Editorials
Six Episodes, Twelve Tales of Terror: We Rank Every Segment of Shudder’s “Creepshow”
The record-breaking first season of Shudder’s original anthology series Creepshow has wrapped up (just in time for a second season to be announced!), offering 12 new tales of terror from the likes of Stephen King, Greg Nicotero, Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, John Harrison, David J. Schow, Joe Hill, and Tom Savini, among others.
As is the case with almost any horror anthology, the offerings were uneven – some were terrific, others not as successful. While there wasn’t an out and out clunker in the bunch, there’s no getting around the fact that not all of Season One’s segments were created equally.
It’s time to look back at the highs and lows of the first six episodes.
12) “By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain” (Episode 6) It brings me no joy to rank this one last, seeing as how it’s adapted from a story by Joe Hill and the only Season One installment directed by the great Tom Savini, who directs all too rarely. A young girl misses her father while coping with mom’s abusive boyfriend puts her faith in a lake monster her dad once claimed to have seen. Though it tries to say some things about abuse and childhood belief, the emotional beats come across a little too saccharine; the results feel dramatically limp. It takes too long to get where it’s going; by the time it finally arrives, the results are too little, too late.
11) “Grey Matter” (Episode 1) This new iteration of Creepshow got off to a somewhat shaky start with this segment, adapted from a Stephen King story and directed by makeup FX legend Greg Nicotero, who also serves as showrunner. It’s about a kid whose alcoholic father is slowly changing into…something else. Despite boasting one of the most impressive casts of the season – a lineup that includes Tobin Bell, Adrienne Barbeau, and Giancarlo Esposito – as well as some cool and goopy practical effects, “Grey Matter” never quite comes together in a satisfying way, making the segment a pretty mixed bag. Thankfully, the back half of Episode 1 was much more promising.
10) “The Companion” (Episode 4) Fairly standard revenge yarn, adapted from a short story by Joe Lansdale, about a bullied kid who discovers a killer scarecrow willing to do his bidding. David Bruckner (V/H/S “Amateur Night,” The Ritual) directs it well and even brings a bit of gothic flavor to this story, which is almost slow burn until it eventually rips. Everything about this segment is competently done, but its lack of any real surprises lands it on the lower half of the list.
9) “Times is Tough in Musky Hollar” (Episode 5) Gritty prison drama-slash-zombie story about a former mayor locked up in a prison with several of his co-conspirators (including David Arquette), all being held captive by angry townspeople with a score to settle. Director John Harrison was the composer for the original Creepshow and director of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, so he knows his way around anthology horror and gets a good deal of mileage out of the show’s comic book approach. Though it takes a stab at political relevance, there’s almost too much story and too many ideas for this segment’s running time, so it never really comes together in a satisfying way despite displaying a great deal of promise. The same comic book shortcuts that work in something like “Bad Wolf Down” here prove to be a hindrance. At least the effects are cool.
8) “Lydia Layne’s Better Half” (Episode 4) Tricia Helfer brings some star power to this darkly comic morality play about an executive who murders her employee/lover but runs into trouble when trying to dispose of the body. Written by John Harrison and Greg Nicotero and directed by Roxanne Benjamin (XX, Body at Brighton Rock), “Lydia Layne” is more of a character piece than most of the other Creepshow segments – a distinction that’s to the short’s benefit. Reminiscent, in some ways, of the great Tales from the Crypt segment “And All Through the House” (in terms of the challenges of getting rid of a body), “Lydia Layne” tries for a bit of social commentary but is ultimately a little too thin to pull it off.
7) “All Hallows Eve” (Episode 3) The most emotional segment of the season centers on a group of kids trick-or-treating on Halloween night. This being Creepshow, there’s obviously more to it than first meets the eye. This one scores major points for its Halloween atmosphere – an entry set on the best holiday of the year is a must for any horror anthology series – and for some genuinely sad and moving developments in its story. It’s less “horror” than many of the season’s other offerings, but one of the things I really like about Creepshow’s inaugural season is that allows for so many different flavors inside the genre.
6) “Bad Wolf Down” (Episode 2) Sure, this WWII werewolf tale directed by Rob Schrab is basically Dog Soldiers, but it’s punchy and fun and features Jeffrey Combs playing a Nazi. Between the color palette and some of the editing, this is also the first segment of the season to really lean into the old Creepshow comic book style, cleverly using animated panel transitions to compensate for the lack of budget to do full werewolf transformations. It’s a fun one.
5) “Skincrawlers” (Episode 6) The more successful of director Roxanne Benjamin’s Season One contributions is also the goriest outing to date. Dana Gould plays a man looking into a radical weight loss treatment that has…explosive results. I’m a fan of gore that goes giddily, gleefully over the top – the kind where I feel like I can imagine the director cackling off camera at what she or he has orchestrated. That’s how I felt about the climax that Benjamin orchestrates here. Again, I love that Creepshow has made room for all kinds of horror in its first season, including gnarly splatstick comedy like “Skincrawlers.”
4) “The House of the Head” (Episode 1) An extremely creepy affair, once again directed by John Harrison, arguably the MVP of Creepshow’s first season. It features a ghoulish disembodied toy head that suddenly appears in a little girl’s dollhouse, causing her other dolls to begin behaving strangely. This might be the most psychologically unsettling segment of the first season. If only it had managed to stick the landing a little better.
3) “Night of the Paw” (Episode 5) Despite being the umpteenth retelling of W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw,” this John Harrison-directed installment is one of Creepshow’s strongest offerings by virtue of its moody atmosphere and a terrific performance by Bruce Davison. He plays an undertaker who rescues a woman on the run and spins an elaborate tale of finding a paw that seemingly grants wishes, with dark and macabre results. The punchline of this one is in the grand E.C. comics tradition.
2) “The Man in the Suitcase” (Episode 3) One of the most offbeat segments of the first season – even by Creepshow standards – is also one of the best. A young man whose life is dangerously close to shambles accidentally picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, only to discover that inside is a badly contorted man who, it turns out, dispenses money when caused pain. This bizarre riff on the standard genie-in-the-lamp tale is yet another morality play, though this one’s willing to reward the decent more than Creepshow usually is. Director David Bruckner takes such a straightforward approach to the material (written by Christopher Buehlman) that he totally sells the insanity, finding the perfect balance between humor and horror, camp and class. The whole segment is like a dazzling high wire act.
1) “The Finger” (Episode 2) My favorite segment of Season One comes from showrunner Greg Nicotero and author David J. Schow. It tells the story of a divorced man (DJ Qualls) who finds a finger that rapidly grows into a creature he nicknames Bob, brought to wonderful life through what looks like stop motion animation and practical puppetry. Bob begins acting on all of the man’s darkest desires and things get bloody pretty fast. Not only is Bob a great creation, but his bond with Qualls’ character and the actor’s direct-to-camera narration sets this one apart from every other segment in the season.
Part morality tale, part creature feature, “The Finger” is classic Creepshow.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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