So itâs come to this: another clip show. And a pretty fun one: Horrorâs Greatest is a Shudder original series, now on its second season, exploring the cream of the scary-movie crop. The first season explored Japanese horror, Stephen King adaptations, cliches of the genre and more, via commentary by actors, filmmakers and other experts; here, we dig into the first episode of Season 2, which focuses on the greatest animal attacks in horror history. Standby for very mean and/or very large and/or vast quantities of bugs, worms, sharks and gators!
HORRORâS GREATEST (SEASON 2): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A clip of a tiger growling behind bars in Franco Prosperiâs Wild Beasts.
The Gist: Nature Exacting Its Revenge On Humanity: It might be the simplest horror premise this side of Crazy Guy Kills People. We saw it in The Ghost and the Darkness and Cujo and Alligator and Night of the Lepus, and now we see bits of these movies in this show, with David Dastmalchian, the Boulet Brothers and other lovable eccentrics commenting on them.
Thatâs it. Thatâs the show. Itâs almost more structured than that, working from the touchstones of the subgenre toward newer films: The Birds and Jaws are forever influential, and Willard gets some love as an underrated title. We work forward through weirdo shit like Frogs and Squirm, and cult faves like Piranha and Arachnophobia, and taking a bite out of overlooked Aussie croc-chomper Rogue and more recent low-key hits like Crawl and The Shallows, and the chimp scene in Nope. It gives Cocaine Bear more love than it deserves (dumb movie!) and touches on Snakes on a Plane for about three seconds and quickly moves on, which is about 2.75 seconds more than it deserves.
In between, we get a few lists, e.g. Top 5 Best Pets in Horror and 10 Must-See Animal Attack Movies, the latter of which includes three gator/croc flicks. It does not include Syfy originals, because this is a series with exacting tastes. No horsecrap here, no sir â just fun clip ânâ quotes and snatches of analysis, and Dastmalchian being the borderline-nut he sure seems to be.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, Horrorâs Greatest has all the commitment to visual excellence of a Critters DVD bonus feature or a late â90s VH1 listicle-in-TV-format. Itâs on par with plenty of other Shudder original series like Behind the Monsters, Cursed Films and The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time.
Our Take: Horrorâs Greatest is entertaining rehashery that functions less as an analytical examination of cinema, more like a recommendation machine to fill out your watchlists â or an opportunity for horror mavens to brag about how many of these movies theyâve already seen, and how many times. You know some of those people. You might even be one of them, so you know how they are.
The series is a bit sloppy and cheap-looking, but thatâs part of its shabby-Shudder charm. I mean, you donât want your production values to upstage Frogs. Donât expect any deep commentary about camera angles or how filmmakers tie method to theme; Iâm not sure much thought went into Kingdom of the Spiders anyway. But hey, I did have an opportunity to remember that time I watched Kingdom of the Spiders on broadcast TV when I was a kid, and freaked out over all the creepy-crawly action and shots of vast plains filled with sticky spiderwebs. Primal fears!
Sex and Skin: Brief boob nudity in an old movie clip.
Parting Shot: Classic Jaws clip: Quint holds up a glass of booze and toasts, âHereâs to swimminâ with bow-legged women.â
Sleeper Star: Iâd like to visit Dastmalchianâs home planet one of these days.
Most Pilot-y Line: An example of the kind of commentary youâll get in Horrorâs Greatest: âI loved Willard. It was the perfect amount of rats.â â Killadelphia director Rodney Barnes
Our Call: Low expectations, totally met. But not a smidgen more. STREAM IT and bring a notepad to jot down a few titles to seek out or revisit.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Horror’s Greatest’ Season 2 on Shudder, an Enjoyable Clip-Show Series for Horror Mavens appeared first on Decider.
