History Recap / CreepshowS4E11GeorgeRomeroIn3D

** When asking if Martin and his mom have any weapons to beat the invisible ghoul, George suggests either a machete, a Molotov cocktail, or a [[Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDeadPartII screwdriver in the ear.]]

Sarah and her son Martin (Creator/KyraZagorsky and Creator/GrahamVerchere) respectively own and work at "Booktime!", a struggling brick-and-mortar bookstore in Pittsburgh. Sarah answers a call from someone who says that they should move the business online, but Sarah prefers to stay brick and mortar. After the call, Sarah's landlord Mr. Cooper (Peter New) enters the store to tell her that the new lease for her store kicks in next week and she still has't signed it, as her choice of remaining brick-and-mortar in a digital world has her struggling with finances. Cooper then tells Sarah that he's doubling the lease due to a new housing development going up and the resultant fair market value. Sarah tries to fight back, but Martin is forced to admit that what Cooper's doing isn't illegal, though it is immoral. Cooper tells them he'll be back at the end of the day with the new lease, saying that "it's kill or be killed" and purposefully knocking books off a display as he leaves.

As Sarah's son shows her the comics, a customer by the name of Bub (Anthony Moyer) asks where he can find the horror section, prompting Martin to direct him there. Suddenly, Bub starts screaming from the aisle, and Martin runs over to find him being bent backward by an unseen force. Martin realizes Bub resembles the victim on the cover of the first issue of ''Brain Rot''. As Bub's throat is brutally ripped apart, Martin puts on the 3D glasses on to see the zombie from the first issue disembowelling him. Martin shows his mother Bub's dismembered body and tries to warn his mother that the zombie is still in the store, and frantically texts Dawn to let her know. As the zombie notices Martin, he drags his mother into the storage room and barricades the door, explaining that Bub was killed by a "3D zombie", but she thinks he's pranking her as revenge for firing Dawn, since the zombie can't be seen without the glasses. Dawn soon calls Martin from the office, currently in looking up prices for the comics. Martin tells Dawn she needs to lock the door immediately because something invisible is in the store. At that moment, the office window starts to crack as the invisible zombie pounds on it, but Sarah and Martin can't save Dawn themselves because the door to the storage room is jammed.

In desperation, Martin puts the glasses back on and turns to the comics, hoping to bring something else out of it to help them, particularly settling on George Romero's illustration on the first page. As he does this, Martin geeks out as he witness George himself (Sebastian Kroon), appearing as 3D sketch of himself as he looked in the 70s, climbing off the page. Upon being brought up to speed, George tells Martin that Booktime! used to be his old office, explaining the hidden issues of ''Brain Rot''. George also clarifies that in his opinion, the creatures are not zombies, but ghouls. Remembering that Dawn is in trouble, Martin tells George that they need to get out of the office to save her. George starts fiddling with the wiring of an electrical panel as the invisible ghoul enters the office, managing to turn on the ceiling fan. Yanking the storage room door open, Martin gets to the messed up office. The ghoul tries to traverse over one of the knocked-over cabinets to get to Dawn, scalping itself via the fan. He also puts the glasses on Dawn to show her the dead ghoul itself, clearing up the situation.

As Martin and Dawn clean up the office and get rid of the ghoul's body, Sarah has a quaint chat with George (after Martin taught her to put on the glasses to see him). Martin suddenly realizes that Bub's corpse is missing and finds a trail of bloody footprints leading away from the horror section. As he spots Bub reanimated into a ghoul himself, Dawn says that she can see him without the glasses. The undead Bub demonstates the ability to learn by taking another pair of glasses out of another ''Brain Rot'' issue, putting them on, and staring at the cover, pulling a small horde of fellow ghouls out of the comic. When asked if they can make it out of this situation alive, George honestly tells them that he's not really known for uplifting endings. While Martin, Dawn, and Sarah work to fight off the ghouls, George goes into detail about the 3D glasses. According to him, the man who Image 10 hired to build them wanted more money than his agreed upon price, so the publisher sued him and the comics were left unfinished and tossed into the crate. As a means of vengeance, the man had his uncle, a voodoo priest in Trinidad, put a curse on the glasses, allowing them to bring the ghouls inside ''Brain Rot'' to life.

Hatching a backup plan, George remembers that his sketched body is made of paper, tearing his arm off and writing a new "rule" to his ghouls on it: "Destroy the glasses, destroy the ghoul." Martin destroys the glasses as written, causing the ghouls to disappear just before they devour Dawn. Martin and Dawn thank George for everything before he disappears, the filmmaker signing off with "See ya around the graveyard, kids.", pleased by finally writing a happy ending. Mr. Cooper then comes back with the new lease, complaining about the state of the store as he enters. Suddenly, Sarah, having become undead herself, grabs Cooper and devours him. Martin and Dawn, now a couple, remind Cooper that "it's kill or be killed" as they walk out of to see ''Night of the Flesh Eaters''. The camera pans down the open issue of ''Brain Rot'', where George, back on the page, waves goodbye to the viewers with his severed arm.

