Shudder’s “Creepshow” is back for yet another season piling on four whole seasons for Shudder and AMC. Not too shabby for a series that set a high bar with its original films. “Creepshow” season four is about as great as ever, opting for a lot of the classic EC Comics narratives. Many of the segments within season four involve tales of comeuppance, revenge tales, and sometimes morality plays. Often times show runner Gregory Nicotero and co. opts for primarily horror mixed with dark comedy a la the original “Creepshow” film.
There are occasional detours in to darker horror, but the menu primarily serves up horror segments that are based on tongue in cheek humor, a ton of gore, and usually big ironic twists that we loved about the classic EC Comics. I still wish we could see the Creeper from “Creepshow 2,” but the Creeper primarily just works as a means of bringing us from Story A to Story B. The one consolation is the fantastic art that makes up the intros and segment transitions. We were granted access to the first six episodes of the fourth season (all of which will be made available on October 13th) and the series, for the most part, brings some pretty entertaining and fun episodes.
Every episode is an hour in length with two half hour segments, which also can tend to work against the experience as some segments are so vastly different in tone is can be inconsistent. Nevertheless, “Creepshow” kicks off with a bang with the clever “Twenty Minutes with Cassandra” as directed by Greg Nicotero, and its follow up the sterner in tone “Smile,” as directed by John Harrison. Since season one, Nicotero and co have managed to really grasp on to the effects allowing for much more polished episodes. The quality in production increases even if the segments per episode tend to hit or miss.
When the series hits, it’s a wry and clever horror treat. But when it misses, it presents kind of a pointless experience that’s only really saved by the great special effects. Nevertheless, “Creepshow” is worth getting back in to. It’s the perfect pre-Halloween scrimmage.
Premiering October 13th on Shudder, and then on AMC+, and AMC at 10pm ET/9c. New single episodes will air weekly after the first six episodes are offered for viewing.