Recap / Creepshow S 1 E 5 All Hallows Eve

Creep: Pull on your masks, bores and ghouls, 'cause tonight's the night things are going to happen! This neighborhood has a dark secret, and as we know, "nothing is as it seems" in our next '''diabolically delightful tale, called...

All Hallow's Eve

Directed By: John Harrison
Written By: Bruce Jones

A prologue has the Creep carving Jack o' Lanterns as a TV set behind him broadcasts Night of the Living Dead (1968), when he hears the doorbell ring. The trick-or-treater at the door calls the Creep an asshole offscreen, prompting the ghoul to brutally attack him with his knife. The Creep reenters the room and decorates the pumpkin he was carving with his victim's severed eyes and teeth.

It's Halloween Night in the town of Smithville, and it's on this particular Halloween that a group of kids who call themselves the "Golden Dragons" meet at the iron gates of the town cemetery, dressed in costumes and apparently preparing to go trick-or-treating. The Golden Dragons, Pete, Jill, Binky, Bobby, and Pete's little brother Skeeter (Connor Christie, Madison Thompson, Jason Jabbar Wardlaw Jr., Andrew Eakle, and Aodhan Lane.) seem to have gained a somewhat notorious reputation throughout the neighborhood. The adults seem to show fear, intimidation, and resentment towards the Dragons, implying that they are an infamous group of delinquents that have terrorized the neighborhood for years.

The first house they travel to has them tormenting the scared Mr. Boatner (Tom Olson) into giving out all of the candy he has. Their next stop, the Collins house, has them barge inside with no hesitation from Mrs. Collins (Julia Denton), who bakes them muffins. Mrs. Collins' husband Ralph (Scott Daniel Johnson) then barges into the kitchen, berating the Golden Dragons for terrorizing the neighborhood year after year, as well as the fact that they took their only son from them the year before.

After stopping by a burnt tree to reminisce a little, the Golden Dragons reach their last stop of the night: the Hathaway residence. Breaking into the house, the kids meet Mrs. Hathaway (Erica Frene), nearly insane and armed with a shotgun. They ask where her son Eddie is hiding, prompting her to warn the kids that she'll shoot, but eventually becomes too worn out to fight them. Eddie (Michael May) soon reveals himself, takes the gun, and threatens to kill the kids himself. Unfortunately for Eddie, the shotgun jams, allowing the Golden Dragons to ambush him and drag him away, his delirious mother allowing him to be taken.

The Golden Dragons tie Eddie to the burnt tree, pile wood around his feet, and douse him with gasoline. Eddie pleads that he is supposedly innocent of something, telling Skeeter to tell the rest of the Dragons. In response, Skeeter approaches Eddie, and lifts up his sheet to reveal a bloodied skull in place of a face, revealing that he and the rest of the Golden Dragons are actually ghosts. Through a flashback, it's revealed that five years earlier, the Golden Dragons were up in their treehouse playing a role-playing game when they discovered that the door was stuck. Peering out the window, they discovered that Eddie and his gang were standing outside, watching as Eddie lit a match and used it to set the tree on fire as a "prank", presumably unaware that the door was stuck. Unable to escape their treehouse, all five children burned alive.

Since that day, the Golden Dragons have risen from the grave every Halloween to avenge themselves, taking out one of their murderers every year. Having saved him for last and ignoring his pleas for mercy, the Dragons burn Eddie alive, completing their cycle of revenge. The quintet return to the graveyard and exchange bittersweet goodbyes before vanishing out of sight.

