Shudder has just delivered a genuinely creepy trailer for A Creepshow Animated Special. Those who scare easily may want to steer clear. The anthology web TV series is based on Stephen King's Creepshow, a 1980s anthology film written by the novelist, as well as Creepshow 2.
The original movie draws on two of King's existing short stories and tacks on three new ghostly tales. The shorts are tied together by a prologue in which a young boy named Billy is summoned into the pages of a horror comic by The Creep, the "host" of both the comic and the movie. Shudder rebooted the film into a TV show that premiered during spooky season last year. Like the movie, the anthology series combines adaptation of King's material with original stories. Each episode includes two shorts, usually by different directors. Creepshow's first episode featured Adrienne Barbeau from the first movie's cast, while horror vets like Tobin Bell and David Arquette have also played roles.
Creepshow season 2 was supposed to begin filming in March, but production delays due to the coronavirus resulted in a September start instead. A Creepshow Animated Special serves as a replacement to tide over fans until the live-action shorts are released. Those who can handle freaky faces can check out the official trailer and poster, via Shudder, below:
The trailer shows The Creep skulking into his art studio to work on the horror comics that will become the special's animated shorts. True to the horror-comedy blend of the original film, the image of the ghoulish host tapping into his creative side at the drawing table is both unsettling and kind of funny. The special will include two animated shorts featuring voiceovers from Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Joey King (The Kissing Booth). Sutherland gets stranded on a desert island in "Survivor Type," which is based on a Stephen King story. Joey King's family road trips to a haunted spectacular in "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead," which Melanie Dale adapted from Joe Hill's short story.
Creepshow season 2 is now in production with a cast that includes Josh McDermitt (The Walking Dead), Adam Pally (The Mindy Project), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Keith David (The Thing), and Ashley Laurence (Hellraiser). The live-action shorts unfortunately won't air until sometime next year, but the animated special is a great way to keep The Creep's body of work alive until then. Horror anthologies and shorts like Creepshow have become popular lately, seemingly due to streaming services' algorithmic ability to detect demand for spooky content. Netflix is currently host to multiple collections of terror including the shorter compilations Two Sentence Horror Stories and Haunted, as well as season-long anthologies like Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, a Scream TV adaptation, and the Canadian anthology series Slasher. A Creepshow Animated Special, which premieres October 29, should fit right in with other offerings available on streaming.
Source: Shudder/Youtube