Creepshow Trailer Will Freak You Out In The Best Way
Want a ticket to the Creepshow? Shudder has the hook-up.
The horror-centric subscription service operated by AMC Networks unleashed the first trailer for Creepshow during the madness of San Diego Comic-Con 2019 on Friday, just in time to give audiences at home nightmares to last through the weekend.
Produced by prolific horror special effects make-up creator and The Walking Dead director Greg Nicotero, Creepshow revives horror maestros George A. Romero and Stephen King's anthology film of the same name for a "comic book come to life." The first look at the TV series taps into that aesthetic, displaying haunting images with a unique, pop-off-the-screen style sure to spook viewers in the best way.
We watch as a young girl pries open a Victorian-era dollhouse (because everyone knows that creepy dolls are one of the biggest horror motifs ever and the perfect resting place for the disturbed soul of some long-slain person) and looks inside to find a woman covered in blood, breathing as if she's hanging on to life by a single thread. That clip is from "The House of the Head," a story dreamt up by Bird Box novelist Josh Malerman translated into an episode directed by original Creepshow assistant director John Harrison.
Then, after a loud scream and flashes of haunting creatures, the Creepshow trailer flicks to tease a ton of other tales awaiting us: a family moving into a house that is probably (read: definitely) haunted, soldiers wearing gas masks and toting guns, someone opening up a chest filled with Creepshow comics (the same that the young boy Billy reads in the original film's prologue), bloody hand prints streaking a wall, a woman clutching a cross necklace, the body of what looks to be a shriveled-up alien resting in a freezer, men wearing skeleton face paint and taunting someone off-screen, a man shoved in a suitcase, a woman snapping her own neck, and a disembodied head resting on a bed. There are even glimpses of the freaky apparition called Creep that are sure to make fans of the Romero-King brainchild very pleased.
Boy, what a way to tease a new series. The trailer for Creepshow seems to prove that Nicotero and co. struck a fine balance between honoring the original film and taking it, giving it a fresh coat of paint, and making it spooky enough for modern audiences (who are becoming increasingly desensitized to scares on screen). Whether you're brave enough to dive into Creepshow is up to your own judgment, but we here at Looper are prepared to catch the series as soon as it premieres — even if we end up watching it through our fingers.
Creepshow features a stacked cast that includes Adrienne Barbeau (the original Creepshow), Tobin Bell (the Saw franchise), Tricia Helfer (Lucifer), Roxanne Benjamin (Body at Brighton Rock), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), DJ Qualls (The Man in the High Castle, Supernatural), and more. Nicotero will make an appearance on an episode, as will King's own son Joe Hill, known for writing the horror novel NOS4A2.
The series will feature two-segment-long episodes written by Hill ("By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain"); John Esposito ("Night of the Paw"); Nicotero and John Harrison ("Lydia Layne's Better Half"); Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, and Keith Lansdale ("The Companion"); Rob Schrab ("Bad Wolf Down"); Bruce Jones ("All Hallows Eve"); Christopher Buehlman ("The Man in the Suitcase"); John Skipp and Dori Miller ("Times is Tough in Musky Holler"); David J. Schow ("The Finger"); and Paul Dini and Stephen Langford ("Skincrawlers").
Creepshow will creep onto Shudder on September 26.