Creepshow is coming back in a big way!
Shudder, the premium streaming service owned by cabler AMC, is reviving the Stephen King/George Romero-crafted horror anthology film as a television series. Moreover, AMC has tapped talent from its own tent, appointing The Walking Dead executive producer and legendary effects maestro, Greg Nicotero, to serve as director, executive producer and overall supervisor for the small screen endeavour.
Creepshow episodes
At this month’s TCA press tour, the stories set to be adapted into Creepshow’s episodes were revealed as the following:
– “Silvery Waters of Lake Champlain” by Joe Hill (NOS4A2)
– “House of the Head” by Josh Malerman (Bird Box)
– “The Companion” by Joe Lansdale (The Bottoms)
– “The Man in the Suitcase” by Christopher Buehlman (The Lesser Dead)
– “All Hallows Eve” by Bruce Jones (The Hitchhiker)
– “Night of the Paw” by John Esposito (The Walking Dead webisodes)
– “Bad Wolf Down” by Rob Schrab (Monster House)
Stephen King will also be adding to the line-up with a story of his own, but they’re keeping us in the dark about that one at the moment.
Creepshow TV series release date
This is likely to be a late-2019 arrival, probably around Halloween!
Creepshow poster
Here’s a first poster, courtesy of EW:
More as we get it.
Creepshow TV series development
Shudder general manager Craig Engler expressed his joy about the new series in a recent statement:
“Creepshow is one of the most beloved and iconic horror anthologies from two masters of the genre, George A. Romero and Stephen King. We’re thrilled to continue their legacy with another master of horror, Greg Nicotero, as we bring a new Creepshow TV series exclusively to Shudder members.”
Nicotero’s career in practical horror effects stands as one of the industry’s most prolific, going all the way back to his first gig, serving as an assistant to (the original Creepshow’s) Tom Savini on Romero’s 1985 zombie sequel, Day Of The Dead. After a long and prestigious career in effects, Nicotero hit his stride on AMC’s The Walking Dead and its spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead, not only providing his signature effects trade, but expanding his creative repertoire as a consulting producer, eventually promoted to executive producer. Moreover, The Walking Dead provided an opportunity for the first time in Nicotero’s decades-spanner career to occupy a director’s chair, having helmed several episodes of the TV franchise. As Nicotero states of the Creepshow series:
“Creepshow is a project very close to my heart! It is one of those titles that embraces the true spirit of horror… thrills and chills celebrated in one of its truest art forms, the comic book come to life! I’m honoured to continue the tradition in the ‘spirit’ which it was created.”
Creepshow history
Creepshow first arrived as a 1982 horror anthology film brandishing a powerful creative duo, written by Stephen King and directed George A. Romero, with special effects provided by Tom Savini. The film – a five-story film bookended by a wraparound story – was purposefully campy, manifesting as a nostalgic homage to the array of vintage horror comic books released in the 1950s, most notably the soon-to-be-adapted Tales From The Crypt. While Creepshow didn’t make major damage at the box office, grossing $21 million in its domestic-only release, it became a cable standard, followed up by 1987’s Creepshow 2, which grossed only $14 million, followed nearly two-decades later in 2006 by the maligned HBO threequel, Creepshow 3.
The revival of Creepshow could signal a trend for the anthology series genre, which currently represented by shows like Netflix’s Black Mirror, Syfy’s Channel Zero and Amazon’s Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, all of which tend to showcase stories that reflect fears rooted in the state of technology, rather than old-school ghouls, werewolves and vampires (a species that’s taken a major P.R. hit in the last decade). Yet, Creepshow – brandishing a mascot in the shrouded skeletal window-peaking character, The Creeper – is the epitome of those old-school tropes. Thus, the revival could take things back to the genre’s monstrous 1980s heyday with The Twilight Zone movie and TV revival, Tales From The Darkside, Friday The 13th: The Series, Monsters and Freddy’s Nightmares.