 Thank you for checking out this no spoilers movie review This is for the second episode of the creep show series on shutter I originally was told that I would only be getting the first episode as a screener So I could do a review ahead of it hitting shutter, but apparently it's gonna happen for all of these So I'm excited about that. So I will be able to continually throughout this first season of this of the show Bring you these reviews ahead of time, but like I said, no spoilers. I'm not gonna ruin things for you. So Getting off on the on the kind of wrong foot for me personally, but I know a lot of people probably like this The first episode it didn't really bother me like they're kind of host This kind of like skeleton-y mummy type guy He was kind of cool. I like I like the design of him I like how he looks. I like the idea of him But in the second one, I was kind of like I don't feel like I need it I just want the stories kind of and I just want more of the stories to be honest because like I said in the first one It seems like at least that first story the gray matter one seemed like it needed more time to develop and get some more things going And I just kind of want that, you know, like doing one hour per episode would be amazing Even jumping it up to a half hour for each one would really help a lot for some of them But you know, it is what it is and I know there are gonna be some people are out there like I love that kind of like Connection of the stories with that main character. That's fine. It's just a personal thing So the first story on episode 2 is bad wolf down. This is written and directed by Rob Shrob who wrote the script for the the movie monster house. Yeah, the Zemeckis film monster house Which I thought was good for being like a kid's horror thing Saw it a long time ago. So I'm going off of memory here now I Mainly know him from something super super nerdy. I'm gonna reveal something about myself here He is involved with a podcast called fear initiative, which is a tabletop gaming horror podcast Through the Blumhouse podcasting network. Yes, Blumhouse has a podcasting network. Yes I'm into tabletop gaming's Dungeons and Dragons Pathfinder all those types of nerdy things So I listen to that podcast and Rob Shrob is on it. He's one of the players But sometimes he's not on it because work and I think part of it was for you know doing this So good on him. So this one stars Jeffrey combs and kid Cuddy Those are the big names in it that they kind of put out there Obviously all of us horror fans know Jeffrey combs from reanimator from Castle freak You name it. What was the most recent one? I saw him in would you rather? I think was was it not a great movie, but he did a really good job. He always does a great job So that's the thing like my one of my favorite Parts of this particular story bad wolf down was watching Jeffrey combs in the role that he was in Because he had a lot of fun with it You could tell and he just poured a lot into it and when he was on the screen. He stole The show so if you're a Jeffrey combs fan like I am you just kind of geek out a little bit when he's doing that role And you'll see what you'll see what role it is if you're gonna watch it So the title The title as well as something or very early on in it within like the first minute or so that's shown on screen Let's you know exactly where it's going pretty much and and so for that reason I feel like when you do that when you let people know upfront This is what it's gonna be you kind of either have to have some sort of twist that tells people Oh, no, no, no, it's not gonna be that or you have to Deliver on the gore on the violence on, you know, just being fun and cool and Gory to say the least and I feel like this delivers on some comedy That works well, but there is some comedy in it that actually doesn't work well at all There was one line in particular. I'm not gonna say what it is, but you know what I'm talking about I think that the line was said and it's supposed to be funny and I was like Like not funny at all like definitely not funny, but that should have been cut out But there is some good comedy especially in the end. There is some Good violence good gore in the end that does feel like a nice payout Pay off I should say but one of the problems is it feels slow. It's weird because let me well Let me go through my notes here. Oh First of all, the music is overly dramatic at certain parts I think they were actually going for that to make it like a little bit funny a little bit ridiculous But it actually kind of seemed a little over the line in my opinion. So sorry The acting overall is okay, but Jeffrey comes like I said great I don't think I saw enough of Kid Cudi by the way He seemed like in certain moments he seemed kind of and in other moments He seemed like he was really handling it and doing pretty well So I need to see more of him in an acting role to really form an opinion because I saw a little bit of everything So there's a really really smart. Okay. I'm gonna talk about it at the end actually. Sorry about that Okay, so the good gory payoff happens at the end mixed with comedy And I'm very very happy about that but like I was saying the early portion Sorry to repeat myself a little bit it felt like it was rushed and dragged at the same time Up until that end portion where I said there's a good payoff Which is really I had to say about a film that's actually less than 20 minutes in its runtime to be like it's It's rushed and feels like it's dragging at the same time. It's really weird And you'll know what I'm talking about It's kind of like you could have done something a little bit different with the story to keep it moving for that amount of time Because it's not a whole lot of time. It seemed like they were Kind of wasting time a little bit to get to what they needed to get to so I was kind of like that's a little weird But that's the problem like I just wrote it down like it's hard to get a balance when you're going with something so Short like you really need to find this kind of medium of like moving it fast enough But having enough story development and I could see it being really really tough to nail these types of things So I did want to say real quick that there was a very very smart moment in this film where they there was something that they had to do and I Don't want to ruin it. So I'm gonna be careful with my words there's something they had to do with the film and it was gonna involve CG and And I think they knew their limitations are very smart about and they're like look We don't have a high budget It would take a lot to make the CG look how it should and be impressive and be really good So they use a technique they actually went to the comic panels To do that portion of the story Which I felt was kind of genius to be honest because some people would be like, oh, it's a cop out I wanted to see the CG but no I just think it was really smart because you're working within the confines of what you know You have as a budget or time-wise or effort like whatever you can do and it worked because creep show is Steeped in comic anyway So and they've already established in the first episode that they're going to incorporate that they're gonna have you know some pages of comics and show comic panels throughout the show so It worked it worked really was actually really impressed with that when it happened I was like, oh, I see what they did there very smart and then the practical effects in the end I thought were very nice very nice They don't give you a whole lot of the practical effects like they could have given you a lot more but I Like I said, I know they had to keep it low budget and it was enough It was enough so I would say overall there's some issues with