'Nightmares & Dreamscapes' Retro Recap: 'Crouch End'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Superstition comes from a primal place in our psyche...our fear of the unknown. We simply don't know what tomorrow can bring and by playing our own particular deck of mental cards and going through certain motions, we hope and pray that they will deflect bad luck while bringing prosperity our way.

We feel as though we are following our gut instincts and hey, if it works for you, go through those motions and believe what you need to believe in life because sometimes...our superstitions exist for a reason and there's nothing more wonderful than when our little quirks and habits pay off in positive fashion, or more terrifying than when our gut instincts were true, and our attempt to deflect bad juju fails and ugly things come our way, as was explored in the second episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes; 'Crouch End'.

Doris and Lonnie Frehman are enjoying one incredible honeymoon. The newlyweds have settled into their first days as husband and wife in the beautiful city of London and it seems as though nothing can bring these two down. But, life has its little quirks and while the two are happy as can be, there is a touch of friction in the relationship over the fact that Lonnie is a bit of a workaholic. He answers his phone from time to time and while it does irritate Doris, she does her best to simply let it slide. But one call from the London lawyer for Lonnie's firm will change the couple's happy outlook. For the couple must travel to Crouch End for a dinner with said lawyer, and this is a place that few people seem to want to go. The city is rumored to have strange occurrences happening within its limits often, and unfortunately for these newlyweds, the rumors are true and they are about to sink into a terrifying world they may never escape from.

After 'Battleground' set the bar so high for this series, this episode had a tall order to live up to and well, it's merely okay. There is actually a lot to like in this story. For one, it seems to tie into Stephen King's Dark Tower mythos by making mention, in vague but recognizable fashion of course, of places where reality grows 'thin' much like the 'thinny' of that universe which is a nice little touch and the episode also pays incredible tribute to H.P. Lovecraft as well, making mention of Cthulhu from time to time and potentially even featuring the legendary monster with a terrifying scene that features a few tentacles that may or may not belong to the beast. So with all of those lovely little tidbits coming our way, how could this episode just be adequate?

Well the answer to that is quite simple, it's incredibly slow in between all the cool stuff. There's actually some great moments of horror in this episode, and the performances from our two leads are outstanding to say the least, especially Claire Forlani and her portrayal of Doris' quirks and superstitions, and the fact that if Lonnie listened to her gut, they wouldn't be in this mess. But hey, people are dumb in horror stories and in the end they spend most of their time running around the alternate Crouch End and encounter something scary here and there and that's just disappointing. Because it's clear the beings that inhabit this other dimension want to drive people mad and keep them within their realm and well, by rarely seeing them, or just glimpses of them, the episode squanders a chance to mess with the minds of the characters, and the minds of the audience. This isn't the absolute worst Stephen King adaptation I've ever seen, it's serviceable and creepy, so it gets a passing grade for at least covering Lovecraft and for making us uncomfortable here and there. Until next time.

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