Creepshow (TV Series) Twenty Minutes with Cassandra/Smile (2023) User Reviews

Funny at parts, but drawn out

[josephmpapp · 6/10 · 24 October 2023]

20 minutes with Cassandra has decent laughs from the dialogue. The end went on too long. It ended up as a slog. When Cassandra first enters, it's an obvious ruse. That's how most in this series end up. The nice surprise is the monster. I enjoyed his character.

Smile was predictable it ended up being dumb as the mom just stands there in the end. Tackle the guy! Try to draw his attention in the two minutes of screaming. The acting wasn't that good either.

It's a good series. This episode was not the best. It's hard to beat the Christmas special. The makeup and gore is top notch. Check it out if you're looking for something fun and simple.

Half delightful, half codswallop

[yugidean · 5/10 · 21 October 2023]

The first segment definitely isn't for everyone. It starts out intense and intriguing then slides into dark comedy and finally lands in a philosophical/psychological rumination on fear. I enjoyed it but the tonal shift would leave many people frustrated (as evidenced by the reviews...).

But the second segment is appallingly bad. The premise of the episode is already poor, so there's not much hope for the execution. And any hopes you might have are dashed on the rocks as we are assaulted by "plot stupidity" at every turn.

The story begins with a couple out for a celebratory dinner who then venture across the street because...a street photographer's Polaroid looks like it was taken from farther away? Gimme a break.... It gets dumber and dumber from there. What a way to ruin an otherwise perfectly good episode.

Be friends with a monster/and a picture from the past haunts!

[blanbrn · 6/10 · 19 October 2023]

This episode one from season four of "AMC's", and "Shudder's" : "Creepshow" anthology series called "Twenty Minutes with Cassandra/Smile" was one that was okay with twist and fright with some haunts too.

First segment "Twenty Minutes with Cassandra" involves Cassie a lonely woman who appears on the run and things twist and get strange when she shows up and knocks on the door of Lorna. And Cassie tells of a monster who's on her trail, only Lorna has doubts only soon the blood and gore will be seen outside. Lorna sees for herself that this hairy and fury creature is that of a Bigfoot like monster. Only the episode is strange as Lorna accepts both Cassie and the monster as one!

Then with "Smile" it involves an award winning photographer, who's done eye popping and close grim encounters of life and death. After he's celebrated his guilt, fears, and conscience comes back to haunt him in a cruel manner. Overall wasn't the best episode still it was typical "Creepshow" and a good watch for fans of the series.

Weak all round.

[adie_stone · 1/10 · 18 October 2023]

I don't know what they were thinking having this episode as the first of a new season, or having it at all for that matter.

The first story starts off interesting and then becomes the most boring thing I've ever seen, it leads up to nothing and was pretty pointless overall. It needed to be lengthened to actually have an ending!

The second part, though having a decent premise, it was executed extremely poorly and the characters didn't act like we would in the real world, yeah I know, it's fictional but when there's no intelligence whatsoever, it gets a bit silly.

Would you just stand there when something bad is happening? Screaming at it? No, you'd either say something or run away depending on what it was. I'm not spoiling it despite that it really wouldn't matter if I did.

First story is a 10. Second is a 1.

[yen_galvez · 8/10 · 17 October 2023]

The first story is great. I give it a 10. It's horror with a touch of comedy as we real Creepshow fans love it so much. With a clever touch in reference to our monsters.

However the second story is the worst Creepshow story I've seen in a long time. A 1. Everything in the story is nonsense. The characters act silly all the time and it's totally predictable.

I give it an 8 overall, because the first story lasts longer and luckily.

I still have 167 characters left to finish the review, I don't know why they force you to write so much, but I'll just repeat myself and that's it. First story great, second story terrible.

Whining people, empathetic rats & banality

[jlg12y · 3/10 · 15 October 2023]

Cassandra: Talk about BANAL, I come for the horror & wound up bored. At least the special effects & make up were strong. There are many shows where talking is important, not really this one. I want horror, terror and a little humor. Not endless psychological banal babble with the monster. Whining people, empathetic rats & banality. I would have liked to see her cat.

Smile: better but still a bit banal. Pretty people doing wrong things & innocent people pay.

All the acting was good, the monster was very good, the scripts need work. These are short - you need to grab me right way.

Hopefully this season gets better.

I really enjoyed the episode

[kimirand · 8/10 · 17 October 2023]

Will 20 minutes be enough to familiarise with Casandra or will the rush of adrenaline and fear take over the time?

. Although the effects are sometimes funny and storytelling comes together mostly only at the end, I really enjoyed how they played around the idea of "facing ones grief" and what happens if one escape it all the time just because it seems more convenient than actually doing something.

. The acting was great, because you could see how based on the place in the story how all characters were also changing their emotionality. And dialogues - well finally it seems as something actually true to true interactions.

. Overall- I enjoyed the somewhat scary yet ironic/satirical episode.

Season 4 Starts Off With a Snooze

[sandman_cinema · 2/10 · 27 October 2023]

Most anthology movies/shows start and end with strong segments, leaving the weaker stories for the middle. If this season of Creepshow is following the formula, this is going to be a very bad season.

The first story has an interesting premise and takes it absolutely nowhere. The acting from the homeowner is good, but the rest is wooden. What's really lacking is a solid ending. The only good part of this segment is the special effects and the creature. It's "Stories" like this that was making me hope the WGA would have stayed on strike.

The second story is better, but it's a lot shorter than the first segment so it doesn't redeem the episode. At least this writer knew there should be a beginning, middle and end.

Here's hoping for better episodes for the rest of the season.

SPOILERS!!

[midnightdreamer · 5/10 · 15 October 2023]

I really enjoyed the first half of this episode! I hates to see it end, in fact! I was getting into the second part, but by the time it reached the end.... Wtf did I just see happen? I'm sorry, but, I believe that at least 95% of mothers, if not higher, would just stand to the side and watch this continue to happen, instead of jumping him, doing any kind of thing to stop this from going on!!! Smdh. Bunch of starts taken off just for that. I find it highly unbelievable for a mother that also checks in on him as often as she seems to, especially when she's away from the house. Yeah, right...you could do better than this!

This might be my favourite episode so far

[GregTheStopSign95 · 8/10 · 8 April 2024]

I barely remember Smile, but 20 Minutes With Cassandra is excellent. And not just because I'm low-key crushing HARD on Samantha Sloyan. Ruth Codd is great in this as the titular Cassandra, too, as is Franckie Francois as the ray-of-sunshine pizza delivery guy Okwe. But the real stars are Sam Sloyan as Lorna, and Carey Jones as The Monster.

It's a pretty standard, kinda predictable premise, but where they take it is, at least for me, somewhere very new. I'm already a confirmed Mike Flanagan fan, but it's looking like Jamie might be almost as good a storyteller as Mike.

Then there's Smile. And yeah, I barely remember it tbh.