Creepshow: Skincrawlers/By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain

Sometimes monsters are a metaphor for man’s inhumanity. Other times, they are just icky, slimy buggers. The first of monster of the Creepshow season finale is both, but they are much more the latter, whereas the episode’s second monster is more about the former. Either way there will be monsters in the first season capper of Creepshow, which just debuted on Shudder.

In Skincrawlers, Dr. Sloan has developed a radical weight loss technique employing a rare form of monster leech he discovered in South America. Yep, you already get the idea. He has no shortage of volunteers to help launch his treatment, but Henry Quayle is still skeptical. Nevertheless, the transformation of a fellow fatty into a hottie convinces him to be the volunteer for Sloan’s big TV premiere, but there will be complications.

Skincrawlers is absolutely vintage Creepshow. It is gleefully gory and disgusting, but the blood and slime is all in good tasteless fun. Screenwriters Paul Dini and Stephen Langford serve up big laughs and director Roxanne Benjamin keeps upping the WTF stakes. This is what Creepshow and the E.C. Comics that inspired it were all about. As an added bonus, Dana Gould keeps it all mostly grounded, playing Quayle with sad-clown-dignity—and handling the gallons of practical effects like a champ.

It is therefore surprising the first season ends with the middling By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain, even though it is based on a Joe Hill short story and is directed by Tom Savini (thereby establishing another apostolic link to the 1982 movie). In fact, Lake Champlain follows a narrative course that is very similar to that of Creepshow’s The Companion, based on a Joe R. Lansdale story. In this case, a sea monster replaces a killer scarecrow, but domestic violence still represents a more pressing danger.

Creepshow: The Companion & Lydia Layne’s Better Half

The Frankenstein motif definitely warns against the hubris of playing god, but it can often be boiled down to something even more fundamental: the monsters we create are the ones most likely to get us. That is certainly true of a farmer who is a little too handy with his hands and a celebrity CEO a little too prone to woke posturing in this week’s episode of Creepshow, which just premiered on Shudder.

Despite its impressive genre lineage as a Joe R. Lansdale short story adaptation, with David Bruckner helming, The Companion is a pretty conventional and unremarkable episode opener. The atmosphere is certainly creepy, but this yarn about a scarecrow that comes to murderous life is a whole lot like any number of films we’ve already seen. Arguably, what most distinguishes it is Afemo Omiliani’s tragically dignified performance as Brenner, the farmer who originally creates the titular straw man during an extended flashback. If you are in the mood for some rural horror, it will probably take the edge off, but you still have to wonder why Brenner’s farm is in the middle of a cemetery.

In contrast, director Roxanne Benjamin (whose credits include contributions to XX and Southbound) serves up a wickedly funny pitch-black comedy with Lydia Layne’s Better Half. Layne is a Ted-Talking feminist CEO who regularly accepts awards for empowering working women. However, when she passes over her lover for a coveted promotion, in favor of a nebbish bean-counting dude, it leads to all kinds of awkwardness. Feeling betrayed, Celia becomes aggressive and starts making threats. Before you know it, Layne has a bloody mess on her hands that she must covertly clean-up.

Better Half is gleefully macabre, diving head first into the one-darned-thing-after-another mayhem it unleashes. Basically, it is like Louis Malle’s Escalator to the Gallows with a gallon of blood splattered over it. For horror fans, it is good clean fun that perfectly represents the spirit of the original 1982 Creepshow film and the EC Comics that inspired it. As a bonus, it lands a few satiric potshots at the preening progressive brand of corporate culture.