Creepshow: Season 1 [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Tobin Bell, Adrienne Barbeau, Giancarlo Esposito

Release Date: June 2, 2020

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 10/10

 

Synopsis:

CREEPSHOW Season 1, the new anthology series based on George A. Romero’s 1982 horror comedy classic, is still the most fun you’ll ever have being scared! A comic book comes to life in a series of twelve vignettes over six episodes, exploring terrors from murder to the supernatural and unexplainable. Haunted dollhouses, werewolves, murderous goblins, villainous trick-or-treaters, the dead, and medical marvels are just a few of the things to watch out for in this new series. You never know what will be on the next page…

Based upon the cult classic film (and the franchise and dedicated fan base it launched) from horror legends George A. Romero and Stephen King, the terror now comes to television from showrunner Greg Nicotero with season one of the ‘Creepshow’ TV series offering 12 new tales of terror collected over the course of 6 episodes. With fresh new horror tales focusing on everything from Nazi’s and werewolves, to supernatural tales of revenge and unlikely opportunities at wealth and other rewards with deadly consequences, it’s a bloody, sometimes creepy and for the most part quite enjoyable series worthy of continuing the ‘Creepshow’ tradition in a new, fitting format.

The new ‘Creepshow’ TV series which debuted as a Shudder original before recently beginning a secondary run on AMC offers fans of the beloved anthology film a new batch of creepy tales to hopefully satiate them (at least until season two arrives). It does a great job of capturing the most important traits of the series such as the vivid, comic book like colors and backgrounds as well as the comics merging into the story and vice versa, plus of course the offbeat and at times delightfully over the top subjects that make it so unique. Add to that our ghoulish host bookending the episodes and the talent both behind and in front of the camera that manage to make most of this work quite smoothly. Even if some tales might be notably better and more fitting to the tone and style of the films than others, the good certainly outweighs the bad and the show is pretty much a winner overall.

Brought to life in large part by showrunner Greg Nicotero (TV’s The Walking Dead) whose love for the film(s) is quite obvious and featuring stories taken from such notable genre contributors as Stephen King and son Joe Hill, not to mention plenty of noteworthy stars from the world of onscreen horror to be found throughout including Tobin Bell, Adrienne Barbeau, Giancarlo Esposito, Cailey Fleming, Jeffrey Combs, Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi, DJ Qualls, Bruce Davison, David Arquette, Dana Gould, Tricia Helfer and more, the debut season of the ‘Creepshow’ television series definitely has its share of talent on all sides of the camera. Fans of the famous anthology film of the same name and its sequel (the one sequel at least) will almost surely want to try and find the time to give this series a whirl if you haven’t yet had the pleasure. For the most part it’s a rather enjoyable and tonally fitting set of fun and twisted tales, many of which fit in nicely with the famous film(s) it follows.

Overall, season one of ‘Creepshow’ does a pretty great job of recreating the magic of the famous film that started at all, passionately utilizing so many of the important elements that made the movie unique, and at the same time finding new and clever ways to honor and build upon it. While it’s no real surprise that some segments are superior to others within the debut season, it definitely delivers admirably as a whole. This 3-disc Blu-ray release of ‘Creepshow: Season 1’ from RLJE Films in particular is a pleasant surprise in itself that more than provides what fans of the anthology series will likely be hoping for. Sporting wonderful high definition video and audio presentations for all six included episodes, along with an expansive collection of bonus material including Audio Commentaries on every episode, on top of a full disc solely dedicated to more noteworthy extras, altogether forming an impressive release with a lot to thrill fans. The fans already considering a purchase probably won’t want to hesitate in doing so, and shouldn’t be even the slightest bit disappointed with the result.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Creepshow: Season 1’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the debut season’s episodes. The video presentations look fantastic and provide sharp, smooth and vividly colored presentations from start to finish on all six episodes, without any noticeable faults or issues to be found along the way. They hold up impressively even during the plethora of darkly lit, fast moving and heavily populated sequences throughout, never allowing anything occurring onscreen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, these are wonderful high definition video presentations that deliver in every way and shouldn’t have any trouble thoroughly pleasing fans and first time viewers alike.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 6 Season One episodes. These multichannel soundtracks make great compliments to the onscreen fun and terror, offering crisp, clean and fairly aggressive audio presentations on every episode. They regularly take advantage of all five available channels in order to send the music, along with creepy effects, nature elements and plenty more throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, and never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements that may be occurring simultaneously becoming distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, these are solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that sound great every step of the way and repeatedly contribute their share of extra fun and jump scares to the overall viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Creepshow: Season 1’ includes a pretty remarkable collection of bonus content with hours of extras that should thrill fans. Initial pressings of the Blu-ray release also come with a slipcase featuring glow in the dark artwork, plus reversible alternate artwork for the interior case and a collectible mini comic book packed within.