** Similarly, like in [[Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead Public Television of the Dead]], a place in Pittsburgh comes under seige by supernatural forces.

** The ghouls inside ''Brain Rot'' could techinally count, as they're also summoned from the comic despite being flesh and bone.

* PaperPeople: George appears as a constantly moving 3D illustation made of ink and paper. When the computer in the office shuts down, George manages to save the day by tearing off his own arm and writing a new set of rules on it, allowing the ghouls to be destroyed.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Martin and Dawn, on seperate occasions, refer to the old, slow, crappy computer in Booktime's office as "the computer that landed the Apollo 11." Martin utters an unheard "I love you so much!" after Dawn repeats it to him, hence why they're meant to be.

** As Martin goes to fire Dawn, he tells her that his mother needs a miracle to keep her store open. Cue the box Dawn is holding giving way and dumping the crate of ''Brain Rot'' comics on the ground.

* HateSink: Mr. Cooper, Sarah's landlord, who tries to throw her out by the end of the day after doubling her lease and overall just acting like a huge dick. The undead Sarah gruesomely kills him at the end of the episode as her son and his new girlfriend head out.

Martin goes to the backroom to do some work on the store's highly obsolete computer. Entering, Sarah comes to the conclusion that if there's any possible way they'll be able to pay their bills, they'll have to move the store online. Unfortunately for Martin, the easiest way for them to save money at the moment is to have his co-worker and potential love interest Dawn (Megan Charpentier) fired. Though he complains that Dawn has done nothing wrong and that they're going to see ''Night of the Flesh Eaters'' that day, Sarah tells her son that there's simply no other way to reduce overhead, prompting Martin to agree on the condition that he can be the one to fire her. As Martin prepares to goes to tell Dawn the bad news, the bottom of a box she found under the stairwell breaks as she carries it, revealing an antique crate bearing the logo of Image 10, the production company that made ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. Looking inside the crate, Dawn and Martin find issues of an unfinished, unpublished horror comic called ''Brain Rot'', written by Creator/GeorgeRomero himself. Leafing through the first issue, the pair notice a cartoon version of Romero on the first page as a pair of 3D glasses fall out of the issue. Telling the oblivious Dawn that she just saved the store and her job and asking her to get some plastic sleeves for the comics, Martin puts on the glasses and looks at the issue's cover, watching as the zombie on said cover moves. Dropping the comic in shock, Martin tells the returning Dawn that the 3D effects are amazing. As Martin goes to tell his mom the good news, Dawn picks up the issue to find that the zombie on the cover is gone. Just as she hears footsteps and thumping noises, the back door slowly opens and closes by itself.

Martin goes to the backroom to do some work on the store's highly obsolete computer. Entering, Sarah comes to the conclusion that if there's any possible way they'll be able to pay their bills, they'll have to move the store online. Unfortunately for Martin, the easiest way for them to save money at the moment is to have his co-worker and potential love interest Dawn (Megan Charpentier) fired. Though he complains that Dawn has done nothing wrong and that they're going to see ''Night of the Flesh Eaters'' that day, Sarah tells her son that there's simply no other way to reduce overhead, prompting Martin to agree on the condition that he can be the one to fire her. As Martin prepares to goes to tell Dawn the bad news, the bottom of a box she found under the stairwell breaks as she carries it, revealing an antique crate bearing the logo of Image 10, the production company that made ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. Looking inside the crate, Dawn and Martin find issues of an unfinished, unpublished horror comic called ''Brain Rot'', written by Creator/GeorgeRomero himself. Leafing through the first issue, the pair notice a cartoon version of Romero as a pair of 3D glasses fall out of the issue. Telling the oblivious Dawn that she just saved the store and her job and asking her to get some plastic sleeves for the comics, Martin puts on the glasses and looks at the issue's cover, watching as the zombie on said cover moves. Dropping the comic in shock, Martin tells the returning Dawn that the 3D effects are amazing. As Martin goes to tell his mom the good news, Dawn picks up the issue to find that the zombie on the cover is gone. Just as she hears footsteps and thumping noises, the back door slowly opens and closes by itself.

