Horror fans can expect a wide array of stories and tonal variances in Shudder’s upcoming Creepshow series, according to showrunner Greg Nicotero. The 1982 horror anthology from Stephen King and George Romero has been rebooted by The Walking Dead’s Nicotero on AMC’s horror-centric streaming service. And while Nicotero plans for the show to have plenty of scares, he also wants the new series to make room for wild and funny stories, too.
Fans of the original film likely remember it, too, had its fair share of tonal variances, swinging from outright horror to comedy and even camp. That the film was an anthology meant it had the potential to be everything to every kind of horror fan and even appeal to those who aren’t always looking to be scared or grossed out. Shudder’s reboot of the film aims to follow in the original’s footsteps, as far as Nicotero is concerned.
Nicotero discussed the show’s tone and sense of humor following a visit to the set Screen Rant participated in. The makeup and effects guru discussed being influenced by the original movie, but also some classic films of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Read what Nicotero has to say about Creepshow’s approach to tone below:
“Creepshow has a very unique tone and style to it. With Twilight Zone you're always waiting for the twist ending... The thing I liked about the original Creepshow was that the stories were all a little bit different. Some of them were scary some were suspenseful some were gross some of them were funny. So I really do feel like that is what we're hoping to continue. It's like going to a great restaurant and you have no idea what you want to order, but you're going to be happy with whatever shows up in front of you. I think it's kind of exciting that we get an opportunity to explore a bunch of different themes and a bunch of different stories and... even just the vibe of the show in general. I mean listen, I was born in '63 and I'm kind of a kid of '70s and early '80s horror movies like American Werewolf in London and The Thing and Dawn of the Dead and all of those movies. For me, there's a really specific style with which those movies were made that people have tried to emulate. And that's one of the things that I really wanted to do with Creepshow. It doesn't necessarily need to feel like a period piece, but that there's a specific style, and that's something that I was really excited about. We're doing the comic book page turns and the dissolves from comic book to live action... some of the most fun I've had is designing the retro ads that are put into the comic book and all of the covers. I really feel like I did a deep dive, obviously not only into the original Creepshow, but what inspired Stephen and George, because Creepshow's really an homage to EC Comics, and into this and do Creepshow again, you've gotta go back to the source. You gotta go back to what it was that inspired these guys.”
Mentioning American Werewolf in London, The Thing, and Dawn of the Dead is probably all Nicotero had to do in order to get horror fans to perk up their ears. Though it like won’t take much to get subscribers to tune in for the new series, it’s good to know Creepshow is inspired by some of the best in the genre.
Creepshow premieres Thursday, September 26 @9pm ET/7pm PT on Shudder.