'Creepshow' – 'Bad Wolf Down' and 'The Finger'



I'm still hoping to post some book reviews this week but I can see a few 'Creepshow' posts happening as well. I absolutely loved the first episode of 'Creepshow' (review just below this one) so jumped straight into the second one last night.
I think after such a strong opening, there was always going to be trouble with the next episode trying to match that quality; I wasn't surprised to see it happen although it was a bit of a shame that it happened so quickly. I'm still going to make my way through the series but I'm not as buzzing about it as I was yesterday. It's still very early days though so all's not lost yet.
Let's have a little chat then about 'Bad Wolf Down' and 'The Finger'...

'Bad Wolf Down' tells the tale of the survivors of a massacred American platoon, holed up in an abandoned police station with an SS general outside, looking to take revenge for the death of his son. The police station wasn't completely abandoned though, there's a prisoner in one of the cells and she says that she's a werewolf...
'Bad Wolf Down' is a little too straight forward for my liking, sacrificing plot for a straight rush to the bloody finale. There's nothing wrong with the bloody finale, I love bloody finales and this one is as bloody as time constraints allow. There just wasn't much story and there were elements to 'Bad Wolf Down' that could have been drawn out a bit (or even a lot) to really make the most of an admittedly already cool 'WW2 with werewolves' idea. 'Bad Wolf Down' was a lot of fun but it felt like there was an opportunity wasted here. Shame...

Luckily, 'The Finger' saved things.

In 'The Finger', a man who loves to collect strange objects finds a severed finger during a midnight stroll. After spilling beer over it, the finger grows a body; a strange creature the man names 'Bob'. They have a lovely time together but Bob soon develops a habit of killing anyone who upsets his friend. How much can our 'heroes' waste disposal dispose of before the police catch up with him...?

I really enjoyed 'The Finger', a tale of horror that's also a heart warming tale of the friendship between a man and his, erm... 'Bob'. DJ Qualls is perfect for the role of embittered loner (which he was great at in what I saw of 'Z Nation') and the creature 'Bob' hearkens back to all the best bits about 1980s 'stop motion' horror creatures (I'm no expert here but that's what it looked like). It's that friendship that really brings out the moments of horror as Bob leaves his friend in moments of real difficulty and we're caught up in the anxiety and tension that those moments bring. It's great to watch director Greg Nicotero gradually build that tension up into something that can only end in one way... and when it does, he ends it on quite a weirdly sweet moment.
'The Finger' was a mix of gore and, well... lets just say I wouldn't seeing more of Bob's adventures. Kind of like a really messed up 'Littlest Hobo'...

So, a slight downturn in 'Bad Wolf Down' is rescued by 'The Finger' to make for a decent episode that doesnt' quite match the series opener but still looks like a sign of good things to come. My journey will continue... :o)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Mad God' (2021)

Image
It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not
Read more

‘The Long and Hungry Road’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
After not finishing ‘Witchbringer’ (not the book’s fault, I still think it could be worth your time), I thought I’d change pace a little and go for a short, sharp burst of something instead. Something that would blow a few cobwebs away and wake me up a bit :o) Now in my experience, there’s nothing shorter and sharper than a Warhammer short story so that was the direction of my reading taken care of. And as far as the focus went… I’ve read a few Warhammer tales, in my time, but I’ve never read a tale that looks at the events of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of the rapacious Tyranids. So when I saw ‘The Long and Hungry Road’ on Amazon, it pretty much chose itself. To face a Tyranid invasion is a waking nightmare. The skies darken with spores, your mind echoes with alien screeches, and countless weapon-organisms descend upon you with razor teeth and claws. How much greater would your horror be, to realise that the hive ship above thinks nothing of your fate – that it crushes you
Read more

‘Worms of the Earth’ – Robert E. Howard.

Image
Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w
Read more