‘Creepshow’ (2019) Recap: ‘Skinwalkers’ & ‘By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season one finale of ‘Creepshow’.
​
I’m always in awe of television shows that more or less bring their audience flawless stories week in and week out. Because it isn’t easy to put together an entire season of stories that blow an audience away, but there are shows that accomplish that feat and actually manage to get better as the season rolls on. Granted they’re rare, but when they do appear, it really is something spectacular and special and thankfully, 2019 has gifted us with one such series that fits that particular vein since Shudder’s Creepshow has found a way to captivate us and wow us with every single story that it’s brought to the table over the past six weeks.
 
It’s accomplished such a feat by offering up a gauntlet of horror storytelling, the kind that has celebrated the best parts of the genre, and after seeing this cornucopia of terror play out before my eyes, I have to admit that I was quite curious as to what the season one finale of this magnificent series was going to dive into next. Because in essence, all the major sub-genres and themes were addressed in prior episodes, meaning that something special had to be waiting in the wings for said finale. But what the series presented to us this week; I was woefully unprepared for. Because these dual tales of terror, served as a celebration of everything that made this season so great, since it provided us with a pair of stories that brought together just about everything that Creepshow has taken the time to explore this year.
 
For example, ‘Skinwalkers’ was a tale that celebrated the gore in magnificent fashion, all while offering up some serious social commentary on vanity. And it accomplished that by introducing us to a man named Henry Quayle who was desperate to lose weight and enjoy a beautiful exterior, prompting him to explore a miracle cure involving flesh eating leeches, something that seemed too good to be true, and something that Henry’s instincts were correct about. But what matters more here, was the commentary I made mention of a moment ago since this story dug deep into the power of vanity and how we let body image serve as the definition of who we are, alongside how that’s wrong and that obsessing over said image is dangerous and this was a brilliant way to reintroduce the notion of the darkness that resides within all of us, and the blood and guts at the end was a lovely homage to splatter-y horror flicks of yesteryear such as Re-Animator and Dead Alive and kudos need to go to writers Paul Dini and Stephen Langford for assembling such a smart script.
 
If anything, this was quite the intense story when all said and done, one that was counterbalanced nicely by the second vignette in this episode. For ‘By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain’ offered up a far more intimate tale, one that introduced us to a broken family, one shattered by their late father’s obsession with a supposed monster that lives in the water of a nearby lake, and sadly, without their father present in their lives, they’ve fallen upon hard times. The kind where dear old mom has taken in an abusive lover in order to make ends meet. And the miserable life they live drives young Rose to try and prove her father’s theories right, in part to clear his name, but also to bring joy to her life and well… what she discovers in the end is downright incredible. And what I loved about this story, was that it takes the time to remind us that the greatest monster of all is man and it was also wonderful to see this story push the series back into the fantastical by way of Champy, the monster that populates the lake, and all of these elements made this vignette, one based off of a Joe Hill story, an utterly brilliant delight.
 
In the end however, this was just a wonderful way to wrap up season one of this incredible series. Because in essence, they saved the best for last since these stories were polished and brisk and enthralling through and through and once again, they featured phenomenal acting and directing, and speaking of that, Tom Savini deserves a special shout out. For his work behind the camera in the second segment allowed for the audience to be drawn into a perfectly fleshed out world, to the point where you straight up get lost in the story. Yet, while I want to be sad over the fact that season one of this saga has come to a close, I only feel joy instead. Because this is one of the finest inaugural seasons, I’ve ever seen for a horror series, thanks in large part to all the brilliant cast and crew members involved, but I’m also filled with happiness simply because this is the opening chapter in what appears to be a grand journey. For Creepshow has been renewed for a second season by Shudder, which means it won’t be long until we are back in the Creep’s realm to enjoy more tales of jolting terror, and I’ll patiently waiting for him to crack open The Crate, once again. Until next year, kiddies. 

---