The first two discs in the set are focused on the season’s episodes and therefore extras on those 2 discs are limited to ‘Audio Commentary’ tracks by the cast and crew on all 6 episodes of the season (and episode five actually features 2 different commentary options).

All of the extras (aside from the commentary tracks naturally) can be found on an extra disc dedicated solely to supplemental material. The dedicated ‘Special Features’ disc (Disc 3) features a collection of Behind the Scenes Featurettes for the debut season that include interviews/comments with cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Season 1 (or Series 1 as the disc labels it) Featurettes include: ‘Creepshow Resurrected’ (running approximately 6 minutes in length), ‘Acting Scared’ (running approximately 8 minutes), ‘The Past Is Present’ (approximately 7 minutes), ‘The New Blood’ (6 minutes), ‘Joe Hill: Full Circle’ (7 minutes), ‘Ripped From The Pages’ (14 minutes) and ‘Creature Comforts’ (13 minutes).

In addition to the above Featurettes for the season, the bonus disc also offers more extras such as behind the scenes footage and additional interviews/featurettes for each specific episode which are all listed below.

The extras for ‘Episode 1: Gray Matter/ The House of the Head’ include ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (approximately 9 minutes), plus ‘Gray Matter: House Call With Giancarlo Esposito’ (6 minutes), ‘Gray Matter: Things in the Corner with Tobin Bell’ (6 minutes), ‘The House of the Head: Welcome to the Dollhouse’ (4 minutes), ‘The House of the Head: Head Trauma with Josh Malerman’ (9 minutes), ‘The House of the Head: Evie with Cailey Fleming (4 minutes) and a ‘Photo Gallery’ (4 minutes).

Bonus content for ‘Episode 2: Bad Wolf Down/ The Finger’ includes ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (8 minutes), ‘Bad Wolf Down: Wolf Bait with Jeffrey Combs’ (3 minutes), ‘The Finger: The Lonely Man with DJ Qualls’ (6 minutes) and a ‘Photo Gallery’ (4 minutes).

Extras for ‘Episode 3: All Hallow’s Eve/ The Man in the Suitcase’ include ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (4 minutes) ‘All Hallow’s Eve: Stay Gold’ (9 minutes) and a ‘Photo Gallery’ (3 minutes).

Bonus offerings for ‘Episode 4: The Companion/ Lydia Layne’s Better Half’ include ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (approximately 11 minutes), ‘Lydia Layne’s Better Half: Out of Order with Tricia Helfer’ (7 minutes) and of course a ‘Photo Gallery’ (4 minutes).

Bonus goodies for ‘Episode 5: Night of the Paw/ Times is Tough in Musky Holler’ just include the usual ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (6 minutes) and ‘Photo Gallery’ (4 minutes).

Extras for the season finale ‘Episode 6: Skincrawlers/ By The Silver Water of Lake Champlain’ include ‘Behind the Scenes Footage’ (8 minutes), ‘Skincrawlers: Miracle Cure with Dana Gould’ (5 minutes) and a ‘Photo Gallery’ (4 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 10/10

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‘Creepshow: Season 1’ Arrives Home on Blu-ray & DVD June 2, 2020 from Shudder & RLJE Films

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