Fans of Shudder’s Creepshow, rejoice! The horror anthology show’s third season is right around the corner, debuting September 23rd on Shudder. At the show’s Comic-Con@Home panel, executive producer Greg Nicotero, writer Mattie Do, director Rusty Cundieff, and actors James Remar and Michael Rooker teased plenty of new details and even showed off a few clips.
“Mums” and “Skeletons in the Closet”
As always, each episode of Creepshow‘s third season will feature two short stories – some of which are original, some of which are adaptations. One story is an adaptation of Joe Hill’s “Mums,” written by Greg Nicotero and directed by Rusty Cundieff. Cundieff revealed that the story “kind of takes place in this little farming area. It deals with some social issues that I won’t give away, but very lightly… It allows the horror to progress. But it’s about this kid whose father and mother aren’t quite getting along. And the father decides that he needs to do a little something with the mom… There’s some great physical stuff in a garden. And there’s death, and there’s blood, and all the good s–t that Greg always brings to all of his stuff. And it’s a slow tease.”
One of the original stories teased was John Esposito’s “Skeletons in the Closet,” directed by Nicotero. According to Nicotero, the episode is about “a prop collector who, as it turns out, is such a fanatical fan that he digs up skeletons that were used in movies to add to his prop collection. So, it’s sort of loosely based on the legend that in Dawn of the Dead and in Poltergeist, that they used real skeletons as props for movies.” James Remar plays the collector, and described the story as “a legacy piece where one generation is a collector, and then passing the torch to the younger ones who are even more macabre.”
“Drug Traffic”
The panel spent quite a bit of time discussing Mattie Do’s story, “Drug Traffic.” Nicotero described Do’s pitch as being about a”woman in Mexico, and she’s trying to get across the border. She’s gone to Mexico to get some medication that she can’t get in the United States. And she gets stopped at the border because the medication’s not legal in the United States. And it turns out that the medication keeps her from turning into this monster” (which was influenced by Do’s Southeast Asian heritage).
Do elaborated on the monster, saying: “We have this monster… where on certain nights, it becomes extremely hungry. And so the head detaches from the body, and its entrails and heart hang from its neck. But it’s this beautiful woman. So, what she does is she’ll like peak over at people, over a wall or through your window. And you feel bad because you’re like, “Oh, this poor person, this poor beautiful woman who’s hungry and just wants to be let in.’ And once she’s in, she eats you… She goes for the entrails first.”
Michael Rooker plays the cop who stops the woman at the border. He described his character as “an officer that guards the border, right, and folks are coming in. And I wanna go home, ya know? … Then this bus comes in, and all of a sudden you’ve got all these people, and it’s like ‘ah geez, give me a break.’ So, ya know, I’m kind of like, ‘Come on, come on, come on, come on.’ But there are certain things that catch my attention that I can’t ignore. And I have to pull a lady aside and do a big interview and talk. And then the arrest becomes absolute mayhem and fun stuff.”
Other Stories
The panelists teased a few other stories as well, including Erik Sandoval and Michael Rousselet’s “Queen Bee”. A clip from the episode was shown. In setting up the clip, Nicotero, who also directed the episode, described the premise as being about “these kids [who] are fans of a Beyonce-type singer. And they find out that she’s pregnant and she’s having a baby. So, they want to sneak into the hospital to get pictures of the baby to sell to the tabloids.”
Among the other stories discussed were “Meter Reader,” described by Nicotero as “our version of a little sort of nod to The Exorcist,” and Paul Dini and Stephen Langford’s “The Last Subaraya,” described by Nicotero as a story about an “art dealer who finds this super rare painting. But in pure Creepshow fashion, decides that he’s gonna burn it before anybody ever gets to see it. And he releases this demonic presence.”
In addition to Remar and Rooker, season three of Creepshow features Johnathon Schaech, Reid Scott, and Hannah Fierman. While it doesn’t premiere until September, you can watch the entire Comic-Con@Home panel below, featuring clips from “Drug Traffic” and “Queen Bee.”
Part-time writer, part-time theatre nerd, full-time dork.
