Cody discusses the third episode of the Creepshow TV series.
The six episodes that make up the first season of the Creepshow television series originally aired on the Shudder streaming service on a weekly basis, the first episode making its premiere on September 26th and the season finale arriving on October 31st. Creepshow celebrated Halloween earlier than episode six, though. Half of episode three has a Halloween theme, making it feel like it should have been the October 31st finale episode.
The episode begins with the Creep carving a jack-o-lantern and being interrupted when trick or treaters show up at his door. In the background is a TV, and on this TV we get a nice nod to George A. Romero, who directed the original Creepshow film and wrote the screenplay for Creepshow 2. The movie showing on the TV here is Romero's classic feature debut, Night of the Living Dead.
Once the Creep has done some carving, the episode segues to the first of its two horror stories. Directed by John Harrison (who composed the score for Romero's Creepshow) from a script by comic book writer Bruce Jones, the first story is called All Hallow's Eve because, yep, it's set on Halloween.
All Hallow's Eve centers on a group of young friends who call themselves the Golden Dragons. Dressed up in costumes, they go from house to house, trick or treating even though they seem to be a little older than the average trick or treater. The characters address this, outright saying that they're too old to be trick or treating, and also saying that this is the last time they're going to get together and do this.
As they make their way around town, we start to notice that the adults they encounter seem to be completely terrified of them, even though they're not doing anything to scare them. They're just kids who are walking around and scoring treats. After multiple cryptic comments, we eventually learn exactly why people are freaked out by these kids.
Harrison managed to give this segment a proper Halloween atmosphere, it feels like the holiday it's meant to be set on, and it's always nice to see a horror show or movie that is able to evoke that wonderful feeling. I was intrigued by the mystery, I wanted to continue watching to find out the secret of the Golden Dragons, so the approach to the storytelling worked for me. It is interesting that, up to a point, All Hallow's Eve seems like it would have been right at home on a Disney Channel Halloween special. There's sort of a family friendly tone to it, aside from some language. But then we reach the end, and things go a bit further than the Disney Channel would probably be comfortable with.
After that, we move on to the second of the two segments, which is not set on Halloween. It's called The Man in the Suitcase, and was directed by David Bruckner (V/H/S, The Ritual) from a script by novelist/comedian Christopher Buehlman. As this segment played out, I started to feel that it stuck to a pattern that was established by the previous episodes. Each episode started off with a weaker segment, then followed that up with the one that really made the episode memorable. That's not to say I thought any of the segments in these three episodes were bad, just that I found The House of the Head to be the more entertaining half of the first episode and The Finger to be the more entertaining half of the second episode. After the first time I watched this episode, nothing about All Hallow's Eve stuck with me, but I certainly remembered The Man in the Suitcase.
This segment does feel like it was written by someone who works in comedy; it is really amusing, in a very oddball sort of way. The story begins with a young man named Justin (Will Kidrachuck) waiting to pick up his suitcase from an airport carousel. He ends up grabbing the wrong suitcase, though, because the one he takes back to his apartment turns out not to contain his clothes. Instead, this suitcase contains - as the title of the segment says - a man (Ravi Naidu), who has had his body and limbs bent and twisted in impossible ways so he's stuck in the suitcase. As Justin tries to help this man out, a gold coin comes flying out of the man's mouth. He explains that he has an "unfortunate condition" that causes him to produce gold when he's in pain. This condition is why you shouldn't stop to question how a suitcase containing a man was able to make it through airport security. There's some kind of magic at work here.
The situation really falls apart when Justin's ex Carla (Madison Bailey) and his friend Alex (Ian Gregg) find out about the man in the suitcase. With no compassion for the man, they set out on a "get rich quick" scheme that involves torturing him a variety of horrible ways, keeping a steady stream of gold coins flowing from his mouth. Justin benefits from this as well, but at least he feels bad about it. Carla and Alex are just completely cold-blooded. And if you know how this sort of story works, you know that these unscrupulous characters are going to get their comeuppance. While The Man in the Suitcase feels very modern, it harkens back to the classic morality tales from the EC Comics that Creepshow was inspired by in the first place.
All Hallow's Eve is a good segment, but The Man in the Suitcase is the one that sticks with me and makes me feel that this third episode is a great entry in the Creepshow franchise.
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