Recap / Creepshow S 2 E 9 Night Of The Living Late Show

Creep: Hi, gang! Pull up a chair and make some popcorn, because you are in for the ride of your life. Which of the bravest among you are ready to "immerse" yourselves in a delightfully dreary ditty, in which a man's cinematic lusts will earn him a guest spot on the...

Night of the Living Late Show

Directed By: Greg Nicotero
Written By: Dana Gould

An animated intro features the Creep entering a dungeon, ripping a VR headset off a nearby skull and putting it on. He loads up a Night of the Living Dead (1968) video game and begins playing it. While playing as Barbara and praying at her father's grave, the Creep is ambushed by a zombie. He soon arms himself with a magnum and fires at other approaching zombies before he enters the car and tries to work the radio. As he discovers he's out of bullets, a zombie breaks into the car and devours Barbara.

Simon Sherman (Justin Long), an aspiring inventor, creates the "Immersopod", a state-of-the-art VR machine that acts as a home theater. Connected to a series of hard drives containing a wealth of film selections, lined with hundreds of miniature cameras to scan a potential user, and utilizing a joystick that allows movement, the Immersopod allows those who use it to actually enter any movie they want. Simon conducts his first test of the equipment by inserting himself into his personal favorite film: the 1972 classic Horror Express.

When he activates the system, Simon finds himself actually inside the film. He giddily realizes that the Immersopod works and begins taking in the surrounding train station. He is further gob-smacked when he meets Prof. Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), pointing out to him that the film’s monster has already killed its first victim as the crate containing it is loaded onto the train. With his first test successful, Simon shuts off the Immersopod, excitedly proclaiming that he is going to be rich. He approaches his wife Renee (D'Arcy Carden) by the pool, telling her that the Immersopod is a success and bringing her to the living room to show it to her. While explaining how the system works, he goes on a tangent about all the practical uses of the equipment, stating that it acts as an escape from a dead-end life, job, or marriage, the last of which offends Renee, who leaves the room.

In the bedroom, Renee tells Simon how she suspects he created the Immersopod just to escape their rocky marriage, since they’ve been man and wife for barely a year, and yet they never do anything or go anywhere since he has spent all of his spare time working on the machine. Renee admits that she isn’t as attractive or exciting as other women, and she still remembers how her father, who has never forgiven her for marrying Simon, warned her that he was merely doing so to get his hands on her money. Simon reassures Renee that he genuinely loves her, reminds her that he didn’t let what her father thought stop him, and wants to stay committed to their marriage.

That night, Simon sneaks into the living room and climbs back inside the Immersopod, re-entering Horror Express. He finds himself inside the train’s baggage car, where he meets Countess Irina Patrovska (Hannah Fierman), who he’s been in love with ever since he was a child. Despite an awkward attempt at small talk, nearly mentioning the fact that he's not a character from the film and that he's married, Simon offers to buy her a drink, which she accepts. While Simon does this, the train's baggage man has his mind erased by the monster, which escapes. The next morning, Renee meets Simon in the kitchen, where she plans to make reservations at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Simon’s creation of the Immersopod.

As Simon takes a nap, Renee leaves him a note saying that she went into town to buy a new outfit. Simon promptly gets dressed, steps into the Immersopod, and jumps back inside Horror Express. He finds himself back in the baggage car, just as Prof. Saxton and Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) are inspecting the death of the baggage man. He makes his way to the dining car, where he meets the Countess for dinner, then professes his love for her and begins making out. When he hears Renee’s car pulling into the driveway, Simon hurriedly shuts off the Immersopod. Renee finds him sitting in a chair and looking haggard, and he pretends that he’s coming down with something in an attempt to skip out on dinner, telling Renee to invite one of her friends in his place. After telling Simon that she's invited one of her friends from her tennis club, Renee gets inside her car and calls her father. When she calmly says that she and Simon are fine, Renee's father still insists that Simon only wants her money and promptly hangs up on her. When the emotional Renee re-enters the house, she spots Simon, nude and moaning excitedly, inside the Immersopod, finally discovering his infidelity.

