2019 brought a Shudder series called Creepshow. It worked from inspiration of 1982’s theatrical release also titled Creepshow, a horror homage to the EC Comics of the 1950s.

Season Two includes five episodes, all but one of which presents two stories apiece. The final program of the season opts for a single story. The plot synopses come straight from the set’s liner notes.

Model Kid: “Joe’s (Brock Duncan) closest friends are the models toys of his favorite scary movie monsters.”

Season Two of Creepshow starts off on a fairly blah note with the predictable and trite “Kid”. It follows too many predictable paths and never shows the spark or creativity it needs to become engaging.

Public Television of the Dead: “A public TV station is overwhelmed when the appraisal of an antique book accidentally summons a dark force.”

In addition to the spoof of PBS, this episode overtly links to the Evil Dead franchise – and I mean that literally, as Ted Raimi shows up in a role and brings the “Book of the Dead” from those movies with him.

This means the show acts essentially as a sequel of sorts to the Evil Dead series. That choice surprises me, but it works fairly well, as the mix of PBS parody and Evil Dead entertains.

Dead and Breakfast: “A marketing ploy at a haunted bed and breakfast becomes a way too realistic,”

We get another fairly comedic show here, as the way the B&B’s proprietors (Ali Larter and C. Thomas Howell) try to gain guests leans funny. Toss in the involvement of a death-obsessed “social media influencer” (Iman Benson) and this becomes a lively and creative episode.

Pesticide: “An exterminator (Josh McDermitt) gets more than he bargained for when he takes on a big job.”

With a chubby oddball as the show’s lead, “Pesticide” leans toward humor as well – or at least it starts that way. When the exterminator gets his new gig, though, it turns decidedly darker. It doesn’t turn into a great show, but it works reasonably well, with an effective guest turn from Keith David as a bonus.

The Right Snuff: “A misunderstanding in space ensures two astronauts (Ryan Kwanten and Breckin Meyer) go down in history for all the worst reasons.”

“Snuff” degenerates into a story of paranoia, and it becomes one that doesn’t seem especially satisfying. Most of the episode plods until we get to the inevitable “shock” ending, so it ends up as a lackluster segment.

Sibling Rivalry: “Lola (Maddie Nichols) is convinced her brother (Andrew Brodeur) is trying to kill her, but she’s worried about the wrong monster.”

“Rivalry” starts out strong, with Lola’s hilariously incoherent attempt to tell her story. The show doesn’t stay at that level but it still offers a good twist on some horror tropes along the way.

Pipe Screams: “A drain clog turns out to be more than just a little matted hair and soap scum.”

Creepshow remains in a fairly comedic vibe here, with “scream queen” Barbara Crampton in full camp mode as a nasty building owner. Unfortunately, she only appears for a brief part of the program, and “Pipe” spends most of its span in fairly generic “gross out mode”. While not a bad episode, it seems semi-stale.

Within the Walls of Madness: “Scientists fight to contain the creature they’ve been studying, but is the true threat one of them?”

A story of a mysterious threat that impacts a facility in a frigid climate automatically brings to mind memories of The Thing. While not on a par with that classic, of course, “Walls” offers an effective little thriller.

Night of the Living Late Show: “Simon (Justin Long) has invented an incredible virtual reality experience that allows him to join in on his favorite films. What happens when virtual reality becomes Simon’s actual reality?”

Twice the length of the average story, “Show” uses much of that span to show Simon inside The Horror Express. This means that despite the episode’s extended running time, much of the onscreen material doesn’t actually pursue obvious story points.

Granted, we need some of this to depict Simon’s obsession, but it still feels more like a Boys With Toys enterprise in which the filmmakers get to play with Horror Express. “Show” offers a cool premise but the narrative evolution seems underdeveloped and less than absorbing.

Creepshow appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on these Blu-ray Discs. Given the series’ anthology nature, visuals varied from episode to episode, but the shows consistently looked positive.

Sharpness worked fine. Outside of intentional stylized softness at times, the programs felt accurate and concise most of the time, with only a smidgen of ill-definition on occasion.

No signs of jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws also failed to create issues.

Colors varied across the different stories, so don’t expect a consistent palette. The tones looked well-developed for the needs of each show, though, and they looked vivid and well-depicted.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while shadows offered good delineation, an important consideration given the often murky nature of the series’ action. In general, the shows looked fine.

As for the series’ DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it added kick to the proceedings. With a fair number of action scenes, the tracks used the five channels in an involving manner.

This meant creepy ambience at times, but more dynamic sequences resulted as well. The five speakers broadened in a natural, engaging manner to bring vivacity to the shows.

Audio quality seemed positive, with speech that came across as concise and clean. Music appeared full and lively as well.

Effects turned into an important consideration, and those displayed nice accuracy and heft, with good low-end when necessary. The audio fleshed out the episodes in a pleasing manner.

A mix of extras appear here, though unfortunately, Season Two lacks commentaries even though Season One offered a bunch of those. Of primary interest, we get two bonus episodes of Creepshow.

A Creepshow Animated Special lasts 45 minutes, 50 seconds. It breaks into two segments.

“Survivor Type” shows the tale of Richard Pine (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), a man who attempts to stay alive on a deserted island. “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” tells of a family road trip that visits a gruesome attraction.

“Type” seems underdone, even though it expands its narrative with backstory. It also ends on an oddly inconclusive note.

“Circus” becomes more creative, as the entire tale comes from the POV of the teen female lead. It takes too long to get to the point, but it provides perverse entertainment.

A Creepshow Holiday Special goes for 45 minutes, 50 seconds. Robert Weston (Adam Pally) fears he’s actually a werewolf, and he finds himself confronted by none other than Santa Claus (Tom Glynn), sworn enemy of lycanthropes.

Well, that’s a quirky concept for a Christmas show! Given the wacky premise, the “Special” leans comedic, and it does fine in that regard. Clever and engaging, this becomes one of the better Creepshow programs.

From Wondercon@Home 2021, we locate an Interview with Series Creator Greg Nicotero. During this 38-minute chat, Nicotero discusses aspects of the show and some episode specifics.

Essentially this acts as a promotional preview for Season Two, so Nicotero doesn’t spill a ton of insightful beans. Nonetheless, we get a decent collection of notes, even if the program exists to sell the series.

How It Was Made spans seven minutes, 40 seconds and provides notes from Nicotero, colorist John Petersen, editor Kristina Kromer, on-set VFX supervisor Steven Benjamin, and re-recording mixer Chris Nicholson.

This featurette lets us see the techniques used to put the “Late Show” episode inside old film footage. This becomes a short but tight take on the topic.

Next comes Behind the Sound, a four-minute, eight-second reel with Nicholson. He tells us about the audio aspects of Creepshow in this decent though thin overview.

After this we get four minutes, 56 seconds of Behind the Scenes Raw Footage. This shows the expected short compendium of shots from the episodes. It offers some fun tidbits.

Four Photo Galleries appear: “Season 2” (50 stills), “A Creepshow Holiday Special” (14), “A Creepshow Animated Special” (6) and “Behind the Scenes” (32). “Scenes” offers some useful shots, but the others just depict aspects of the episodes, so they seem forgettable.

Lastly, we get a booklet. It offers episode notes/credits and art to become a decent addition.

Like most anthologies, Season Two of Creepshow comes with ups and downs. Still, it brings enough quality to make it worth a look. The Blu-rays offer positive picture and audio as well as a decent array of bonus materials. Fans of the series’ style should enjoy S2 of Creepshow.