Sarah and her son Martin (Creator/KyraZagorsky and Creator/GrahamVerchere) respectively own and work at "Booktime!", a struggling brick-and-mortar bookstore in Pittsburgh. Sarah answers a call from someone who says that they should move the business online, but Sarah prefers to stay brick and mortar. After the call, Sarah's landlord Mr. Cooper (Peter New) enters into the store to tell her that the new lease for her store kicks in next week and she still has't signed it, as her choice of remaining brick-and-mortar in a digital world has her struggling with finances. Cooper then tells Sarah that he's doubling the lease due to a new housing development going up and the resultant fair market value. Sarah tries to fight back, but Martin is forced to admit that what Cooper's doing isn't illegal, though it is immoral. Cooper tells them he'll be back at the end of the day with the new lease, saying that "it's kill or be killed" and purposefully knocking books off a display as he leaves.

** There's also the fact that Dawn finds an old, dusty crate under a starewell housing a powerful supernatural force, just like in "The Crate".

** George's introductory narration in the first issue of ''Brain Rot'' has him state "When there's no room on the page, the dead will walk the earth."

* MrExposition: George often fills the others in on the history behind ''Brain Rot'' and the glasses, both to inform them of their options and for the audience's sake.

** When he crawls out of ''Brain Rot'', George Romero appears as a 3-dimensional sketch of himself as he appeared in the 70s, colored white and covered in inky scribbles that never stop moving.

* TheDogBitesBack: Mr. Cooper goes out of his way to be a huge dick to Sarah and her son by doubling their lease and threatening to throw them out on the street. When she becomes a ghoul herself, Sarah promptly tears him to pieces.

* TheDogBitesBack: Mr. Cooper goes out of his way to be a huge dick to Sarah and her son by doubling their lease and threatening to throw them onto the street. When she becomes a ghoul herself, Sarah promptly tears him to pieces.

* DeadlyRotaryFan: Under Martin's direction, George tinkers with a circuit breaker to activate the ceiling fan in the office to maximum speed. As the ''Brain Rot'' ghoul tries climbing over spilled boxes to get to Dawn, it touches the fan and scalps itself in the process.

* CursedItem: The 3D glasses that came packaged with the issues of ''Brain Rot'' Dawn digs up, which cause everything viewed in the comic to manifest in the real world, such as the ghouls within. George explains to Martin and Dawn that the guy he and Image 10 hired to make the glasses wanted more money than they agreed on, so the company fired and sued him. He turned out to have a voodoo practitioning uncle in Trinidad, who he had put a curse on the glasses to give them their power as a way to get back at them for getting screwed over.

* BittersweetEnding: George finally manages to write a happy ending, and Martin and Dawn finally become an item, leaving Booktime! to see the movie they were aching to see. The only downside is that Martin's mother is zombified in the process, but she at least takes care of Mr. Cooper before he can throw them out of the store.

As the trio barricade the door and windows once again, Dawn and Martin tell George that since he created the ghouls, he can tell them how to make them go away. George unfortunately clarifies that the rules of his movies don't apply to the comics, as he was preparing to write a whole new set of rules before the lawsuit and voodoo curse. George also notes that he can't just write a happy ending for the situation because he only writes as he sees fit, and things don't look good from where he's standing. The ghouls break through the barricade and haul Sarah out of the room to be devoured. George manages to bludgeon Bub to death with a fire extinguisher to save Dawn, and afterwards, has a change of heart and works to write down his new rules, only for the computer to crap out on him.

* NiceGuy: George is incredibly chill and endlessly pleasant to everyone around him, going so far as to have a nice chat with Sarah about how she turned his old office into a bookstore as Martin and Dawn clean the mess the scalped ghoul left behind. He also actively participates in the fight against his 3-dimensional creations to save the rest of the cast.

** The opening page of the ''Brain Rot'' issue Dawn holds has illustrations from previous ''Creepshow'' episodes in its conents page.

* TheAllegedComputer: The computer in Booktime!'s office, which is slow, unresponsive, and old enough that Martin and Dawn call it "the computer that landed the Apollo 11". It nearly screws the cast over at the climax, as it craps out on George when he prepares to write a new "rule" for the ghouls.

** The "Father's Day" ashtray sits on the computer desk in Booktime!'s office.

** An issue of ''Creepshow'' can be seen in the establishing shots of Booktime!.

** An ad for ''Manga/WelcomeToDemonSchoolIrumaKun'' is seen on Booktime!'s computer as Martin works on it, hinting that he's a fan.
** Martin mentions [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorphs]] as he leads Bub to Booktime!'s horror section.

* SpannerInTheWorks: The former employee of Image 10 who cursed the 3D glasses included in ''Brain Rot'' after trying to bilk the company out of extra cash and getting sued. The cursed glasses being unleashed decades later leads to a small army of ghouls invading Booktime!

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Martin and Dawn, on seperate occasions, refer to the old, slow, crappy computer in Booktime!'s office as "the computer that landed the Apollo 11." Martin utters an unheard "I love you so much!" after Dawn repeats it to him, hence why they're meant to be.

* TotallyRadical: In his illustrated form, George appears as he did in the 70s, so he injects some notably 70s slang in his dialogue from time to time.