That night, Renee waits for Simon to fall asleep (calling her "Countess" in the process) and steps inside the Immersopod to enter Horror Express herself. While the characters examine the baggage man's wiped mind, Renee makes her way to the Countess’ cabin to tell the Count (George Rigaud) that his wife is fooling around with her husband. Suddenly, the Countess declares that Simon will never be hers and slaps her across the face, revealing that Simon’s frequent interactions with her have presumably allowed her to gain a mind of her own and deviate from the movie's script. Following this, Renee chases after the Countess and ends up in the baggage car. As she expresses her hatred of the movie, the monster attacks her and very nearly manages to erase her memory. Managing to shut off the system at the last minute, Renee collapses out of the pod to discover that her eyes, nose, and mouth are bleeding, the injuries she sustained in the film having carried over into the real world.

The next morning, Renee presents Simon with coffee and happily invites him to do some work on the Immersopod. As soon as Simon steps inside the machine, Renee proceeds to sabotage the system and instead puts Simon inside Night of the Living Dead (1968). As Simon examines his surroundings and discovers that he's in the wrong movie, Renee uses a pair of gardening shears to cut off Simon’s thumb, preventing him from pressing the button that allows the Immersopod to turn off. With no way to escape, Simon is forced to yell for Renee to push the button for him. Refusing to do so, Renee watches in sheer satisfaction as the film's zombies devour her unfaithful husband.

The epilogue returns the viewers to the Creep's video game, as his character makes his way from a ruined farmhouse to a helicopter. The chopper takes him to a shopping mall parking lot, where he blasts more zombies with an assault rifle. Making his way to the woods, the Creep then discovers a cargo elevator in front of three graves and activates it, descending into the darkness. Back in his dungeon, the Creep's fun is cut short when Simon, now a zombie himself, pounces on him.

