Creepshow - Season 1 Review

Shudder put out their 6 episode series of Creepshow, based on the wonderful George Romero / Stephen King collaboration of the EC comics series. Creepshow 1 from 1982 is a horror classic. Every skit in that movie is gold. Creepshow 2 is more of an acquired taste, but I've grown to enjoy it quite a bit. Creepshow 3? Never heard of her... I recall talk of a Creepshow remake for years, but they scrapped that piece of shit in favor of the tv series, produced by Greg Nicotero and with involvement from Stephen King, Joe Hill, and Tom Savini. Oh my... So how does it fare? We'll find out!

Each episode is a two-parter, which gives us 12 20-minute episodes of random horror anthology nonsense. How are they? Well... overall, I think the series was very hit or miss. Some were entertaining, but some were downright bad. In this post, I'll be giving a quick recap with my thoughts on each episode, but since some of them were so lackluster, I'll try to be brief, and I'll try to warn of spoilers, but I'm quite drunk at the moment, so bear with me!

Episode 1:
Gray Matter - Stephen King wrote this story about a kid who has to bring some beer to his dad, but his dad is a crazy drunk who's turning into something else. This one had Creepshow 1 alumni Adrienne Barbeau in it, as well as Tobin Bell of 'Saw' fame. It had potential, but I think it fell flat. Kinda dumb, IMO.
House of the Head - Somehow, this one disturbed me a bit more, even though it also kind of falls flat. A girl gets a dollhouse, puts a few figurines in it, but they start having their own experiences when a dead fucking head appears in the house. A bit unsettling, but ultimately doesn't really do much.

Episode 2:
Bad Wolf Down - Back in WWII, a few American soldiers hold up in a small town prison... with a werewolf! Then comes along Jeffrey Combs as a goddamn Nazi! Jeffrey Combs is amazing in anything he's in. This story was okay.
The Finger - DJ Qualls is a hoarder who finds a finger... Then, it grows into something more, and does things for him! Is it out of love? Who knows. Okay at best.

Episode 3:
All Hallow's Eve - Some kids terrorize the locals on Halloween night. Why though? You'll have to watch and find out. Personally, I wasn't impressed.
The Man in the Suitcase - Now this one was actually kind of funny. A stoner loser picks up his suitcase from baggage claim and there's an Indian man crammed in it who spits out gold when he's in pain. LOL?

Episode 4:
The Companion - This is a bully story about a kid running from his asshole brother who loves to beat the shit out of him. When he's on the run from his sadistic brother, he comes across a scarecrow who seems to have a mind of his own... It's got some good imagery in it. Classic Creepshow material here.
Lydia Lanye's Better Half - This one was downright bad. A lot of horror anthology episodes have a moral compass about them where bad things happen to bad people, but this one was the complete opposite. It seemed like the writer didn't know what they were doing. So a business woman promotes the best man for the job and her lesbian lover takes offense that she wasn't promoted instead. The woman did it because she wanted to spend more time with her because she loved her, but when shit goes south... we're supposed to feel that the bad things happening to her are justified? NO DICE. Stupid fucking story. Dumb as shit.

Episode 5:
Night of the Paw - This is a version of the classic Monkey's Paw story featuring Bruce Davison as a mortician. It has some merit to it, but it ultimately loses steam about halfway through because the writers don't seem to know wtf they're doing on this show.
Times is Tough in Musky Holler - Here's another example of wasted potential. We're vaguely informed that there are zombies about, and the police did something bad. David Arquette is in this, but why pay a relatively famous actor for a bit part of a stupid goddamn story? We may never know. Kind of a revenge story, but mostly a "We don't know what we're doing" episode. Fuck it.

Episode 6:
Skincrawlers - A weight-loss clinic has a revolutionary method to give their clients what they want, and what is it? Some crazy leech that sucks the fat right out of you! Then comes along a solar eclipes with some drastic consequences... This one was stupid, but I enjoyed it.
By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain - Something to do with an abusive step-father and the lochness monster, based on a short story by Joe Hill and directed by Tom Savini. This one didn't seem to have much to say at all, so I zoned the fuck out.

So overall, this series was actually more bad than it was good, but when it's good, it's good enough to keep me clamoring for more. Season 2 is on the way, and I'll watch it.