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‘Creepshow’ Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: “Time Out” + “The Things In Oakwood’s Past”

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Creepshow (2019)

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Jeffrey F. January hits it right out of the park again in “Time Out”, the first of the two shorts comprising this fifth episode of Season 3 of Shudder’s Creepshow. Written by Barrington Smith and Paul Seetachit, it owes a small debt to William Sleator’s mean-as-hell YA classic Singularity in telling the tale of the bad things that can happen when you play around with time. Instantly smart and obviously respectful of its sources, it opens with the WWII discovery of an old wardrobe in a house that also appears to have an unused Monkey’s Paw. A bad house, in other words. In the first of several time leaps, we receive a warning that one should never enter the wardrobe without the key to get back out of it, and then it’s law school where young Tim (Matthew Barnes) inherits said wardrobe and discovers that time moves a lot… a lot a lot, faster inside of it than out. This is very good when it comes to finding enough time in the day to study, woo lovely Lauren (Deon Hales), eventually pass the Bar, get a great job in a top law firm, and crawl up the ranks there in record time. Of course, Tim ages at an accelerated rate inside the wardrobe as well and maybe this bargain with time is stacked in the house’s favor after all.

About three-quarters of the way through “Time Out,” it became emotional for me (instead of just being a crackerjack execution of a delicious concept). Earning quick promotions and the approval of his authoritarian boss, starting a family with the girl of his dreams in a nice house with enough time, and then finding out that his body is starting to fall apart, that his attention isn’t what it used to be, and that he’s grown prematurely old — all of it’s painfully universal. It’s an allegory for the lie of the American Dream that we, as a society, are collectively coming to terms with now; namely, that the only things of value have nothing to do with the things we’ve been taught are valuable. The expensive education, the mortgage, the job with the salary and title, the approval of strangers in a profession of esteem. “Time Out” brilliantly undercuts the cost of such things with the personal cost of not being able to play catch with your young children, of getting a scary diagnosis at least ten years before you should because of how literally you’re killing yourself doing work that only enriches people you hate. Credit to January and company to let it all play out in the worst possible way and to suggest, in a grim but imminently fair sting, that the only thing you really get from working yourself to death is to pass along the message to your children that it’s what’s required of them, too. Watching this with someone who needs to see it would be time well spent.

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“The Things in Oakwood’s Past” is also fantastic: an animated piece written by Daniel Kraus and directed by Greg Nicotero and Dave Newberg with animation by Enol and Luis Junquera, it follows, with lovely little shoutouts to Stephen King, the opening of a recently-unearthed crate from the middle of “Flagg’s Park” in old Oakwood at the north end of Castle County, Maine. Suspected to be a MicMac relic (fans of Pet Sematary and The Stand, take note), local librarian Marnie Wrightson (voiced by Danielle Harris), with heavy Velma vibes and a nice homage in name to dearly-departed master illustrator Bernie Wrightson, sets about convincing a local television reporter (Ron Livingston) that periodically throughout its history, some It awakens in Oakwood to wipe it off the map. I love that there’s the mention of a Denbrough (Bill Denbrough being the hero of Stephen King’s It), and the early newscast revelation that Horlicks University has returned with crates to add to the “Carpenter Arctic” collection. Hey ho! Mark Hamill voices the mayor, Marnie’s dad, and… yeah, it’s just quality from top to bottom with animation that hits that sweet spot between old Scooby Doo and The Iron Giant.

Even better is how the mood of it, the setting and the secrets of a small town in autumn with scenes set in the rain and a creepy moment with a tree shot through with moonlight, suggests it as a companion piece to Kraus’ The Autumnal limited comic series. Ditto, the girl detective element of it as Marnie establishes herself as smart and vibrant, fearless and dedicated to finding the truth even if it’s too late and doesn’t do anyone any good. “The Things in Oakwood’s Past” should be the first in a series of shorts with Marnie, using her librarian skills and her curiosity, dealing with all manner of Eldritch horrors. It could be the good version of Lovecraft Country. I liked the corniness of the romance that begins to develop, the way a wolf in it looks like one of Wrightson’s The Cycle of the Werewolf werewolves, and the inevitability of its ultimate Harlan Ellison’s “Bleeding Stones” conclusion. It’s a brilliant subversion of the syndicated cartoons I watched everyday after school as a latchkey kid, planted in front of the television with my frozen french fries and homework. It’s a delight to be in the company of creators with shared experiences.

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Walter Chaw is the Senior Film Critic for filmfreakcentral.net. His book on the films of Walter Hill, with introduction by James Ellroy, is due in 2021. His monograph for the 1988 film MIRACLE MILE is available now.

Watch Creepshow Season 3 Episode 5 on Shudder