Shudder
[Review] Shudder’s Creepshow Holiday Special Is a B-Horror Seasonal Delight
The horror streaming service Shudder premiered their Creepshow Holiday Special last Friday. Directed by Creepshow series showrunner Greg Nicotero, and based on a short story by J.A. Konrath. The festive episode stars Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect) and Adam Pally (The Mindy Project).
In the holiday themed, hour-long episode, “Shapeshifters Anonymous,” viewers follow a man who’s life has been upended. The anxious man searches for answers for his black outs and other changes he has been experiencing. After an awkward appointment with his doctor, Robert (Adam Pally) seeks out a support group.
He explains that he has been having unexplained black outs, followed by some surprising erm…..bathroom issues. He also explains that he is responsible for the numerous murders that is plaguing their town. The groups listens as Robert tells them all the issues in his life, unsurprisingly they’ve heard it all before. The support group turns out to be a bunch of therianthropes, or people with the ability to shape-shift into animal like creatures, such as werewolves.
The group goes about sharing their own shapeshifting abilities, which include a were-tortoise, were-cheetah, were-boar and a random hippo furry. After Robert reveals that he feels terrible for the lives he’s taken. He gets the reassuring news that his condition also comes with the added bonus of only wanting to eat evil people.
After they all become acquainted, the group lets Robert in on how Santa Claus is actually hunting them all. Talk about your bad luck. Not only does Santa want them dead but he has built an army of Santas that are also hunting them. This quirky, comedy driven episode has many crazy festive surprises. Such as a horde of bloodthirsty mall Santa’s and a demonic Santa with custom claws built for ridding the world of all were-creatures. Since bringing the Creepshow anthology series to life in 2018, Greg Nicotero has continued to surprise me.
His use of the comic book transitions and artwork as a work-around for special effects continues to be a successful form of story telling. However, this also really works in this story’s favor because we get a super cut of Santas descending upon the group as they fight to stay alive. This ingenuity leaves the budget for the practical effects. Thankfully giving viewers a lot of bloody action leading up to a face-off between the therianthropes and Santa Claws in his impenetrable armor.
The cast does a great job of keeping the episode light and fun. The dialog provides some great comedic moments and keeps with the fun spirit of the story. For the most part I enjoyed the costume work in this episode. The were-turtiose was actually really amusing. But the werewolf and were-cheetah costumes left me wanting. Even though the silliness of the costumes did add to my overall enjoyment of this fun and festive b-horror.
The crazy story, gore, and literal claws, all make the Creepshow Holiday Special a seasonal comic book-horror delight. By the end you will be singing “I want *to be a* Hippopotamus for Christmas”! 3/5
The Creepshow Holiday Special stars Pete Burris, Anna Camp, Frank Nicotero, Adam Pally, Derek Russo, and Candy McLellan, and is now streaming only on Shudder. What did you think of the latest special? Leave us a message below and let us know! Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for more of all things horror.
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