Creepshow is back on Shudder! That means one thing, we’re going to see some major screwups from humanity. That’s really what Creepshow is all about, right? Take something normal about human life and show how messed up it can get? Well in this Season Three premiere, we get two stories: “Mums” and “Queen Bee”. Both tell tragic tales and one ends on a positive, one on an end of the world situation.

Let’s check out “Mumms” first.

“Mums” Is Derivative But Does The Creepshow Formula Well

We started Season Two of Creepshow with a similar story, almost eerily similar. Jack (Brayden Benson) and his mom are about to leave town when his abusive father returns from a trip early. He takes his mother and leaves Jack alone. Later we find out that Jack’s mother has been killed and buried in her favorite garden. As the episode goes on, Jack finds out that the garden is alive, and needs blood to survive. No, it doesn’t turn into a Little Shop of Horrors knock-off, but the garden takes it’s revenge on Jack’s evil father one last time before the episode ends.

This one was directed by Rusty Cundieff and stars Brayden Benson, Ethan Embry, Erin Beute, Lowrey Brown, and Malone Thomas. It was written by Greg Nicotero and based on a short story by Joe Jill. For that reason, I’m not going to complain too much about the story being similar to other Creepshow stories from the past, but they could have shifted around the schedule of the episodes a bit. It just seems all too similar to the season two premiere.

As for the episode itself, that previous story was better than this one. It felt like a Creepshow episode, but it wasn’t anything super special in regards to the story. The creature effects and other special effects were top notch as usual, but I can’t really say that I enjoyed this story a whole lot. The performances were solid, but no one really stuck out. In a story like this, you either play it really reserved or you ham it up, everyone seemed to just ride down the middle.

It was somewhat of a blasé episode and a strange one to premiere the season on.

“Queen Bee” Started Off Weak But Finished With Classic Creepshow Flair And Great Creatures

Now this one I had a range of emotions watching. It starts off slowly, with a group of teenagers talking about their favorite pop star being pregnant and going into labor. From there our cast, including: Kaelyn Gobert-Harris, Olivia Hawthorne, Nico Gomez, Hannah Kepple, and Monica Louwerens go to the hospital where pop-star Regina is in labor. Once they get to the hospital, the episode really kicks off though. I was horrified that this would just be some commentary on Gen Z/Millennial culture and how we’re obsessed with public figures. I was proved wrong very quickly.

This episode brought it home when it’s shown that Regina is actually an insectoid alien being that’s spawning more of them. Once it’s shown what Regina really is, the episode goes from slightly thrilling to completely insane body horror. Alien appendages burst from Regina, and she even kills one of Trenice’s friends, Carlos.

The creature effects are the main event here with the alien Regina looking as lifelike as possible. It’s a testament to the effects team at work here, and would you really expect any less from Greg Nicotero? He directs the episode and it’s written by Erik Sandoval and Michael Rousselet.

“Queen Bee” is obviously a commentary on celebrity and all that, but it takes that and pushes it to another level. Quite frankly, it makes up for the lackluster opening story and gives us a true Creepshow vibe. The scene at the end is truly terrifying and shows the extent that fans will go to be with their favorite celebrity.

The Verdict On Episode 301 Of Creepshow

This could have been a disaster premiere for Creepshow. The first story doesn’t do very much to separate itself and is very similar to another story from last season. The second part, “Queen Bee” saves the episode and gives us a truly great Creepshow experience. So if you’re going to check this one out, you might like part one more than I did, but part two is worth watching the whole thing for.

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