‘Creepshow’ Recap: ‘Skeletons in the Closet’ / ‘Familiar’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

‘Skeletons in the Closet’

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 302 of ‘Creepshow’.
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A couple of themes that the Shudder series Creepshow tends to explore often, is the darkness that we indulge in, and why we do so, and it makes sense as to why these concepts are such a focus for the show. Because the evil that humanity takes part in, is fascinating to say the least. Because there are just so many reasons that people make the strange choice to let the darkness in and execute its desires with impunity and taking the time to explore those endless reasons… really does offer up endless storytelling possibilities for this show and once again, the show opted to turn to this particular examination... in a unique manner. For this week’s tales of terror took the time to explore such matters in both a lighthearted and semi-historical fashion and well, let’s talk about the fun one, first.

For ‘Skeletons in the Closet’ introduced us to a quirky couple named Lampini and Danielle and they were the proprietors of a horror movie museum. One that was about to unveil its greatest exhibit to all. For this display featured unique skeletons from horror film history, the kind that were built around the bones of actual individuals that had passed. But alas, in order to make the Dawn of the Dead portion of this exhibit as accurate and authentic as possible, Lampini went to extreme lengths to obtain the exact human skeleton used on screen, the one that was buried years ago… and unfortunately for him, a rival collector figured this out. For Lambert wanted the collection for himself and used the truth to blackmail Lampini and that led to the darkness in question. 

Since Lampini was willing to kill to keep his collection and let's be honest... digging up skeletons is a pretty dark act as well and this just goes to show that some people have no problem with letting the darkness take over if they firmly believe one ugly act or two will justify the means for their future. However, all lessons aside, we would be foolish to not talk about the fact that this particular segment was a horror fan’s dream come true thanks to the homages present here. Since the museum was indeed filled with beautiful props from horror’s illustrious history, including the Original Creep from Creepshow (1982) and other wonders that might have come from Greg Nicotero’s personal collection since he worked on a lot of the movies mentioned here and that twist, along with an amazing homage to Jason and the Argonauts is what kept this story in some supremely lighthearted territory. The kind that definitely motivated this writer to hoot and holler at what played out on the screen. 

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‘Familiar’

As for the history lesson, well that was handled by the second vignette in this journey, ‘Familiar’. Which is a story that introduced us to a happy couple named Jackson and Fawn who stumbled upon a psychic named Boone one night, and their attempts to get a reading ended in disaster for Jackson. For he was told by Boone that something evil followed him into the psychic parlor and that in turn opened Jackson’s eyes to the fact that a Familiar was indeed following him around and was eager to use Jackson to feast on souls and create chaos and that forced Jackson to take some extreme measures to be free of it. The kind that saw him work to trap the creature in question and kill it so he could be free of the nightmare it was prepared to unleash. A plan that of course, ended badly when Jackson misunderstood the instructions and fell for the Familiar’s tricks. 
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But what matters more here, is that this story really dives deep into some classic concepts regarding the nature of evil and its influence upon mankind. Since a creature of this nature, more or less harkens back to ancient beliefs that evil was something that lurked around every corner and was the cause of our problems all along and would harm others and pin it on innocents in order to get its kicks and that’s a brilliant twist to say the least. Since it really does remind us that there was a time in humanity’s history where we didn’t even want to consider the possibility that humanity was capable of cruelty and evil and seeing this old-school notion come to life in a 21st Century setting really does freshen up the legend and play into our fears of the unknown. For it ignites the imagination to ponder upon whether or not all evil is choice, or if sometimes the claims of innocence we hear from guilty parties is related to a being like this one.

However, more than likely, we know the truth in such matters. But it is fun to play ‘what if?’ and fun really is the best word to describe this particular episode. Since it really did a wonderful job of making us laugh and cheer courtesy of its wonderful homages and twisted examination of how some people dig into darkness to get ahead in life and it was indeed a great deal of fun to just ponder upon the unknown and harken back to a time when our own imaginations more or less dictated our decisions and our punishments for our fellow man and really, in the end, this really is quite the enjoyable episode. Because at its core, it celebrates the best parts of the horror genre, and you can never go wrong that. Until next time, kiddies.

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