How Creepshow Returned from the Dead

Now that it’s less than a month away, we can finally discuss the return of Creepshow, Shudder’s first exclusive horror series. If you don’t know, the original Creepshow was a 1982 anthology horror movie written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero and the movie paid homage to the EC horror comics that had come before it. After that came a sequel (followed by another sequel we’ll just pretend didn’t happen), and that’s where this series picks up. “I mean, it’s gonna feel much more like a continuation,” show runner Greg Nicotero said. “I’m not rebooting anything, or it’s not like, oh, we’re gonna upgrade it and retell it. It’s really like you’re picking up another issue of Creepshow and these are the stories.”

So how exactly did Creepshow return from the dead?

“Well, you know, it’s a very interesting story, the way Creepshow came about,” Nicotero told us. “I was doing some press in Australia for Walking Dead, and I’m sitting with Michael Rooker and we’re getting ready to fly back, and I’m like, ‘Ah, I wanna read something on the plane.” And so I get on iBooks and I’m looking around, there’s a book called ‘Nights of the Living Dead’, and I’m like, ‘What is that? I’ve never heard of that before.’ And it’s a series of short stories, all that take place the same night as Night of the Living Dead did. And I’m like, ‘That’s great.’ So I bought it and I’m on the plane reading it and I read this one story written by a guy named Craig Engler, and I love the story, and I’m like, man, I wanna shoot that. Like just as a short. Just for fun.”

Nicotero continues: “So we reached out, and it turns out he is an executive at Shudder […] And they were like, ‘Hey, we’re thinking about rebooting Creepshow.’ And I went like, ‘My Creepshow, Creepshow?’ Like, Creepshow, really? And then they said, ‘Well, would you be interested in being the creative executive?’ And I was like, ‘Uh, yeah. Of course.’ I mean, I was there, I was on the set when they did the original Creepshow.”

And for Greg to not only pay homage to the original Creepshow, but keeping it as close to the original as possible is clearly a big deal to him: “So when Creepshow came up, I’m like, well, listen. I wanna embrace the spirit of the original movie. I always felt that Creepshow was way ahead of its time in terms of what George was doing.”

Creepshow stars David Arquette (Scream franchise), Adrienne Barbeau, Tobin Bell (Saw), Big Boi (Scream: The TV Series), Jeffrey Combs (Star Trek, Re-Animator), Kid Cudi (Drunk Parents), Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion, X-Men), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), and more. It’s scheduled to premiere on Shudder on September 26, 2019.