Brandon Quinn as Wade - Creepshow _ Season 3, Episode 3 - Photo Credit: Curtis Baker/Shudder
Review: Creepshow Episode 3 Brings Demonic Fine Art and Giant Spiders
Just another week from the pages of Creepshow!
Creepshow premieres every Thursday on Shudder. Reader Beware Spoilers Ahead!
It’s that time of the week again when we sit back and prepare ourselves for two new spine-tingling tales of the macabre from the beloved series Creepshow, exclusively on SHUDDER. Now in its third season, episode 3 brings us “The Last Tsuburaya” and “Okay, I’ll bite”.
“The Last Tsuburaya” was directed by Jeffrey F. January (The Walking Dead, Preacher) and written by Paul Dini (Batman animated series) & Stephen Langford (Family Matters). Renowned and reclusive horror artist Tsuburaya (Joseph Steve Yang) has a way of disgusting an audience with his portrayals of Japanese ghosts and monsters, yet one can’t look away from the grotesqueries. When a lost work of his is discovered in a monastery at the foot of Mt. Fuji, his last living heir, Bobby, is brought in to receive the good news. This lost jewel of Japanese culture has been discovered, and it is now his as the 100th anniversary of his ancestor’s death has come.
Hoping to make it a display at the Tokyo Museum of art, curator Dr. Sato (Gia Hiraizuma) offers to buy the work for a generous sum. Before he can decide what to do with the inheritance, tech billionaire Wade Cruise (Brandon Quinn) and artist girlfriend Geesa (Jade Fernandez) burst in and make an offer he can’t refuse.
Used to getting what he wants, and now the sole owner of the never-before-seen painting, Cruise invites a select few to come to a reveal party at his penthouse. Will it be another nightmare image that made Tsuburaya famous or merely a benign landscape? The question remains, why was this lost work boarded up and hidden by the monks? Perhaps there is more to this mysterious artifact, and one shouldn’t tread lightly unveiling it. You never know how much of the artist’s emotions and soul get captured between brush strokes on a canvas.
Great visuals in both the production design and creature effects really make it a feast for the eyes. Solid performance from Quinn as he is doing a lot of the scenes on his own and really selling the jump from bravado to confusion and fear. He even managed to throw in a “Thrill Me” line which I doubt was by accident. Combining psychological and J-Horror esthetics with that of a monster movie make it truly engaging and a solid narrative with satisfying layers.
“Okay, I’ll Bite” caps the night with a prison story written and directed by John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside movie). We follow Elmer (Nick Massouh) as his parole hearing is sabotaged by corrupt corrections officer Bunk (Jackson Beals). Imprisoned for the assisted suicide of his ailing mother, Elmer is kept behind bars to create narcotics for the dirty cops to sell to the inmates. With his only friends, a group of tarantulas he keeps as pets and officer Willis (Glenn Magee) who wants to protect Elmer, he sets about making his batch to keep the beatings from happening.
When a mysterious letter arrives from Cairo, Egypt containing a series of hieroglyphics, Elmer sets off to decipher the spell, finding references to the ‘Mistress of Dread’ known as Sekhmet. When some inmates get restless and trash his cell, including killing one of his beloved pets, Elmer will try anything to call upon the vengeful goddess to enact his revenge.
With its claustrophobic atmosphere and eight-legged co-stars, this chapter gets under your skin and raises the gooseflesh on your arms. As an arachnophobe myself, anything having to do with slow-moving spiders crawling up one’s limbs makes me squirm. Another fun creature feature, and a good old-fashioned revenge story, I found the addition of the supernatural element with ancient rituals and Egyptian lore made for a unique take on the troupe.
Another strong double feature for the third week in a row, season 3 of Creepshow has hit its stride. Catch a new episode every Thursday, streaming exclusively on SHUDDER. Be sure to check back here for more reviews and impressions after you watch.
About Post Author
K.B. O’Neil is an artist, writer and musician living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He loves movies, books, video games, snuggling his two pups and all things Horror. When not working he can be found getting into adventures with his wife and their new daughter.
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