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Review ‘Creepshow’ Season 2 Episode 4: Pipe Screams/Within the Walls of Madness

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Last week’s Creepshow unleashed the horrors of deep space and high school, but this week it goes deep below the grime of a slum apartment and beyond the realms of sanity. With lots of fantastic, nasty, scary creatures to be had brought to life in stunning FX! In a lot of ways, this week’s segments Pipe Screams and Within the Walls of Madness feel more in line with the original Creepshow movies in their own specific ways.

Image via Twitter

Our first tale of baked up abomination is Pipe Screams, which follows a plumber on hard times named Linus Carruthers (Eric Edelstein, Green Room) contracted by the obnoxious and uncaring landlord Victoria Smoot (Barbara Crampton, Jakob’s Wife) to fix a clog in the rundown apartment building she owns. Only for Linus to find out there’s something far worse than paper towels or scum stuck in the aged pipes of the building. Meeting the tenant Janet, (Selena Aduze, Doctor Sleep) they start to realize the true monster may not be the obvious one…

A classic Creepshow style tale of monstrous comeuppance from director Joe Lynch who also handled last week’s The Right snuff and horror author Daniel Kraus, Pipe Screams has everything you could want from such a tale. Quirky characters with a terrific cast, a moody setting, and one hell of a creature. In this case… Cloggy. Brought to beautiful, gross, retching life by the fine folks at KNB. Words won’t do it justice, it’s just something you gotta see to believe. This story was lighter and funnier than Lynch’s prior entry with lots of slapstick and splatstick as our errant plumber attempts to deal with the grimy beast in the apartment’s pipes. Lynch posting another Letterboxd list of influences in the making of this episode that put things in a clearer light.

Image via Youtube

Eric Edelstein does a phenomenal job as our errant plumber stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or stuck between financial ruin and one seriously pissed off pipe clog. Getting into some slimy brawls with the greasy thing from the drain in a fashion that would make Ashley J. Williams proud. Showing an earnestness as just a guy trying to get a paycheck and ending up have to deal with a monster… and the thing in the pipes. Speaking of, Barbara Crampton shines in what could be her most diabolical role yet: a short tempered, racist, cheap slumlord. Victoria is the classic kind of Creepshow creep, like the bastard of Upson Pratt and Wilma or “Billy” to her friends. Completely abhorrent to her tenants, Linus, and only caring about getting the job done slapdash so she can quickly get to her next bottle of expensive chardonnay. If you’ve ever experienced frustration or anger with your landlord, this story’s for you!

In our latter tale, we go deep into the bowels of the Earth and beyond in Within the Walls of Madness, a Lovecraft tinged cosmic horror story of insanity from showrunner Greg Nictotero and writer John Esposito and directed by Tales From The Darkside: The Movie‘s John Harrison. The story follows a man named Zeller (Drew Matthews, The Arbors) held in prison for murder and being interviewed by his duplicitous lawyer Tara Cartright (Brittany Smith, Venom) about the events that transpired at a secret government facility deep in the snowy mountains. Zeller was a part of a team conducting research with Doctor Trollenberg (Denise Crosby,  Pet Sematary) that may have unleashed an unspeakable evil that picked off the staff. But is it real, or has Zeller truly succumbed to madness?

Image via Youtube

Another fun change of pace for Creepshow, particularly in the realm of cosmic and psychological horror.  You can tell that Nicotero and Esposito wanted to tell their own story in those styles while creating something new, and they did a good job of putting the tropes and pieces together. Some details required repeat viewing to get a better grasp on, but for the most part it’s a solid and trippy tale. As the humans start to turn on one another and trust fades, they becomes as monstrous, if not more than whatever dwells within the walls.

Matthews and Cartright have a decent chemistry as they go toe to toe over what was really occurring in the facility and their different ideas of how to proceed with the court case. Crosby shines as the quite possibly mad Doctor Trollenberg as the truth of her experiments come out in more ways than one, pitting her and Zoller against each other. As always, top notch special and practical FX from KNB. Expect lots of tentacles and things from beyond.

Another solid issue of Creepshow, and with two episodes left this season I can only imagine what will be unleashed next!

Creepshow airs new episodes every Thursday on Shudder.

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New to Netflix (U.S.) This Month [May 2024]

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atlas movie Netflix starring Jennifer Lopez

Another month means fresh additions to Netflix. Although there aren’t many new horror titles this month, there are still some notable movies well worth your time. For instance, you can watch Karen Black try to land a 747 jet in Airport 1979, or Casper Van Dien kill giant insects in Paul Verhoeven’s bloody sci-fi opus Starship Troopers.

