George Romero and Stephen King’s Creepshow film scared audiences back in 1982 with a collection of stories that looked like classic horror comics come to life. Now, the horror streaming channel Shudder looks to achieve the same with a new, 12-part anthology series that already looks like a spectacularly terrifying tribute to the same comics the Romero film, and King comic book, paid homage to. Here’s the trailer:
The trailer starts and ends with the horror ramped all the way up, with monstrous images and ghostly vibes that evoke a kind of violent giddiness. We see a girl opening a doll house only to find a small woman inside it, next to a chair covered in blood. We see creatures curled up in dark places and people impossibly crammed into suitcases. We see Nazis with gasmasks on, going about their sadistic ways. And we see the Creep himself, opening chests full of Creepshow comics. The trailer hits hard and is pretty clear in letting viewers know subtlety isn’t in its vocabulary. So expect buckets of blood in each episode.
The series’ show runner is none other than Greg Nicotero, who in a statement said the show would be like “a comic book come to life!” And the trailer goes deep into this, with shots of sequences transitioning into different scenes as if they were comic book panels. Colors explode on the screen as of they were taken from a 1940s EC Horror comic like The Vault of Horror or The Haunt of Fear. For those who have read King’s Creepshow comic, which was illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, the images will feel very familiar.
Among the stories included in the anthology is a particularly sinister short story by Bird Box author Josh Malerman, titled “House of the Head,” about a malevolent doll house (seen in the opening part of the trailer). King will also have one of his stories adapted for the show, titled “Gray Matter,” which is set in the same universe as Dreamcatcher and It (see the trailer of It Chapter II here).
The list of contributors for Creepshow reads like a horror all-star of talent, from horror titans like Joe R. Lansdale and Joe Hill to David J. Schow and John Skipp. These creators are known to be game-changers within the genre. Schow and Skipp, for instance, are considered ambassadors of Splatterpunk (a term coined by Schow in 1986), which referred to stories with graphically described scenes of extreme gore and ultraviolence.
Segments for the first season of Creepshow include “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” by Hill, “The Companion” by Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale and Keith Lansdale, “The Finger” by Schow, “Lydia Layne’s Better Half” by Nicotero and John Harrison, “Night of the Paw” by John Esposito, “Bad Wolf Down” by Rob Schrab, “All Hallows Eve” by Bruce Jones, “The Man in the Suitcase” by Christopher Buehlman, “Times is Tough in Musky Holler” by Skipp and Dori Miller, and “Skincrawlers” Paul Dini and Stephen Langford.
Launching in tandem with the TV series is Creepshow #0, edited and adapted by Tim Seeley. The comic will include two stories, “That Sinkhole Feeling” by Nicotero and “Two for the Road” by Byron Willinger and Philip Deblasi. It will by published by Heavy Metal and feature a cover by The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard. Seeley and Nicotero will be signing the comic at SDCC this Saturday. You can also purchase the comic on the Heavy Metal website.
Creepshow is set to premiere on September 26 of this year on Shudder. It already looks like it’ll be the most fun you’ll have being scared.
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