 Think we're checking out this no spoilers movie review So this is for the new creep show series that a lot of people have been excited about me included that will be on the Shutter streaming service when I'm recording this. It's not out yet I was actually very very lucky and got a screener of the first episode Which consists of two separate stories because that's how they're doing the show It's gonna be six episodes for the first season two stories per so each one's about 20 minutes ish story wise So that actually kind of makes me sad because because I'm like first of all, it's only six episodes So we're only gonna get six weeks of the show because they're gonna release it one per week starting September 26 So it's kind of sad because I mean you will get two stories per episode Clocking in around 20 minutes each. I'm assuming based off the first episode But it just makes me sad because like I always want more of these types of things off the bat I am a very big sucker for these types of shows, you know tales from the Crip tales from the dark side fear itself Masters of horror stuff like that. I love the kind of anthology horror TV show type deal and part of the reason for that is You get a lot of different stories at a very easy to consume Runtime, but you also get a lot of different ideas from that You get a lot of different directing styles acting, you know voices too and voices coming through in the writing is what I'm talking about so let me go ahead and and Go dive into just the first episode because that's all I have access to early through shutter So thank you very much shutter Specifically Whitney Shepard at shutter who really helped me out with getting set up with the whole screener system and everything So thank you very much, and I am very thankful, but at the same time I'm going to be very very honest much like I am with all of my reviews for everything that's not going to taint my My opinion it's not going to make me not say anything negative or you know be more harsh Like that would happen, but you know so I'm going to be totally honest about it So for the first episode and I will continue to do these by the way I'm going to do a review for each episode But like I said, I'm only getting early access to the first episode that I know of so the other ones I'll just be doing it. I'll be watching it Well, most likely everyone else is and then I'll put post the review Hopefully the day after or maybe a few days after depending on what kind of time I have because I don't make money doing this It's just a hobby. Okay, so the first creep show episode the intro is fun Sorry, I'm going off my notes like I usually do the intro is a lot of fun I really like that they've kind of set up a mascot in the sense for the show that looks good And it is a cool mascot in my opinion design looks really good It's it's like practical effects and I like how they they've tied it in immediately to the actual creep shows movies as well as comics which You know it makes sense like you would assume that that was gonna happen based off the fact that it's called creep show So they did a good job. They paid homage to it. So for people who are big fans of the movies people were big fans of the comics they'll kind of really enjoy and and Like that nostalgia is why it was what I'm trying to say it'll kind of suck. I'm gonna be be like Oh, this feels familiar already. So that's one of the cool things So the first story I'm gonna talk about each story individually The first story that they go with is one called gray matter now This is adapted from a short story by Stephen King So I mean good way to start because everyone knows Stephen King and obviously he writes really good stories so the Story by Stephen King the script was adapted From the story by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasie now apparently from what I could surmise Looking them up. They're like a writing team or at least in this instance. They are They don't have many credits at all. They have like one other commit credit I think was called like the commuter or something like that which I'm not even familiar with so these guys are relative unknowns It was directed by the showrunner for this Greg Nicotero Obviously a lot of people know Greg Nicotero most likely right now people know him from Directing a lot of the walking dead so because obviously super super popular. I actually don't watch the walking dead I haven't watched it since like the first season because I don't know I'm not huge into zombie stuff, but you know, I have a lot of respect for Greg Nicotero He actually got his start in practical effects I don't know if a lot of people know but his very first gig in practical effects was George a Romero's day of the dead, which I love that film. I think that films amazing I also think the practical effects in it are ridiculous. I believe Nicotero was working under Tom Savini as well It was one of his assistants for that one, but then he went on to do so much his practical effects credits on I am DB or like 180 some it's a lot the guys been working for a long time He does an amazing job. I have a lot of respect for this guy. So I'm happy. He's a showrunner. He knows his stuff He's a horror horror God in a sense in my opinion But he's he's done a lot of amazing stuff. Just look at his IMDB credits. I Encourage everyone to so the acting let's talk about the acting for this Overall, you need to know going into it that the acting is very much like one of these types of series If you've seen tales from the crib you've seen tales from the dark side fear itself masters of horror the acting is not movie quality it's not like The most amazing acting you've ever seen, but the acting is good enough in my opinion. It's just Having seen plenty of this and I'm actually I watched through all the masters of horror I actually have a video on here ranking all the masters of horror episodes and kind of talking about them briefly I'm right now working through fear itself was it which is essentially a third season of masters of horror And I feel like the acting is kind of in line and also with tales from the crib tales from the dark side that type of stuff It's more of like a made-for-tv series Acting level and I know a lot of you will know what I mean when I say that it's not that the acting is bad There's it's just not like the best of the best and you have to you have to expect that It's just not going to be that way because these are not crazy high-budget movies Like I'm sure they were trying to keep the budget as low as they could on this So the acting is serviceable Although I will say in in this first story in gray matter Then the person who narrates a lot of it and is a main character in it Not that great to be honest like it it Um Yeah, not that great to be honest probably better