* KarmaHoudini: The Image 10 employee was sued and canned for trying to bilk extra money from the company, but he got away with getting his uncle to curse the 3D glasses he was hired to make.

As Martin and Dawn clean up the office and get rid of the ghoul's body, Sarah has a quaint chat with George (after Martin taught her to put on the glasses to see him). Martin suddenly realizes that Bub's corpse is missing and finds a trail of bloody footprints leading away from the horror section. As he apparently spots Bub reanimated into a ghoul himself, Dawn says that she can see him without the glasses. The undead Bub demonstates the ability to learn by taking another pair of glasses out of another ''Brain Rot'' issue, putting them on, and staring at the cover, pulling a small horde of fellow ghouls out of the comic. When asked if they can make it out of this situation alive, George honestly tells them that he's not really known for uplifting endings. While Martin, Dawn, and Sarah work to fight off the ghouls, George goes into detail about the 3D glasses. According to him, the man who Image 10 hired to build them wanted more money than his agreed upon price, so the publisher sued him and the comics were left unfinished and tossed into the crate. As a means of vengeance, the man had his uncle, a voodoo priest in Trinidad, put a curse on the glasses, allowing them to bring the ghouls inside ''Brain Rot'' to life.

In desperation, Martin puts the glasses back on and turns to the comics hoping to bring something else out of it to help them, particularly settling on George Romero's illustration on the first page. As he does this, Martin geeks out as he witness George himself (Sebastian Kroon), appearing as 3D sketch of himself as he looked in the 70s, climbing off the page. Upon being brought up to speed, George tells Martin that Booktime! used to be his old office, explaining the hidden issues of ''Brain Rot''. George also clarifies that in his opinion, the creatures are not zombies, but ghouls. Remembering that Dawn is in trouble, Martin tells George that they need to get out of the office to save her. George starts fiddling with the wiring of an electrical panel as the invisible ghoul enters the office, managing to turn on the ceiling fan. Yanking the storage room door open, Martin gets to the messed up office. The ghoul tries to traverse over one of the knocked-over cabinets to get to Dawn, scalping itself via the fan. He also puts the glasses on Dawn to show her the dead ghoul itself, clearing up the situation.

As Sarah's son shows her the comics, a customer by the name of Bub (Anthony Moyer) asks where he can find the horror section, prompting Martin to direct him there. Suddenly, Bub starts screaming from the aisle, and Martin runs over to find him being bent backward by an unseen force. Martin realizes Bub resembles the victim on the cover of the first issue of ''Brain Rot''. As Bub's throat is brutally ripped apart, Martin puts on the 3D glasses on to see the zombie from the first issue disembowelling him. Martin shows his mother Bub's dismembered body and tries to warn his mother that the zombie is still in the store, and frantically texts Dawn to let her know. As the zombie notices Martin, he drags his mother into the storage room and barricades the door, explaining that Bub was killed by a 3D zombie but she thinks he's pranking her as revenge for firing Dawn, since the zombie can't be seen without the glasses. Dawn soon calls Martin from the office, currently in looking up prices for the comics. Martin tells Dawn she needs to lock the door immediately because something invisible is in the store. At that moment, the office window starts to crack as the invisible zombie pounds on it, but Sarah and Martin can't save Dawn themselves because the door to the storage room is jammed.

Sarah and her son Martin (Creator/KyraZagorsky and Creator/GrahamVerchere) respectively own and work at "Booktime!", a struggling brick-and-mortar bookstore in Pittsburgh. Sarah answers a call from someone who says that they should move the business online, but Sarah prefers to stay brick and mortar. After the call, Sarah's landlord Mr. Cooper (Peter New) enters into the store to tell her that , the new lease for her store kicks in next week and she still has't signed it, as her choice of remaining brick-and-mortar in a digital world has her struggling with finances. Cooper then tells Sarah that he's doubling the lease due to a new housing development going up and the resultant fair market value. Sarah tries to fight back, but Martin is forced to admit that what Cooper's doing isn't illegal, though it is immoral. Cooper tells them he'll be back at the end of the day with the new lease, saying that "it's kill or be killed" and purposefully knocking books off a display as he leaves.

** When asking if Martin and his mom have any weapons to beat the invisible ghoul, George suggests either a machete, a Molotov cocktail, or a screwdriver in the ear.

*** Mr. Cooper comes from the Cooper family from ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', and his appearance and makes him resemble patriarch Harry.

** When asking if Martin and his mom have any weapons to beat the invisible ghoul, George suggests either a macheter, a Molotov cocktail, or a screwdriver in the ear.

** The Creep tells the "kiddies" that [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead "they're coming to get you"]] in his narration.

** Similarly, like in [[Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead Public Television of the Dead]], a place in Pittsburg comes under seige by supernatural forces.