We are looking forward to the Jennifer Lopez sci-fi action movie Atlas. But let us know what you are going to watch. And if we have missed something, put it in the comments.

May 1:

Airport

A blizzard, a bomb, and a stowaway help create the perfect storm for the manager of a Midwestern airport and a pilot with a messy personal life.

Airport ’75

Airport ’75

When a Boeing 747 loses its pilots in a midair collision, a member of the cabin crew must take control with radio help from a flight instructor.

Airport ’77

A luxury 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art goes down in the Bermuda Triangle after being hijacked by thieves — and time for a rescue is running out.

Jumanji

Two siblings discover an enchanted board game that opens a door to a magical world — and unwittingly release a man who’s been trapped inside for years.

Hellboy

Hellboy

A half-demon paranormal investigator questions his defense of humans when a dismembered sorceress rejoins the living to wreak brutal vengeance.

Starship Troopers

When fire-spitting, brain-sucking bugs attack Earth and obliterate Buenos Aires, an infantry unit heads to the aliens’ planet for a showdown.

May 9

Bodkin

Bodkin

A ragtag crew of podcasters sets out to investigate mysterious disappearances from decades earlier in a charming Irish town with dark, dreadful secrets.

May 15

The Clovehitch Killer

The Clovehitch Killer

A teenager’s picture-perfect family is torn apart when he uncovers unnerving evidence of a serial killer close to home.

May 16

Upgrade

After a violent mugging leaves him paralyzed, a man receives a computer chip implant that allows him to control his body — and get his revenge.

Monster

Monster

After being abducted and taken to a desolate house, a girl sets out to rescue her friend and escape from their malicious kidnapper.

May 24

Atlas

Atlas

A brilliant counterterrorism analyst with a deep distrust of AI discovers it might be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

The Camp Cretaceous gang come together to unravel a mystery when they discover a global conspiracy that brings danger to dinosaurs — and to themselves.

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Netflix Releases First BTS ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ Footage

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It’s been three long years since Netflix unleashed the bloody, but enjoyable Fear Street on its platform. Released in a tryptic fashion, the streamer broke up the story into three episodes, each taking place in a different decade which by the finale were all tied together.

Now, the streamer is in production for its sequel Fear Street: Prom Queen which brings the story into the 80s. Netflix gives a synopsis of what to expect from Prom Queen on their blog site Tudum:

“Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.” 

Based on R.L. Stine’s massive series of Fear Street novels and spin-offs, this chapter is number 15 in the series and was published in 1992.

Fear Street: Prom Queen features a killer ensemble cast, including India Fowler (The Nevers, Insomnia), Suzanna Son (Red Rocket, The Idol), Fina Strazza (Paper Girls, Above the Shadows), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty, Cinnamon), Ella Rubin (The Idea of You), Chris Klein (Sweet Magnolias, American Pie), Lili Taylor (Outer Range, Manhunt) and Katherine Waterston (The End We Start From, Perry Mason).

No word on when Netflix will drop the series into its catalog.

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Live Action Scooby-Doo Reboot Series In Works at Netflix

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Scooby Doo Live Action Netflix

The ghosthunting Great Dane with an anxiety problem, Scooby-Doo, is getting a reboot and Netflix is picking up the tab. Variety is reporting that the iconic show is becoming an hour-long series for the streamer although no details have been confirmed. In fact, Netflix execs declined to comment.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

If the project is a go, this would be the first live-action movie based on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon since 2018’s Daphne & Velma. Before that, there were two theatrical live-action movies, Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), then two sequels that premiered on The Cartoon Network.

Currently, the adult-oriented Velma is streaming on Max.

Scooby-Doo originated in 1969 under the creative team Hanna-Barbera. The cartoon follows a group of teenagers who investigate supernatural happenings. Known as Mystery Inc., the crew consists of Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers, and his best friend, a talking dog named Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo

Normally the episodes revealed the hauntings they encountered were hoaxes developed by land-owners or other nefarious characters hoping to scare people away from their properties. The original TV series named Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ran from 1969 to 1986. It was so successful that movie stars and pop culture icons would make guest appearances as themselves in the series.

Celebrities such as Sonny & Cher, KISS, Don Knotts, and The Harlem Globetrotters made cameos as did Vincent Price who portrayed Vincent Van Ghoul in a few episodes.

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