Yes, I have been heaping praise on this show all season; well it really does deserve it. I literally get excited wondering what they’ll do next and this week; episode 5 takes a cool sly turn. The episode not only gives us a classic supernatural segment, they mixed in three callbacks (that I counted, there could be more) coupled with dare I say an unspoken political message.
“Night of the Paw”
A mortician saves the life of a woman who shows up at his door one night, but unbeknownst to her, the man had wished for a murderer to come put him out of his misery… maybe she wasn’t so fortunate after all.
Written by: John Esposito
Directed by: John Harrison
Cast: Bruce Davison, Hannah Barefoot, Susannah Devereux, Grace Toso, Ryan Clay Gwaltney
Writer Esposito does a good job retelling the monkey’s paw narrative, and doing it in true Creepshow way. There are of course some nice comedic and good suspenseful moments where of course you are waiting to see what happens next.
Word of advice: never trust a house that has Queen Anne furniture past the year 1988 – just saying.
Bruce Davison is good in his role as the grieving widower, and Hannah Barefoot also is entertaining to watch. There is a nice cemetery and a good morgue scene for us this week in this segment.
“Times is Tough in Musky Holler”
Former Mayor Lester Barkley is in prison, and with his most loyal supporters locked up too, his odds don’t look good. Their gruesome means of control went too far, and now, they’ll be getting a taste of their own medicine—or rather, the dead will be getting a taste of their former mayor.
Written by: John Skipp and Dori Miller
Directed by: John Harrison
Cast: David Arquette, Dane Rhodes, Karen Strassman, Tommy Kane, Tracey Bonner, Kermit Rolison, Connor Hammond
This is an uber short segment; it might be the shortest of the series so far. At first, you might be annoyed by that, but trust me it’s the strongest of the episode.
The story moves quickly and ends in just a way you that makes you think, “Wait what happened?” That’s the strength of it; on the rewatch you will pick up on the clear political message. And, yeah it’s horror. 😉 The ending is a callback to “Something to Tide You Over”, from the ‘82 Creepshow movie, and did I see a little Motel Hell mixed in there? I think, yes.
There is a nice appearance from David Arquette, who shook off his nice guy Dewey character here – pretty well.
Overall, the episode has gore, murder, zombies and callbacks. John Harrison directed both segments, so they fit together quite well.The common theme of the night is clearly consequences, in the case of “Night of the Paw” of course wishing on a monkey’s paw always brings the wish, but at what consequence? And, in the case of “Times is Tough in Musky Holler” there is literally a trial held in consequence of the investigation. I usually pick one segment as my favorite of the episode, but because there is such a clever use of theme, I cannot pick.
Bravo y’all.
Shudder’s horror anthology series Creepshow, airs Thursday, October 24 at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT, both on the Shudder TV live-stream and on demand.