Creepshow - Night of the Living Late Show (3.5/5)

 While I wasn't that big on CGI severed finger and the rather inferior VR game characters mimicking zombies from "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", and (very minor) "Day of the Dead", I did enjoy the homage to "Horror Express" (1973). I appreciated the love shown to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing because they are icons of horror I admire and cherish. Though they are pretty much unaltered from the film, Justin Long somewhat interacting with Lee in the film through his "immersopod" -- a chamber that looks like a tanning bed with extra tech tied to computers allowing the person inside it to select a movie from a menu and actually interact with characters in the plot -- is a moment I consider a real highlight if just because the episode made that possible. I did think of the great noir homage, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) while watching this. I can see why Nicoterro and company couldn't fully integrate Long into the episode since I figure the budget involved would have strained resources. That "Horror Express" is the film used really was a pleasant surprise. I remember coming home while out and finding this episode on Shudder's "It Came from Shudder" channel. It was right in the middle of the episode so I wanted to wait and watch it in its entirety. 

 You can talk to characters and become involved with the story even. And as we see later, the film can threaten your life if you don't "eject" yourself with the push of a button. Long spends so much time in "Horror Express", his wife, played by D'Arcy Carden, begins to wonder why he's so invested in the immersopod. She learns why when he pretends to be sick, returning from a talk with her estranged father, finding him inside the device naked and having "virtual sex" with a character from the film (Countess Petrovski (Hannah Fierman)). When he's asleep, Carden "takes a trip" into the film to confront the Countess, eventually nearly killed by the alien creature from the fossil that is "sucking off" the brains of passengers on the train. This is where she realizes the potential of getting even with her "cheating" husband, deciding he should take a trip into another movie...Night of the Living Dead (1968)!

Life has drained the joy of October from me, so I'm watching content but every day is a horror movie, so nothing on the TV really shocks me anymore. I watched this and could see the ending coming a mile away, though Long stuck in "Night of the Living Dead", without the ability to leave the film, as the horde break into the farmhouse and surround him did bring a smile to my face. Carden's father, we learn in a conversation with Long, didn't approve of their marriage. We get an understanding why...her father was right, Long married her for the money. Long has his "escapism" from the marriage. Carden wanted to believe he was committed to her, but dinner plans are avoided, with Long pretending to be sick and tired. He can't wait for her to go to dinner with friends so he can return to his movie box. She, of course, has the last laugh.

The Creeper playing VR "Night of the Living Dead" -- walking about the graveyard, kneeling at the graves of Johnny, Barbara, and Ben -- did get a small pop from me. The CGI I felt was purposely inferior to what is widely available across game platforms today, but seeing the Creeper with VR headset "gaming" was just peculiar. I guess The Cryptkeeper used to have modern sight gags for introducing and bookending episodes, so why not The Creeper?

5 - Loved

4 - Really liked

3 - Liked

2 - Meh

1 - Nah