Synopsis: A man determined to stay alive alone on a deserted island no matter what the cost and A teen whose road trip includes a visit to the gravest show on earth.
Directors: Greg Nicotero
Writers: Greg Nicotero, Melanie Dale, Stephen King (“Survivor Type” based on the book by), Joe Hill (“Twittering of the Dead” based on the book by)
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Joey King
A Creepshow Animated Special – is now streaming on Shudder.
As fans await the second season of Shudders Creepshow revival, the production team have made the most of the COVID-era and produced an animated special. There are two stories here, one based on a Stephen King short story, the other, a Joe Hill short. Both are fairly grim and perfect for the Halloween season and directed by Creepshow showrunner, Greg Nicotero.
“Survivor Type” is your first story, based on the Stephen King short of the same name, The story was adapted by Greg Nicotero and stars Kiefer Sutherland (24, Designated Survivor) as a surgeon stranded on an island, doing what he must to survive. This means killing seagulls with bare hands and eating their raw insides. The story is about how far you’ll go to survive and that means knowing when your broken foot is doing more harm attached to your body than it would be if it was removed.
“Survivor Type” – Shudder (supplied)
Using the animation to its full effect means this story gets away with some rather gruesome stuff that may have been too much for a live-action adaptation. As the story begins the man is sawing off his own foot and from there, the story only gets even more bloody. Sutherland is a great choice here as the story is told entirely through voice-over and his slowly growing insanity is rattled off with the gruff voice of a relatable stranger.
The second story is called “Twittering From The Circus of The Dead” and based on the short of the same name by Joe Hill. The story was adapted by Melanie Dale and stars Joey King (The Kissing Booth, The Act) as a young teen who’s somewhat addicted to Twitter and won’t stop posting updates during her family holiday. This story is again told through voice-over as the girl sends out tweets and make sly remarks about her families embarrassing behaviour during their family road trip. The girls Mum comments early in the story that social media is all fluff and “no one ever tweets their own death,” which is some rather dark foreshadowing for the direction this story heads. As the family arrive at a circus showboating live zombies, things start to get a little too real.
“Twittering From The Circus of the Dead” – Shudder (supplied)
Again the animation lends itself to this type of story. You feel like you’re watching an animated comic book. King plays the role of the somewhat annoying teenager too well, but she sells the story and details necessary to make the live-tweeting aspect work..
