Review: ‘A Creepshow Holiday Special’ tastes like stale Christmas cookies

Werewolves are the most popular werecreature, or lycanthrope, in folklore ⏤ and for good reason. While their base characteristic and other attributes, such as speed and strength, vary greatly among cultures (for example, in Fennoscandian mythology, werewolves were believed to be gnarled old women whose gaze could paralyze children and cattle in their tracks), the transformational root remains the same: human beings with the ability to morph into another creature.

In Shudder’s A Creepshow Holiday Special, written and directed by Greg Nicotero, werecreatures play at the center of an admirable, if not totally operational, Christmas treat. Adam Pally stars as an exhausted, end-of-his-rope Robert Weston, who suffers from eratic blackouts, often waking up naked and bloody from some unknown midnight rendezvous. He seeks out “SA,” or “Shapeshifters Anonymous,” in the hopes to find a solution, or at the very least a community to understand what is happening to him. He’s fully aware he changes forms, but he can’t comprehend how or why.

The private gathering includes a schoolteacher named Irene (Anna Camp), a werecheetah; a man named Andy (Frank Nicotero), a wereboar; and a woman named Phyllis (Candy McLellan), a Furry. Yes, you read that correctly. I certainly can’t speak on Greg Nicotero’s intentions with this character, but making the resident Black woman a regular human being with no shapeshifting talents and only wants to be included so she dresses up as a hippopotamus is… cringe at best. In fact, it lands as fulfilling some quota without, you know, reading the room even a little bit.

The group nonetheless bond over their misfit status, and the viewer soon learns the dark, disturbing, and wonderfully macabre truth about Santa Clause. Come to find out, there are some omitted chapters of the Bible, and ole Kris Kringle is a demonic force, hellbent on annihilating the werecreatre race from the face of the planet. You see, God had originally created a species to teach evildoers, like murderers and pedophiles, a lesson. Well, Santa wasn’t too happy about that, and so he emerged as a yin to the yang. His bloodlust knew no bounds and soon werecreatures went underground to hide their real identities.

The concept looks fantastic on paper, but truth be told, it would better fit a full-length feature movie, or even a series. Instead, any character development or what could have been fascinating story arcs are packed tighter than grandma in that ugly Christmas sweater she always wears.

When the third act hits, and it does hit quite hard with some body transformations and practical effects, you wish the story itself would have paid off in a far more satifying way. With a killer monster design, Santa and his maniacal army of “elves” arrive, almost too abruptly and without warning, and you’re jolted awake before you can prepare yourself. The fight scenes are certainly action packed, yet it doesn’t feel earned. A Creepshow Holiday Special is not nearly as charming, unsettling, or effective as the Halloween animated release (read our review) ⏤ and this just falls flat.

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