a film they hadn’t seen before.

“Creepshow” appeals to nostalgia for comic books, old school horror, and for the original Romero-King collaborations. “Night of the Living Late Show’s” retro overload fits right in since it too celebrates throwback terror with a premise that’s attractive to any cinephile who has ever dreamed of living inside a film fantasy. Basically, all of us. As obvious as they are, the stalling tactics don’t negate the fun factor of a unique twist on a traditional infidelity tale. The concept alone makes “Night of the Living Late Show” an all-around worthwhile episode as well a thematically proper capper for “Creepshow’s” second season, even if it did bloat its belly to fit a 41-minute belt.