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Review ‘Creepshow’ Season 2 Episode 5: Night of the Living Late Show

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Last week’s Creepshow went below a run down apartment and into the bowels of Earth. This week in the Season 2 finale, we’re diving from the real world and into the universe of virtual reality cinema! And how you can get easily lost there.

Image via Youtube

Night of the Living Late Show follows Simon (Justin Long, Tusk) an introverted scientist who has made one of the biggest breakthroughs in media technology: a fully immersive virtual reality tank! Using it to literally jump into his favorite movie, the 1972 sci-fi monster movie classic, Horror Express starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.  But with each deep dive into the movie, his wife Renee (D’Arcy Carde, The Good Place) grows more and more concerned, especially as Simon tries to live out his infatuation with the fictional Countess Petrovska (Hannah Fierman, V/H/S) and tensions continue to mount…

A splendidly unique concept for a special full length 40 minute Creepshow tale directed by series showrunner Greg Nicotero and written by Stan Against Evil creator Dana Gould who also starred in last season’s Skincrawlers. With the wonders of editing/special fx technology, characters from the Creepshow story are able to jump into Horror Express and interact with the world within their world. Including scenes of Justin Long’s Simon geeking out in the presence of Christopher Lee- as I think we all would given the situation. These cuts are relatively seamless or just kind of fit with the flow of a virtual reality program version of Horror Express with other segments involving recreated sets from the train  and Hannah Fierman’s Countess being the only character who goes fully ‘off-script.’ My only real gripe would be that Telly Savalas’ larger than life cossack commander didn’t get to make an appearance. Also leading to a fun segment in Night of the Living Dead

At its core however, Night of the Living Late Show is a human drama instead of technology gone awry. The virtual reality unit works perfectly fine, it is the whims of the creator that cause misfortune. Simon and Renee’s marriage was already clearly strained, and his obsessive escapism only exacerbates their relationship. In a way, it makes me recall the classic Twilight Zone episode ‘Time Enough At Last’ with Burgess Meredith.

In it, Meredith plays a milquetoast man who lets his obsession with reading push aside his co-workers, his wife, and everyone else around him until he’s left alone with just his library in the wake of a nuclear war… then his glasses break. There was an interview with host Rod Serling about why someone as meek as Meredith’s character deserved such a twisted fate, which boiled down to his lack of humanism and obsessive escapism. He wasn’t a cruel man, but his fantasies isolated himself and pushed others away. I feel similar about Simon. He’s not an outright villain, but his negative and anti-humanist character flaws are what rightfully lead him to his Creepshow inspired destination.

And excellent performances all around! Justin Long as the horror nerd living out his virtual dreams with tunnel vision that excludes his wife but are focused on the fictional countess. As well D’Arcy Carde as Renee shines as the straight woman to Simon’s holodeck hijinks. Growing more disturbed before uncovering his fantasy infidelity, coming to blows with Hannah Fierman’s alluring Russian Countess and having a close encounter with The Horror of The Horror Express, becoming bitter over his neglectful treatment..

Overall, this was a truly fun high concept story to end this season of Creepshow on and just makes me more and more excites for all the possibilities the announced Season 3 has in store!

Image via IMDB

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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