Pipe Screams, the first story in the fourth episode of Creepshow season 2, reminded me of Critters 3 - which isn't something I can say very often, that a piece of entertainment reminded me of Critters 3. But this did, because much like the Crites ended up in a big city apartment building in their third film, Pipe Screams was sort of like a big city apartment building follow-up to the segment The Raft from Creepshow 2. The Raft is a lot of viewers' favorite Creepshow segment of all time, so it makes sense that something like that has made its way into Shudder's Creepshow TV show.
The slimy thing in Pipe Screams isn't exactly the slimy, man-eating thing from the lake in Creepshow 2, but it's a lot like it. Just smaller and hairier. In this story written by Daniel Kraus - who recently completed the novel Creepshow director and Creepshow 2 writer George A. Romero was working on when he passed away, The Living Dead - Barbara Crampton plays Victoria, landlady of a rundown apartment building with clogged drains. Victoria calls in Linus (Eric Edelstein), a plumber from the worst-reviewed plumbing company in the city, and while telling him about the problem she also displays a nasty attitude and expresses some awful opinions, setting herself up to be the sort of Creepshow character who is going to deserve comeuppance.
Most of the segment involves Linus finding that the drains are clogged by a slimy, hairy living creature, and then having to fight for his life against this thing. Along the way, there are also some nice nods to the segment The Crate from the first Creepshow movie mixed in with the Creepshow 2 similarities.
Pipe Screams was directed by Joe Lynch, and while I'm a fan of Lynch, I wasn't really into his first Creepshow segment, The Right Snuff, in the previous episode. This one, I was totally into. Pipe Screams was a blast, and Lynch did a great job with it.
I was excited to see the name of the director on the next segment, Within the Walls of Madness, because this marks the return of John Harrison to the Creepshow series. Harrison composed the iconic score for the original Creepshow, and directed four story segments throughout the first season of the series. He had been absent from season 2 up to this point, so I'm glad he was able to contribute before it ended.
Written by John Esposito from a story he crafted with the show's "creative supervisor" Greg Nicotero, Within the Walls of Madness is a Lovecraftian tale with nods to films like The Thing and The Trollenberg Terror (a.k.a. The Crawling Eye). The trouble begins when a scientist named Trollenberg (Denise Crosby), stationed at a research facility on top of a snowy mountain, investigates a cave in the Arctic landscape and discovers evidence of ancient creatures - creatures that have a way of returning in the modern world with the help of something that "bends time, opens doorways". When they do show up, it doesn't go well for any humans who are around.
Within the Walls of Madness was much less appealing to me than Pipe Screams was, but it's a decent story that held my attention well enough for its 20 minutes, and it has a satisfyingly dark ending.
Sadly, that dark ending wraps up the penultimate episode of Creepshow season 2. While season 1 consisted of six episodes, this second season was only five. One to go, and then comes the wait for season 3.
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