‘Creepshow’ Season Four Review: Maybe Too Much Monster Mayhem
Paul Le
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In its fourth season, Creepshow evidently isn’t ready to do away with routine. The majority of these new stories include the same old act as before: hapless characters get caught up in uncanny situations, and then are forced to suffer the cruelty of fate and/or the consequences of their own misbegotten actions. The series has this recipe down pat, but as a reminder, horror anthology shows don’t always get more than one season, much less four. So to see Creepshow return after a two-year hiatus is encouraging for those who still like their scares in segments. You just have to manage your expectations.
Last we saw of Creepshow, a side-story set in the ‘68 Night of the Living Dead universe demonstrated the series’ reverence for the horror classics. There is more of that later on in the season, yet before then, the Creep ushers in a collection of other macabre ideas. The variety of terror tales this season is not only wide but also reliant on monsters. Maybe too much so.
The weirdest of the batch is the premiere story, “Cassandra”, which reunites screenwriter Jamie Flanagan with Midnight Club star Samantha Sloyan. In this talky entry, a woman (Sloyan) is suddenly trapped in her own house with a stranger (Ruth Codd). As refreshingly unconventional as Cassandra is, its eccentricity could be seen as excessive. The second half of the opening episode, “Smile”, is a comparatively more stock story about a photographer’s past coming back to haunt him and hurt his loved ones. The gap in creativity between these first two tales is vast.
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The next two entries, “The Hat” and “Grieving Process”, don’t overthink themselves. In the first half of the second episode, a struggling novelist (Ryan Beil) finds inspiration only when he wears a more successful author’s magical hat. Needless to say, there is a high cost for his instant success. “Grieving Process”, which is based on a short by Mike D. McCarty, is far more severe in tone, but the familiar plot about a desperate husband fails to make a lasting impression.
As a general rule in anthologies, stories vary in quality, however, “Parent Death Trap” and “To Grandmother’s House We Go” are both amusing in their own ways. The first is a better and less predictable crack at comical horror than seen in the past. Here we have a young man (Dylan Lowe) haunted by his late parents’ ghosts, whose bossy and image-conscious behavior is only now worse in death. And as its title would suggest, “To Grandmother’s House We Go” is a reinterpretation of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Keegan Connor Tracy’s character helps her stepdaughter reach her destination, but a big bad werewolf stands in their way.
Like the last two stories, “Meet The Belaskos” and “Cheat Code” exhibit this season’s overdependence on monsters, who generally feel forced into their stories. They’re also not that well utilized. Nevertheless, “Meet The Belaskos” may make you nostalgic or nauseous, which all depends on how you feel about vampires and starcrossed romances. The bits of sappiness here are later topped off with the show’s trademark goriness. Then in “Cheat Code”, a single dad (Lochlyn Munro) battles an alien in an effort to bond with his distant son (Connor Wong). Creepshow isn’t exactly known for its striking special effects, however, this segment shows more effort in that regard.
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Tom Atkins, a horror icon as well as a star of the original Creepshow film, plays an estranged father in “Something Borrowed, Something Blue”. Apart from Atkins’ presence and the use of a creature from Brazilian mythology, though, this reunion story could be deemed too run-of-the-mill. That is, until its companion, “Doodles”, proves to be the more middling half of the season’s penultimate episode. Anja Savcic plays an artist who has the ability to manifest grisly drawings whenever she doesn’t get her way. At the very least, the near-mandatory use of that Creepshow comic effect makes sense here, whereas in other stories, it comes across as unnatural.
As part of its finale, the series pays tribute to one of the founding fathers of the Creepshow franchise in an entry aptly titled “George Romero in 3D”. Unfortunately, the visual execution leaves something to be desired. Romero being summoned from a comic requires a certain refinement that this show can’t quite provide. The actual story would have also benefited from an extended runtime. And at last, the season’s curtain closes with “Baby Teeth”, a tale about an evil tooth fairy. Regretfully, it’s another perfunctory supply of monster horror intertwined with a dark family secret.
Creepshow isn’t showing major signs of change or improvement, and several offerings this time around are rather underwhelming despite their strangeness. However, this anthology seems to be the last of its kind. Self-contained and episodic horror on television isn’t as visible as it was just a few years ago. As understandable as it is to feel attached to something so relatively rare in today’s horror landscape, that sense of uniqueness will eventually grow old much like the series’ formulaic approach.
Summary
To see Creepshow return after a two-year hiatus is encouraging for those who love anthology horror series. You just have to manage your expectations.
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