Season 1, Episode 3
Halloween is full of mischief and mayhem all around the country, but for one small town it is more than just tricks they are given.
The episode starts in true Creepshow fashion, with the Creep. While carving a pumpkin with Night of the Living Dead playing in the background, the doorbell rings. It is a trick-or-treater who is obviously more interested in a trick than a treat by the greeting they give the Creep. The Creep, obviously annoyed with this disturbance, goes to the door with knife in hand and off screen we hear the trick being given. The Creep walks back into camera view with blood dripping from the knife laughing manically while placing something inside of the pumpkin they were just carving. When the pumpkin is turned to face the camera, it has two freshly cut out eyeballs in it.
The scene changes then while the Creep shows us a new story. The tale begins on hallowing with a teenage girl, Jill (Madison Thompson), meeting up with a boy, Pete (Conner Christie). They start talking about how this is the last time they will be meeting like this and that they have to stick to the rules because they are “Golden Dragons.” Another member of the club walks up, Binky (Jasun Jabbar Wardlaw Jr.) Binky asks where Bobby and Skeeter are and says he wants to get going and take a new route this time, but Pete informs him they have to stick to the plan. As they walk by houses people start closing their shades indicating they are afraid of this group. The Golden Dragons incomplete group nears completion when they round a corner and run into Bobby (Andrew Eakle) who informs them that Skeeter is down by the “old iron gate.” Bobby says that Skeeter doesn’t want to partake this year because he thinks he is too old for it. The group then makes their way to Skeeter and talks him into joining them “one last time.” “After all,” Pete says, “you helped build the treehouse, remember?”
The first house they come up to and knock is Mr. Boatner’s (Tom Olson) house. When he opens the door and sees who it is he is visibly scared of the group and says, “dear God, not you.” Binky replies “in the flesh, so to speak.” He then tries to give them the entire bowl of candy and when they are not satisfied with that he offers a cake his wife made the day before. But they tell him they are not about “yesterdays…well I guess we are. But you would know about that. About a lot of yesterday’s am I right?” Jill and Pete then talk the gang into moving on to the next house.
They then make their way to the Collins house. When Mrs. Collins (Julia Denton) opens the door, they just walk right in. She makes them muffins out of fear and while they are speaking her husband, (Scott Daniel Johnson) walks in screaming at them calling them monsters. “Think you can get away with this every year? Terrorizing the entire town?” He yells at them. Bobby replies, “Just this neighborhood.” At Pete’s request, the gang leaves while Mr. Collins follows them out crying “he was our only son, our only boy. When will you stop?” Pete tells him, “When we’re through.”
They then make their way to a burned-up tree house where the entire group is seeming depressed and exhausted. Skeeter is standing away from the rest of the crew and Pete makes his way over to him asking if he is thinking about their parents. They then, at last, come to the last house of the night, Mrs. Hathaway’s. When they knock on the door no one comes to let them in, so they bust a window and come in anyway. When inside, Binky starts yelling out for “Eddie.” They make their way into the living room where Mrs. Hathaway is sitting in a rocking chair with a shotgun. She tells them that Eddie went to his grandparents and will not be back until tomorrow. They do not believe her however and when pushed further, she puts the gun down. Eddie then comes out of the back and is dragged out of the house by the group. Screaming for his mother she simply replies, “it’s no good Eddie, they’ll just keep coming back. They’ll find us wherever we go.”
The Golden Dragons take Eddie to the burned-up tree and tie him to it. He tells them he is innocent, and that Skeeter seen everything. Skeeter then pulls up his ghost sheet to reveal his burned face. A flash back then takes place and shows Eddie and his gang burning down the Golden Dragons tree house with the group locked inside where they all are burned to death. They then are standing in front of Eddie again with him tied to a tree. He screams “you won’t get away with this” and Pete replies, “you did” and throws a match on him where he is burned to death.
Thoughts on the episode:
The story has a fantastic way of slowly revealing what happened to the Golden Dragons. It is not evident when they are first introduced that they are ghosts, but as the episode builds the feeling of mystery and suspicion of mischief is overwhelming. It is not easy to tell a compelling story in just 20 minutes, but that is exactly what Creepshow aims to do. The suspense is really the backbone of this episode. This is not a “scary” tale as much as a creepy one and in the end, despite the lack of acting chops the young actors may have, it is accomplished. In true E.C Comics tradition, this is a revenge story with a twist.
Written exclusively for TheLastPicture.Show by Jacob Ruble
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