Main cast: Logan Allen (Harold), Voltaire Colin Council (Billy), Dylan Gage (Smitty), Afemo Omilami (Brenner), Tricia Helfer (Lydia Layne), and Danielle Lyn (Celia)
Directors: David Bruckner and Roxanne Benjamin
Well, well, it really looks like the show is finding its stride after all, as the fourth episode maintains the momentum set by the previous one.
The first segment, The Companion, really should have been paired with All Hollows Eve of the previous episode for a more cohesive Stranger Things-like theme of kids in a paranormal tale. This one has a pretty simple story: Harold is constantly bullied by his brother Billy, and their relationship is physically abusive with blows being thrown around all the time. The latest altercation sees Harold fleeing and stumbling past a cemetery to an abandoned farm. Oh wait, it’s not abandoned, as there is a lovely murderous sentient scarecrow looking to slay all trespassers!
This is not exactly an original story, as killer scarecrows and bullies are pretty common in horror. However, this one is pretty well paced, the scares are well placed without resorting to too many gimmicky jump scares, and the young actors are actually pretty decent. Am I bowled over by this one? No. Am I entertained? Yes, so that counts as a big plus.
Lydia Layne’s Better Half is more straightforward as a horror tale. Successful no-nonsense businessman Lydia Layne promotes some guy and earns the wrath of her girlfriend Celia, who is expecting that promotion. See, this is why people shouldn’t mix their work and love lives—sure, shagging in the broom closet or on the photocopy machine are all fun and games until professional jealousy rears its ugly head and ruins both work and play. Things get violent between the ladies until Lydia pushes Celia and Celia falls to hit her head hard against the sharp edge of Lydia’s “Woman of the Year” trophy. Oops, she’s now dead.
Lydia decides to wheel Celia out on an office chair into the elevator, hoping to place Celia into her vehicle and stage things so that Celia appears to have died in an accident. I’m not sure how she is going to do this, but it doesn’t matter as silly Lydia forgets that one should never take an elevator in an emergency, and this certainly counts as one. The elevator dies, and now our protagonist is in a fix, She can call for help, but that means she will be discovered with Celia’s dead body. What is she going to do now?
This one is a pretty solid segment too, and it’s a nice throwback to no-nonsense old school anthology horror episodes, complete with a protagonist talking to herself as she slowly loses her mind, heh. Tricia Helfer does a great job carrying the whole segment to the finish line, as her character is appropriately ruthless and evil enough to root against in a most enjoyable manner.
All in all, the two segments here may not be the freshest or most innovative, but they do their job well. It’s a pretty fun episode, all in all, so Creepshow is indeed looking up.