this But there's some really good things about it. So I I put it in the okay category for me It's not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination of the four But I thought it was decent. There was there was enough to enjoy there. So good job, Rob Okay, then we get to the next one the finger which I am gonna tell you off Right off the bat that this one is my favorite Of the four I've seen thus far. I know it's not a lot to pick from but if you watch my first review You know, I had a lot of really awesome things to say about House of the head And I still really like that, but I like the finger even more and I will tell you why oh real quick I guess I should give a star rating in my opinion to bad wolf down. Am I doing that? Did I I don't even remember I did that in the first one. So bad wolf down. I'm gonna give it a I'm gonna give it a two No, two and a half I was gonna give it a two because of the pacing issues and the kind of like feeling like it's dragging But rushed at the same time, but the gore and that smart sees Smart thing they did to avoid CG. I thought was really good. That's enough to take it up to two and a half Anyway, now the finger directed by Greg neck Directed by Greg Nicotero, who's also the showrunner who we all know Greg Nicotero Written by David J. Shall now he wrote scripts for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 Critters 3 critters 4 and the original crow screenplay he didn't do the story because that's a James O bar Graphic novel, but he did do the screenplay which I gotta imagine That's not easy to take from that material and make it into a screenplay and I thought I did a really good job with that screenplay so So this has DJ quals in it. Yes, DJ quals from well Probably best known from his comedic role in the movie road trip, which I enjoyed and I really enjoyed him in road Trip, I I think I still enjoy him in road trip I'll watch it every now and then when I when the feeling hits me But I gotta say DJ quals does an excellent Excellent job in this role. I mean he brought his a-game. He was there to legitimately act and he did Phenomenal I was pretty blown away by it. I was very happy with his performance. It's very enjoyable. It's very fun DJ DJ quals killing it dude So it starts in it with a very quirky feel which makes it very fun There's this thing they do where they have the the main character does voiceover narration For a large portion of well through actually throughout it not consistently But like sporadically throughout but and that's how they start and then they also have moments where they're breaking the fourth wall And the main character speaks directly to the camera now when you do things like these the narration and breaking the fourth wall and speaking to the camera it can be tricky to get it right and for it to feel natural but within the context of the story it really really works and I feel like it this story It just has everything with the way it was shot the tone of it the acting the way it was written It has everything it is funny. It is interesting. It's kind of tense at times. It's creepy. It's Quirky, I mean, it's just got everything going on and to be honest That's what I want more of With these stories going forward like that's what I'm hoping for when I watched this one and I got done I was like, that's it. That's what I want every single one of the stories and creeps show to be like It was great So, okay, I talked about the voice over There's a lot of fun and intrigue in it like I was saying it's fun and it's interesting But there is a lot of intrigue because the story well, it's not wholly Original because at this point as you know as we all know not it's hard to have a very original idea We're all recycling things at some degree, but it feels kind of original It has pieces of things you can recognize but as a whole it feels kind of original and it's a cool concept It's a very fun cool concept. I really like it So there's another instance in this actually not as much so as in bad wolf down but there is one where they kind of they do something creative to get around the limitations of CG and And Yeah, so it's more of a thing of like shooting So you're seeing something in the background That's not focused on and then also shooting where it's kind of like the reflection of something So you don't have to make sure that the CG looks all that great But you can just mainly do shapes and it really works it does and it works within the context of the story too Like you don't even really question it to be honest But when you do see the practical effects They did a great job with practical effects and there's something employed in particular in the story that I was very happy about Because I love practical effects and I love when people put even more into it and make it Trying to figure out how not to to ruin this by saying it Putting okay, I'll just say putting more effort into it and you'll understand what I mean. There's all The practical effects that were created were used more than I thought they were gonna be Within this film and I really liked that and they worked really well and they looked great um And then the last thing I have to say about this particular story is that I Became aware while I was watching this that I literally was smiling While I was watching that particular one the finger Um, I don't do that often. I don't usually emote when I'm watching things by myself I don't laugh I don't chuckle when I'm watching things by myself unless the things are very enjoyable very fun very funny And um, I chuckled a little bit out loud And I just had like a smile plastered on my face the whole time because it was just so Fun and enjoyable and I loved it Yes more of this more of David J. Schau more of greg nicotero more of dj quals more of these I won't say perfectly, but very well crafted stories Uh, and it was a little bit more than the 20 minute runtime If that's what it takes let's go I mean it wasn't quite at the half hour or like close to an hour that I was talking about But this proves that you don't have to go there like you don't necessarily have to like house of the head Same thing you didn't have to it was about 20 minutes and it it did what it needed to do But I think the fingers even better so Very happy with this episode. Um, I would rank them at the moment my my order of stories I'd say my number one obviously is the finger my number two is house of the head My number three is bad wolf down and my number four is gray matter Uh, but you know, it's a good experience. It's fun. So what am I going to give the finger out of five stars? Keeping within the context of what it is. It is very short. Um There are you know, it is it's not like huge and grandiose and amazing, but it is good I'm gonna get four out of five stars. I quite liked it. I thought it was really good If you're going to I could give it four and a half stars though if we're just doing it in relation to Being like a very short film in an anthology. I go four and a half. It's good. I really like it So anyway, thank you everyone for checking this out. Please help me out hit that subscribe. Um, That really encourages me and helps me. I have a patreon page now If you want to um, I have a minimum thing of like one dollar if you want to just give me a dollar But there's some other things that it gets you stuff in my tears. So check it out It's just look for horror movie reviews with carlin cook or just search carlin cook. You'll find it But um, the big thing is hit that subscribe. I appreciate it. Put some comments down there Either before you see this or not this but before you see the second episode of creep show or after or both And let's talk about it. But thank you for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal