Creepshow was first a film by King and George A. Romero. It contained 5 shorter movies. Then there was a second movie also by King and Romero. Next a third movie was released. This one had nothing to do with King so that one we can just forget, it just tried to cash in on the association between the title Creepshow and King’s name. It didn’t succeed. Now there is a TV show coming. It’s connected to King since it’s adapting one of King’s stories, Gray Matter. It also adapts a story by Joe Hill, By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain which is also a connection to the original film since Joe had a small part in it (he plays the kid in the wraparound story). So, this show feels somewhat like King’s Creepshow but also not. There are a lot of other short films based on stories by other writers.

Anyhow, I got to see a preview of the first episode that contains the adaptation of King’s Gray Matter and a segment called The House of the Head based on a story by John Harrison. These two short films are part of the first episode (each episode will have two stories). I’m going to focus on King’s episode primarily in this review. If I get to see the rest of the season, I’ll get back to them.

I want to start by saying that the version I saw didn’t have the final FX and that might be part of why I feel the episode felt very low budget. I’m not convinced that’s the case though since it was indicated where the FX wasn’t finished, I assume that it was in the rest of the episode, but I still want to mention it here. The Creepshow movies are labeled horror comedy and have tagline like ”The most fun you’ll have being scared”. They are also based on comics from the 50’s but even though I try to take that in consideration here it still feels cheap. The crypt keeper feels like a discharged character from The Muppet Show and not in a good way. Very stiff.

But let’s move on to King’s story. The acting is mediocre (specially from the kid) which feels very strange considering the actors they have here. We see Adrienne Barbeau, Tobin Bell and Giacarlo Esposito but it doesn’t help. Not sure why but it doesn’t work. The element of surprise is totally disregarded, and we know pretty much from the start what is happening to the boy’s father and it’s no surprise when we reach the ending of the story. And again, the special effects (the ones that are there) look cheap at best.

I really wanted this to be a success but if the following episodes are like this, I’m very skeptical that there will be a second season...

What really disappoints me is the crypt keeper. Terrible.