This episode contains examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism / Adaptational Villainy: In the original comic story, Skeeter is killed when a group of kids leave what is implied to be a flaming bag of poop on his and Pete's doorstep, which accidentally burns down the house with the boy inside it. In revenge, Pete's ghost and his friends murder the kids responsible. In the final scene the friends burn alive a very young kid who just tagged along. In the episode, a group of teenagers burn down a treehouse, knowing that the group of friends are inside, but (apparently) unaware that the door was jammed from the damp weather, killing everyone inside. The final scene involves the ghosts getting their revenge on the last surviving teenager, who's very much an Asshole Victim as opposed to the little kid in the original story.
• Ambiguous Situation: Did Eddie and his friends genuinely not know the treehouse door was stuck from the recent weather? Or did he deliberately nail it shut so the Dragons would have a harder time escaping the flames?
• Asshole Victim.
  • Eddie, who ended up killing the Golden Dragons by setting their treehouse on fire (not knowing that the door was stuck shut) as a twisted prank. When they capture him and prepare to set him on fire, he insists that no one was supposed to get hurt that night and blames his friends for starting the whole thing. The Dragons naturally don't believe him, since his friends all said the same thing when they were in his position.
  • Binky and Bobby, though only retroactively. Both of them sadistically lord their power and actions over the families of Smithville, particularly those of the teenagers they already killed. Binky cares little for the lingering consequences of their actions, and Bobby sneers at Pete about how little he cares for the young and confused Skeeter's ongoing reluctance to do any of this ritualistic murder.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Skeeter dresses in a white sheet with eyeholes.
• Big Brother Instinct: Pete is shown to be a very caring brother to Skeeter, gently persuading him into accompanying him and his friends on their last trick-or-treating trip, comforting the boy when he misses the brothers' parents, and gives the boy a hug when their mission of vengeance comes to an end.
• Big Eater: Binky, who as far as the rest of the Dragons are concerned, has a never-ending appetite.
• Big Red Devil: Binky dresses as one.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, the Golden Dragons finally end up breaking their cycle of revenge, but because their unfinished business was the only thing keeping them tied to the living world, it's very likely that they're never going to see each other again.
• Call-Back: In the flashback, Eddie and his gang are drinking bottles of Harrow's Supreme.
• The Cameo: George Romero's silhouette can be seen shutting the blinds of a house as the Golden Dragons drag Eddie away.
• Childhood Friend Romance: It's hinted several times, and then revealed in the ending, that Pete and Jill were developing a romantic attraction to one another, which would ultimately never come to pass because of their deaths.
• Cute Witch: Jill's costume makes her look like one of these.
• Cycle of Revenge: The Golden Dragons were burned to death by Eddie and his friends in what was supposedly a prank gone wrong. They've been rising from the grave on Halloween ever since to hunt down and burn their killers alive, one person per year. When Eddie dies, the cycle is broken, and they can finally rest.
• Dead All Along: The Golden Dragons are revealed to be ghosts when Skeeter reveals his true self.
• Deadly Prank: Eddie's "prank" involved him setting the Golden Dragons' treehouse on fire with them inside it. What makes it worse is that it could be evaluated that Eddie didn't not know that the treehouse door was stuck, but he deliberately nailed the door shut himself just for an extra laugh.
• Deadpan Snarker: All the Dragons bar Skeeter are effective snarkers, though Binky has the sharpest tongue of all his friends.
• Death by Irony: The Golden Dragons kill Eddie by lighting him up with the same matches he used to (accidentally) kill them.
• Dirty Coward: Eddie, who accidentally killed the Golden Dragons, has spent the last few years hiding behind his mother in fear of their ghostly retribution. The kids' comments indicate that his friends each took a similar route when their own time came.
  • Eddie's own mother lets the Dragons take her son away just so they'll leave. Must be where he got it from.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The episode's prologue has the Creep dismembering a trick-or-treater who comes to his door, and then uses his severed eyes and teeth to decorate a jack o' lantern, just because the guy called him an asshole.
• Does Not Like Spam: Binky mentions that he's "not too fond of blueberry" when Mrs. Collins bakes the Dragons muffins. He also expresses a dislike of candy corn and suckers while on Mr. Boatner's porch, the latter because he thinks of it as a form of mockery.
• The Dreaded: The Golden Dragons. The adults of Smithville close their blinds whenever they pass, and those who had the misfortune of being related to their killers are driven to near-insanity by their visits.
• Five-Man Band: The Golden Dragons:
  • The Leader: Pete.
  • The Lancer: Bobby.
  • The Big Guy: Binky.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Jill.
  • The Heart: Skeeter.
• Food as Bribe: The residents of the neighborhood offer food to the Golden Dragons to make them go away, ranging from candy to freshly-baked muffins.
• For the Evulz: From what we see in the flashback, Eddie and his friends pulled off the prank that got the Golden Dragons killed because they thought it would be funny.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: In life, the Golden Dragons were a group of childhood friends who would spend hours playing tabletop RPGs in their treehouse. Ever since they were killed and ultimately returned as ghosts, they've spent several years roaming the streets of Smithville, hunting down and killing the teenagers responsible for their deaths, while driving their heartbroken parents to madness.
• Ghostly Goals: The Golden Dragons are unable to rest in peace until they avenge themselves against the teenage gang who killed them. Once their deaths are avenged by way of burning Eddie alive, the kids are then able to pass on to the afterlife. Skeeter even reappears as a normal little boy instead of a skull-faced ghoul hiding under a sheet after the deed is done.
• Gun Nut: Mrs. Hathaway desperately tries to protect her son by wielding a shotgun, but she doesn't have it in her to fire it.
• Halloween Episode: The episode is set on Halloween, fitting for a ghostly revenge story.
• Hobos: Pete's costume is that of a stereotypical tramp.
• It Amused Me: Eddie and his friends set the Golden Dragons' treehouse on fire solely for laughs.
• Jerkass: Eddie, who accidentally killed five children in a prank gone wrong, solely because he thought it would be funny. In the present day, he sees the ramifications of what he's done and is justifiably terrified, but doesn't once apologize for it, instead hiding behind his mother and pinning the blame on his dead friends.
• Kids Are Cruel: The Golden Dragons play the part for the majority of the episode, having killed several teenagers and driving their families to madness. The trope is then subverted at the episode's climax, where we learn just why these kids are acting so cruelly.
• Kick the Dog: Binky and Bobby are known to mock and belittle the parents of the teenagers who killed them and their friends, knowing that they're powerless to do anything about it.
• Loser Protagonist: Eddie and his gang thought of the Golden Dragons as a bunch of RPG-playing losers when they were alive. But thanks to his little prank, they became a quintet of murderous ghosts who have terrorized the neighborhood year after year.
• Monochrome Past: The flashback to the Golden Dragons' deaths.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Golden Dragons torment Mr. Boatner by waving around the voodoo doll from the original film.
  • The ashtray from "Father's Day" is seen on the table next to Mrs. Hathaway.
• Never My Fault: Before he is burned alive by the children he accidentally subjected to that very same fate, Eddie pleads that he's innocent in their murder, and blames his friends for goading him to burn their treehouse down. Since each of his friends said the same thing when they were in his position, the Dragons don't believe Eddie one bit.
• Nightmare Face: Skeeter gains one when he reveals the charred skull that replaces his face. The rest of the Golden Dragons have the flesh melt from their faces as they watch Eddie burn, revealing their own charred skulls.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The Golden Dragons, who have been long dead, still look like ordinary children. They then reveal that their faces are able to melt, revealing burned skulls behind them.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Binky serves as the Dragons' resident comedian, although he also grows pretty emotional when they come across the burned ruins of their treehouse.
• Product Placement: The Golden Dragons are seen playing Dungeons & Dragons in their treehouse during the flashback.
• Retroactive Recognition: In-Universe. We are introduced to the Golden Dragons on what is revealed to be the night they track down and kill the last surviving person involved in their murder. We gradually learn from Ralph Collins that the Dragons had already done away with the first four involved the past four years ago.
• Rewatch Bonus: All the little hints they give, and the terrified reactions of the people they visit, allow the viewer to easily conclude that the Golden Dragons are ghosts.
• Sanity Slippage: The Golden Dragons' hauntings have really done a number on the mental states of the parents of their killers. Mrs. Hathaway suffers the worst of it, being left a nervous wreck who ultimately gives up and lets her son be taken just to make the Dragons leave.