than I could do at that age because the person is relatively young But for the story, I mean, it wasn't that great But but they they had some big names in this John Carlo Esposito was in it Adrienne Barbo Tobin Bell, so it's really nice to see familiar faces people are very well known and loved I've actually had the pleasure of meeting both Tobin Bell and Adrienne Barbo On separate occasions very nice people very awesome Take a lot of time with fans. They're excellent individuals and I was really happy to see them in this They were they kind of brought the acting level when they were doing the acting portions They brought the acting level of the story up a little bit as you would probably assume because of their pedigree How long they've been around and how good they are of actors? Proven so the practical effects look quite good. I was very happy with the practical effects I would expect nothing less from something Greg Nicotero is running The CG also look good those computer graphics I think they looked good for what the lighting level was that they chose for this at least for the first I don't think there's no CG in the second one. I don't think no There isn't CG in the second story, but for this first story There is some CG it worked really well and looked really good for the lighting level they chose and for me like I know there are a lot of people who are just who just think that if you're gonna have CG They won't see as much of it as possible. I don't really necessarily think that way I think that if you're going to have CG you just need to know at what level you're going to do it If you have the ability and you have the skills and the money, let's be honest to Go huge and make it very grandiose and be able to put in so much detail that it can be extremely well lit Then go for that. That's great But I know that not everyone can do that their budget constraints their skill restraints their time constraints all that type of stuff so When you're directing it when you're shooting it knowing that and being able to get the lighting level at a at a good level where you can kind of I Don't want to say like hide Some of the CG but kind of you can you can hide the lesser level of detail And so they did a really good job with hitting the lighting level they needed for what they did with the CG So it looked really good in this and I was very impressed with that. I was very happy with that now It was shot. Well, that's another thing the cinematography looked good. It was shot. Well, it was directed Well, Nick Tara did a really good job. So here's where we go to some of my kind of issues with it The story the story does get really interesting really fast and they kind of have to because it's like a 20-minute runtime But there are some issues. I Can imagine that it was very very hard for this the the two gentlemen who wrote the screenplay to Adapt a short story, especially a Stephen King short story. I can imagine. I don't know how long that story is I don't know how many how many pages it is But you can definitely tell when you watch this that it needed more runtime that it was at about 20 minutes It needed at least 45 in my opinion Maybe an hour to kind of let you soak in the atmosphere start to really know the characters feel about the you know Have feelings for the characters in one way or another and just kind of like get into it a little bit more It definitely felt like there were things missing from the story That definitely are there because knowing Stephen King like you know how he writes like everyone knows how he writes pretty much He is very complete with the story. He gets in depth. He does a really good job I just felt like the adaptation from the story to the screen didn't work all that well Because it's too short if they would have let it be longer and I really think they should have in this case They could have done a better service to the actual story itself So for that reason it felt too brief It felt kind of chopped up in a sense and I just I wanted more like I wanted a lot more from it That said it's still good. It's still a good story It just kind of feels like you're getting into it and then you're just like oh now we're done like it's over And so it was kind of disappointing for that reason. So I was like oh man, so let me make sure I don't have any other notes Yeah, they just cut it too short and this is kind of the problem in my opinion of Taking a story and adapting it to a screenplay When you have a runtime that you're given so as opposed to coming up with a fresh story when you're given a runtime up front and That's a good transition to the second story in this which is called house of the head Now this one was written for the series It was not adapted from a screenplay or a book that I know of It was written and the screenplay and the story was done by Josh Mallerman who I am a big fan of I love Josh Mallerman. He is a really good horror author at the moment. He's written books like bird box black mad wheel Unbury carol and inspection. I haven't read inspection yet But I've read the other three and he has some other books that I haven't been able to get my hands on to be honest I really want to because I really dig his writing style I dig the fact that he comes up with a lot of interesting concepts and settings for horror and he kind of bends in a way through his books Your your idea of what horror is so I would definitely recommend if you have interest bird box is amazing It's way better than the Netflix movie to be honest black mad wheel His writing is really good. I didn't really like the story all that much to be honest Unbury carol is very compelling very interesting. It's not very horror driven, but it's very cool and very interesting It's that in the Wild West who does that it's amazing and then inspection like I said I haven't gotten into but I know the concept and I'm very interested to get into that soon anyway So enough gushing about Josh Mallerman. I love the guy He did an outstanding job in my opinion with putting a story together and writing the script for it and like I was saying this is a strength of Writing something for the runtime versus taking an existing work and trying to pare it down and cut it up and turn it Into something that feels cohesive and has a good pacing to it when it's way way bigger Than what you have the amount of time you have to tell the story So for that reason I don't really fault the guys who did the screenplay for the first one Because I bet that was really challenging and really tough I just think they needed to allow a much longer runtime for that story to play out. So anyway the house of the head Was directed also by John Harrison Who who has been involved in doing some directing for tails from the dark side and tails from the crypt? So this guy knows what