Directed by Greg Nicotero, the stories of Creepshow are full of horror and gore. The series does not stick to the conventional genre tropes; it explores segments like horror comedy, nature horror, fantasy, cult horror, and a lot more. Some of the similar horror classics to explore if one is into the stories of Creepshow are Drag Me to Hell, Fright Night, The Cabin in the Woods, and others. Each story lasting about 25 minutes is sure to make you lose your sleep at night. Will you be spooked by the stories? Let’s find out!
Spoilers Ahead
Story 1: Recap and Ending
Jay, a writer, has been struggling to meet his deadlines. He looks up to a famous writer, Stephen Bachman, and thinks that he never experienced any writer’s block. He mentions to his wife Astrid that two or three of Stephen’s books used to get published every year and how genius they were. He asks her if she has been promoted to senior architect in office, and she sulks as they both bask in their failures and comfort each other. Later, he goes to his publisher, Nicole’s office, and she asks him if he has ever been into any luck charms, and he mentions that he is not superstitious. She shows him the lucky charm of famous writers and that of Stephen Bachman, which was a hat. She tells him how the hat helped Bachman get through his dry spells and made him famous. Nicole asks Jay if he wants to take the risk and become the next Stephen Bachman. Jay agrees, and she gives him the hat. After wearing the hat, Jay starts acting frantic and writes his novels nonstop, garnering a lot of appreciation from Nicole and the readers.
Jay behaves maniacally, forgets bathing or eating, and keeps typing constantly. He even forgets his own birthday and later gets blamed by Astrid for being obsessed with the hat. She leaves him, but his mania for typing pages after pages does not stop. He later receives a call from the secretary of Mr. Bachman saying that he was quite impressed by his latest novel and that he wanted to meet him.
After going to meet Mr. Bachman, Jay gets insulted by him, and he asks him to give him back his hat, but he refuses and comes back with it. After reaching home, he finds it difficult to remove his hat and cuts it out with a knife. He notices a larva-like creature inside the hat that has been feeding on his brain. The creature tries attacking him, and he shoots it and later finds many eggs in the case of the hat. He goes to Nicole and tells her that she did not warn him about the consequences, and then she says that she was clear in stating that there were risks. He walks out of a book deal with Nicole, and when she tries stopping him, he throws one of the creatures at her. He later visits his wife and finds her making genius sketches of buildings non-stop, which has taken her to great heights. He notices a hat on Astrid’s head and understands that the same creatures are gorging on her brain now.
This story makes it clear that there is no going back from shortcuts once a person embarks on that path. There was no going back for Jay, as he had found a means to gain fame by putting that hat on. Hard work only pays off after true struggles, not by resorting to shortcuts. Jay holds on to the hat even after he goes to meet Mr. Bachman and sees his condition. He should have given up on the monstrous hat right after seeing Bachman’s state. He wanted to cling on to fame for a while, resulting in disastrous consequences. The hat that Astrid was wearing could have been infected by the same larvae that were in Jay’s hat. Therefore, it can be said that keeping bad company is like entering an area that is infested with bugs. Bad habits are highly contagious!
Story 2: Recap and Ending
A couple, Richard and April, are seen celebrating the official success of the wife in their drawing room. The seemingly happy atmosphere turn peculiar when a tragedy occurs. As Richard is seen waiting for April to return from the office, he receives a call from Detective Kiernan, from the victim’s unit. He rushes to the scene of the incident and is told that she had been attacked by someone in the parking lot, but fortunately she had survived. The detectives strangely find a flower at the spot of the incident. Later, when April returns home from the hospital, she acts very strange, misbehaving with her sister and husband. She is unable to keep anything down and throws up. She has also developed an affinity for staying in enclosed places, avoiding the sun completely. Her sister, Jean, tells Richard that it could have been a result of the trauma that she has undergone. April behaves very strangely and asks her sister to leave home after calling her a “freeloader”, gaining sympathy from people. This comment hurts Jean to the core, and she leaves the house to go and live with her friends. Later, Richard is seen cooking her all kinds of food, but she refuses to eat them. Later, when a psychologist comes to visit her, April kills her and feeds on her flesh, sending chills down Richard’s spine. Just as he is about to call for help, April stops him, tells him that she is very hungry, and continues chomping on human flesh.
Richard understands that his wife has turned into a monster after the injuries that she had incurred during the attack on her. He starts killing people for the sake of feeding April, and being a chef, he starts making her delicacies with human flesh. Later, when Jean arrives to meet her sister, she is thrown down into the basement by Richard, where April is now living, and she ends up getting attacked and killed. Richard comes across a little girl who hurt herself on the road, and he lures her home, thinking that she could make a good supper for his wife. Just as the child is led into the basement by Richard, Detective Kiernan arrives and says that she has come to check in with them. She also expressed her doubts, saying that many people were missing in the town, and later, when she went down to the basement, she was attacked. This time, it was the little girl who attacked her, and Richard finds out that this child was a monster and was the one to attack his wife in the first place. Both April and the child came to Richard with their plates, indicating that Richard was their caregiver now. Richard was so blinded by his love for his wife that he had forgotten to separate the right from the wrong.
Was this story quite similar to zombie apocalypses in films like Alive, Dawn of the Dead. and others? Not really! I don’t think the story has a typical zombie apocalypse theme. There is more to the story behind the girl turning into a monster and then eventually attacking April. This could have been the result of some experiment or some chemical reaction. The story has certain loopholes, as we are not told anything about the background of the small girl or how she was infected. A flashback of where she was attacked or experimented on could have made the story a lot more clear. Why was Richard not attacked? There is a great possibility that Richard was the one experimenting with people, which has, however, not been depicted in the episode. There is a possibility that the director may try exploring this theme somewhere in any of his other episodes.
Final Thoughts
Despite having a lot of bloodshed and horror, the stories have some significant meanings and purposes attached to them. The first story warns us about shortcuts leading to downfalls, and the second story warns us about the dangers of unsupervised experiments. The visuals are blood-curdling, even with pinches of comedy added to them. All the stories are unique, giving out some or another social message to the audiences. Both stories were well-knit, with certain loopholes existing only in the second story. Maybe the loopholes in the story could have been because of a lack of time to explore other themes further. Otherwise, the episode was quite entertaining!