• Scenery Porn: The episode goes all out with the Halloween setting, with cuts of jack o'lanterns, decorations, bats in the trees, a raven taking flight, etc.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mrs. Collins asks Binky if he's the one in the devil costume, to which he sarcastically retorts that he's Michael Meyers.
  • The television seen behind the Creep during the prologue is playing Night of the Living Dead (1968).
  • The Dragons' treehouse contains a Leatherface mask and a street sign for Mockingbird Lane.
  • Jill calls Binky "Mushmouth" in response to an insult.
• Small-Town Tyrant: The Golden Dragons seem to rule over everything in Smithville every Halloween. The residents are scared shitless of them, and they often offer tribute to the ghostly children in the form of all of their candy, homemade muffins, sandwiches, or in the case of the parents of those responsible for the Dragons' deaths, their own children.
• The Smurfette Principle: Jill is, in Binky's words, "the only Dragon we got... with boobs!"
• Soft Glass: When the Golden Dragons reach Eddie's house, Pete punches through the front door's window with his bare hand to open the door from the inside.
• Splash of Color: The only source of color in the Golden Dragons' flashback is the flames of Eddie's match.
• Stopped Caring: After her brief attempt to shoot the Golden Dragons when they come for her son, Mrs. Hathaway actively gives up trying to protect him, having become too emotionally broken to fight back anymore. She even tells Eddie, letting him be taken away, that they would've been found out wherever they went.
• Tagalong Kid: Pete's brother Skeeter, who he used to allow in his treehouse when his friends were over, and kept accompanying the rest of the Golden Dragons for their yearly trips.
• Teens Are Monsters: For no other reason than his own amusement, Eddie burned down the Golden Dragons' treehouse... with them inside.
• Too Old to Trick-or-Treat: Lampshaded by Bobby, who reminds his friends that they're well past the normal age limit to go trick-or-treating, and thus giving a small hint about their true intentions. Skeeter also initially refuses to accompany his brother and his friends on their "route" because he himself feels that he's getting too old for Halloween. It's only thanks to some kindly encouragement by his older brother that the boy joins the Dragons.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Binky mentions his fondness for Milky Ways in a couple of scenes.
• Tragic Villain: The Golden Dragons do act pretty wickedly towards the adults of Smithville, and they have burned several people to death over the years, but it's mainly because the adults they torment are the parents of the teenagers who ended up burning them to death, who they themselves burned alive as revenge. When they aren't in the presence of adults (or busy ribbing each other), they're a group of sad and tired children who only want to move on to their eternal rest. It gets even worse for Pete, since he and Jill were in a developing romance that was tragically cut short, and he and his younger brother only got to know each other for a few years.
• True Companions: Even with all their jokes and insults towards one another, the Golden Dragons show themselves to be a pretty tight-knit group of friends, in life and in death.
• Undead Child: The Golden Dragons, near the episode's end, are revealed to be a quintet of ghosts who were burned alive in a prank gone wrong.
• Unfinished Business: The Golden Dragons are kept in the mortal plane because of their plans to systematically hunt down and burn the teenagers who accidentally killed them. They can't even start traveling down their route until they're all joined together, citing that they have to "stick to the rules".
• Vengeance Feels Empty: The Golden Dragons often voice how tired they are of tracking down the teenagers who killed them, and would rather just rest in peace. Even when they finally end up breaking their cycle of revenge, they still sound empty inside, possibly because they're never going to see each other again.
• The Voiceless: Skeeter is never heard speaking throughout the episode.
• Wham Shot: The scene where Skeeter lifts his ghost sheet for the first time, showing a burned skull instead of a face, and revealing that he and the other Dragons have been long dead.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Binky pokes fun at Ralph Collins' first name, asking whenever people started giving their kids the name.
• Would Hurt a Child: Eddie accidentally burned the Golden Dragons alive through his little prank. Among the casualties was little Skeeter, who was likely in the single digits.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Bobby's costume consists solely of a skeleton hoodie. Binky calls him out for wearing the same costume every year, even asking if he's considered washing it.

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