he's doing. He's been there before he's worked with this type of show before So good choice on directing the directing in this is awesome in my opinion so the story really impressed me on this one the directing really impressed me cinematography is really good and I felt like the acting overall was a little bit better, too Mainly just because it it's mainly just focuses on one character and I wrote her name down She did a really good job Kaylee Fleming young kid. She had to be maybe what like eight years old Maybe I'm sorry. I'm not good on guessing ages, but she did an outstanding job for being a young child I she carried that I mean she was the main character So she kind of had to but she really did a good job in carrying that her acting was very excellent in my opinion especially for her age Loved loved loved the way it shot like all around it just really came together and it worked super well and it I'm glad they ended with that because it ended on a very very very positive note for me I loved it so much and this is not I didn't love it because I was like oh Josh Malerman I was hoping it would be really good because of Josh Malerman like being a fan of his and it met expectation for sure So I was also going to be critical if there was a problem for sure The story is creepy. It's compelling and it has amazing pacing to it You feel caught up in it from the get-go They don't take much time establishing anything and it doesn't even honestly feel like they need to the story speaks for itself It moves quickly. You're very engaged the whole time and I mean it's sad when it's over But it also feels like it was a complete story So it worked very very well But I will also say that it also felt like you can take this and make it larger You could turn this into a feature length film. You could turn it into maybe a full-size book Hint hint Josh Malerman, maybe a full-size book I would love to read a book with this story as the concept I'm just saying please. I know hope I never see this, but on the off chance that he does, please do this Like I said as perfect pacing I wrote down It feels yeah, it feels like there could be so much more to this But it doesn't leave you wanting like the first one did the first one definitely left you wanting like Where's the rest of this? It's kind of missing parts in my opinion So the first one gray matter is kind of Fun still enjoyed it, but these are the challenges with taking the existing story and trying to cut it up Versus the second one really loved it had an awesome time I'm hoping all the episodes are more like that one But you really never know because a lot of different voices involved. So Yeah, I mean you'll we'll see and that's part of the fun of it is seeing what people do Seeing what what different actors we end up with and how they do seeing what different stories come up What different authors are used what different directors are used because everyone has their own voice like I was saying before You know from the writing they have their own voice to the directing They have their own voice that comes through and how it looks And has obviously bearing on the cinematography as well So how stories are told are that comes from many facets and and that's one of the cool things about a series like this is It's it will kind of be cohesive because it's all tied together in the one series But they're self-contained stories and you see a lot of different perspectives because of that And that's one of the things I really really love about it. So Yeah, I think that's kind of all let me make sure okay, so yeah, like I said it They're gonna have six they're gonna have different writers are gonna have different directors, which is what excites me most Although I'm very very sad and it sucks so bad that it's only six episodes. It sucks 12 stories. I'm excited about that aspect, but knowing now they're like only like 20 minutes apiece I'm gonna really enjoy them. I know I am to varying degrees. I'm sure but It just already sucks knowing that it's so short because I love things like this and I think they're all on the right path They're definitely on the right path, especially with house of the head. Yeah, really liked it So once again, big thank you to shutter for hooking me up with the screening another thanks to Whitney Shepherd for helping me out with everything and Good job. I'm I'm digging it. I'm really really digging it I know I said some things that are not complimentary, but I'm not gonna hold back on that But I think that overall I really did enjoy this first episode and I'm very excited for the episodes to come And I'm gonna keep doing those reviews like I said, so I guess I'm gonna do I always do star ratings on these So I guess I'm gonna do star rating on this Okay, so it's gonna be weird because I have to like put the stories together And it's not like feature-length films. So it's kind of weird. So Overall I have five star rating with half stars in play I'm going to give the first episode a Four I'm gonna give it a four and I don't and I think that's because of the the first and second story coming together I think it was just the first story. It would be a little bit lower. I think it was just the Second story. I think it might be a little bit higher So I think I'd probably go like a four and a half if it was just a second story And maybe like a three and a half if it was the first one So actually maybe even a three to be honest if it was just the first one first one It's just the second one's that good that I think it makes sense to go up to a four Anyway, thank you everyone for checking this out Please give me a little bit of help with this channel hit that subscribe Literally takes you a second is totally painless for you. It can help me out a lot plus it shows me encouragement Did you like this review? Did you appreciate that I put this out there hit that subscribe? That's your way that you can pay me back because like I said, I'm not making money on this I just want to reach as many people as I can start a dialogue and that's another thing put some comments down there Let's start talking about things. How are you feeling about this going into it? Were you one of these? Very very lucky people who got early access what were your thoughts put it down there or if you Haven't watched this until the show the first episode came out and now you've watched it now You're watching this go ahead and put the comments down there Tell me what your thoughts were maybe you totally disagree with me Maybe you really liked a great matter and thought it was perfect. Maybe you didn't like House of the head I don't know give me your opinion. I love to hear him. Anyway, you can do the thumbs up But you don't have to mainly do the subscribe, but thank you for checking it out and until next time keep it brutal