Over on Shudder, their 61 Days of Halloween celebration keeps on going with another episode of Season 3 of Creepshow!

This latest episode featured two great stories that both had people getting their comeuppance as well as some amazing practical makeup effects!

The Last Tsuburaya
Directed by Jeffrey F. January, Written by Paul Dini & Stephen Langford

A famous Japanese artist who died 100 years ago leaves his final painting to his last living descendent.  The young Best Buy employee can’t believe his fortune and therefore immediately agrees to sell the painting to a tech billionaire for millions of dollars.

The billionaire glibly makes this offer in front of a museum curator who wanted the painting to be available to the public in her museum.  However, the billionaire has a much more dastardly idea in mind.  At the party to unbox the painting from its wooden crate, he’s the only one who gets a chance to see it before he sets it ablaze.

In some sort of sick, twisted sense of toxicity, he takes joy out of being the only one who got to see it, and knowing that his money allowed him to do that.  However, he’s soon haunted by the demon from the painting.  At first he thinks it’s his own guilt, but the demon proves to be quite potent, and terrifying in its design.

Going back to the original Creepshow movie, these stories are at their best when we have a despicable character getting what’s coming to them.  While that’s been a common trend among episodes, this one plays it particularly well.  This series is certainly known for its over the top, cheesy tone (which is very much the point), but this villain seemed more grounded than usual.

As we hear stories of billionaires spending hundreds of millions on space joy rides, it’s not all that far-fetched that one might develop a God complex around his money and what it can buy.  And the idea that he could spend a fortune just to ruin things for other people seems pretty in line with current income inequality issues.

Granted, this story takes that idea to its most extreme point, but that’s what makes horror so much fun.  Plus, the design of the demon itself was legitimately creepy and the fact that it’s kept in the shadows until the very end really drew out this story’s suspense!

Ok I’ll Bite
Written and Directed by John Harrison

Spiders are a pretty common phobia, so blending them with supernatural magic from Egyptian folklore makes for a really interesting plot.  In this story, John Harrison serves as both screenwriter and director, adapting a short story of his set in a prison.

We meet a disgraced pharmacist who’s serving jail time for mercy-killing his mother who was terminally ill and in great pain.  While in prison, he’s bullied by other inmates, as well as an abusive guard, who runs his own little syndicate in the prison.

His love of spiders also gets him bullied, particularly when other inmates start trying to kill them, only to find that spiders bite back.  This story really does a great job of making her care for the spiders as he does and even giving them something of a personality.  When one is squashed, you really feel it, the same way you would a cat or a dog, except it’s a creature that we’ve all definitely stomped before.

Granted the Egyptian ritual subplot kind of comes out of nowhere, save for a brief mention about how that ancient civilization worshipped them.  But when you only have about 20-25 minutes of runtime, sometimes you have to makes jumps to get the plot going.

All that said, the final scene with the corrupt guard falling victim to the newly created Spider-God is nothing short of amazing.  The design is really cool, and the last shot of his face wrapped in a web is pure nightmare fuel!

What did you think of this week’s episode?  What do you hope to see next week?  Let us know in the comments!

Creepshow is streaming exclusively on Shudder

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