For years I’ve always said that it’s surprising we never saw an anthology television series for “Creepshow.” Boy, I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. Word is that the folks who brought us the classics of “Day of the Dead: Contagium” and “Creepshow 3” are now working on the defunct movie franchise in to developing in to an anthology. My initial reaction was a slump in my seat and eye roll, but then I suddenly realized at least someone is still venturing toward the anthology series, a sub-genre that’s basically been killed by studios unwilling to even give them a try for audience, and of course there’s that short attention span audiences who don’t get gimmicks. How many of you walked out after “Planet Terror” because you didn’t get what “Double Feature” meant?
A new anthology and tries for them are always an interesting endeavor because most of them really aren’t very good and speaking as someone who reviews bared boned independent film anthologies, I can safely say that there are people out there still trying but movie shlubs failing big time.
I won’t mention names here but I’ve seen people whose trilogy of tales inevitably become nothing more than short films attempting for series success and multiple stories compressed in to ninety minutes. It’s a tough one because the audience always wants to see something original and instead we see the same old fans of Romero and Craven looking to score big hits in such short times ad nauseum. The laziest of the bunch has been zombie tales wherein the dialogue, make up, and gore all seem to derive from Romero.
Now while love for the man and his work is understandable, no one seems to want to go beyond the living dead anymore when original ideas could work if attempted enough. Some of my favorite movies and television shows were anthologies and it’s a sorely missed sub-genre. Hits generated were from children’s fare with “Goosebumps” and the likes of “Are you Afraid of the Dark” which is a well remembered gem from fans who grew up in the nineties.
“Masters of Horror” is the perfect examples of a pure miss with potential that failed on every conceivable facet. Not even the likes of Carpenter and Craven could take this show and rake it from the mud on the face the pilot produced. It was a good try when you consider the fate of the series, but one that really just didn’t translate in its idea of greatness.
Then there are the forgotten series, most of which went on to live life in obscurity. Let’s take “Night Visions” a violent series that had the power or narrator Henry Rollins but not enough of a following to excuse it being on television. When given the chance, “Night Vision” was a gory and twisted little series that sported some twisted yarns. “Ghost Stories” was also one show that always ensured a good time with takes on urban legends with ghosts who were all scary.
I don’t think I have to explain my utter devotion to “Twilight Zone,” but I think the explanation is necessary to the two spin offs, both of which bore some great potential as well but couldn’t fix the boring episodes and yawn inducing horror. The Shadow Man is a great one from the eighties remake, I’ll give them that. And who can forget “Tales from the Darkside”?
These days I think we’re more tailored to follow episodic television and don’t really want to invest their time in separate stories that don’t come together to form a bigger picture of ace mystery. People want epic, people want something to really look forward to and anthologies just aren’t in the menu anymore. There was talk of remaking “Creepshow” for a while and those talks died down and of course there’s the repeated difficulty to get “Trick R Treat” in to theaters and seen by the ones incapable of garnering permission.
In a list of studios to have turned Creepshow in to a series, Taurus would have ranked in the thousands slot next to a couple hundred studios I picked from Bollywood. In a world where horror is ill, it’s a time for Taurus and Dudelson to see if they have it within them to conduct this television series and milk it for all that its worth. If you’ve seen the past work from the studio then you don’t need me to give you an example on why “Creepshow” infinitely deserves a better class of directors. But then if you’ve seen their work and picking off the corpses of great directors, I doubt we’ll be given a product in the same vein as “Tales from the Crypt,” a show that hasn’t lost its flavor in spite of the years it’s been repeated in syndication.
We should have more anthology series like “The Twilight Zone” and “Monsters”; hell, I want my kids to have a show like “Tales from the Darkside” to scare them to their bones as it did me and it’s a shame that we can’t hear more stories from young writers who can turn out sharp horror tales among the spread of a ghoulish host rather than simply remaking the work of Rod Serling and his contemporaries rather than go for bold and daring original tales of revenge, murder, and the walking dead.
I’d love nothing more than to be blessed with the new Rod Serling, but sadly we’re left with the Dudelson’s of the world incapable of wowing us with the contrived garbage set for those in love with mediocrity. Yes, Rod Serling is dead and he took all you bitches with him.