This episode contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Renee's father is hinted as being one, as he disowned her when she married Simon.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once Renee figures out what Simon has done and traps him inside Night of the Living Dead, he screams and pleads with her to turn the Immersopod off, but she has no intention of doing so.
• Allergic to Routine: Simon is ultimately revealed to have built the Immersopod largely to escape his real-world marriage and get it on with the film character he's been in love with since he was a boy.
• Art Shift: The Creep's framing segments, which go from his usual 2D animation to a 3D first person shooter.
• Ascended Fan Boy: Simon becomes one when he manages to literally enter Horror Express itself.
• As You Know: The majority of Simon and Renee's first scene together has the former explaining how the Immersopod works and how much he loves Horror Express, while the latter shows herself to not share Simon's interests and voices her concerns with how strained their marriage is at the moment, especially since her father disowned her for marrying Simon.
• Bittersweet Ending: Renee remains estranged from her father, possibly for the rest of her life, and is hinted to have gone insane from the Horror Express monster's partial draining of her intellect. On the plus side, she gets revenge on Simon, the adulterous Gold Digger responsible for her situation, by having him be eaten by zombies while he's trapped inside the invention that started it all.
• Bookends: This episode serves as one to the second season. Much like Model Kid, the season premiere, classic horror movies serve an essential role in the plot.
  • June's advice to Joe about how "movies transport us" from that episode is revisited here, as Simon invents a device capable of literally transporting a person into a movie. Joe also makes a passing reference to Chrisopher Lee in that episode, whereas this episode has one of his characters appearing in the artificial flesh.
  • The intro and outro end with someone getting eaten by a zombie. First the Creep's player character, then the Creep himself.
• Brain Drain: Horror Express' monster is capable of using its glowing red eye to absorb the intellect from its victim's brains, which it uses for its own benefit.
• Bystander Syndrome: While he's stuck inside Night of the Living Dead, Simon doesn't bother helping the film's characters escape the zombies, thinking he can just leave with a push of a button. Renee quickly contradicts him on that front.
• Call-Back:
  • The covers of Model Kid, Pesticide, and The Right Snuff are seen among the films in the Immersopod's hard drive.
    • In addition, one of Joe's movie posters, also from Model Kid, can also be seen in the list of films.
  • The episode is written by Dana Gould, who played the overweight Henry Quayle in Skincrawlers.
• Claustrophobia: Renee suffers from the phobia, hence why she refuses entering the Immersopod. When she does get inside the pod to confront the Countess, she is visibly hyperventilating.
• Daddy Issues: Renee's father disowned her when she disobeyed his request to not marry Simon. To this day, Renee says he never forgave her, nor will he ever.
• Deadly Gaze: The monster of Horror Express is capable of this, using its eye to wipe the minds of its victims. It nearly does this to Renee, but she manages to escape at the last minute.
• Death by Irony: Simon is killed while he is trapped inside the invention he used to break Renee's heart, even being goaded into entering it by Renee herself.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Simon becomes black and white when he is placed inside Night of the Living Dead.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Upon ignoring his advice and marrying Simon, Renee's father disowned her and cut the poor girl out of his life completely. Even if he ended up being right about Simon, it's still very much uncalled for.
• Disrupting the Theater: When he's inside a movie, Simon spends all his time not hitting on the Countess establishing the worst traits of an annoying theater patron, rattling off actor filmographies, reciting his favorite lines along with the characters, and at one point, even making his way across the screen as if he were returning to his seat.
• The Dog Bites Back: Renee, whose husband caused her to be forever estranged from her father and ultimately used her money to develop a machine that allows him to cheat on her, traps Simon inside said machine and watches as he is devoured by the zombies from Night of the Living Dead.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: In Horror Express, the Countess' poodle starts barking and whining when it is brought into the baggage car, where the monster is being contained. Since he's also in the baggage car, Simon assumes that the barking is directed at him and denies anything suspicious. Given what we learn about him later on, the poor dog's reaction throughout the scene can easily count as foreshadowing about Simon's true self.
• Fan Boy: Simon is a huge fan of Horror Express, the first film he ever saw that wasn't a kids' movie. It was also where he fell in love with the Countess.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Simon certainly does deserve comeuppance for squandering Renee's money and using it to build a machine that allows him to cheat on her. And also for his grandstanding and his annoying chatter during the movies.
• Fingore: Renee keeps Simon from turning the Immersopod off by cutting off his thumb with a pair of gardening shears.
• Flat Character / Flanderization: Simon goes from an aspiring inventor who manages to successfully complete his dream project, into an adulterer who is solely dedicated to making love with the Countess and lying to his wife about it, not even halfway through the episode.
• Foreshadowing: Simon pauses during his explanation for his love of Horror Express after saying that he "fell head over heels in love with...", while staring at the Countess on the film's poster, hinting at his affair with her.
• Freudian Slip: Simon is known to let a few of them slip out when he talks to people:
  • He goes on a brief monologue when describing the applications of the Immersopod, saying that it can act as an escape for people stuck in "dead end" situations, which visibly strikes a nerve with Renee.
  • He almost reveals to the Countess that he has a wife and isn't a character from her movie.
  • He also calls Renee "Countess" as he goes to sleep, clueing Renee as to what her husband is up to.
• Genius Ditz: Even before his cheating becomes apparent, ingenious inventor Simon shows that he misses quite a few hints when he interacts with Renee or characters from a film, having very little ideas of how to cover his tracks.
• Genre Savvy: Renee's father, who disowned her when she disobeyed his wishes regarding Simon, could apparently see Simon for the dorky, sleazy, Gold Digger he truly was the second he met him. Everything that Renee tells Simon regarding what her father told her about him comes true as Simon continues his affair.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The monster has a single, glowing red eye, which it uses to absorb information from peoples' brains.
• Gold Digger: Simon was (correctly) described as one by Renee's father, and he did just as her father said he would: take Renee's money and make her look like a fool.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Simon's continued interactions with the Countess allow her to breach the Immersopod's programming, since she is able to deviate from the film's script and actively recognize Renee as his wife, slapping her across the face.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Renee traps Simon inside the machine he had been using to cheat on her with, and plants him inside Night of the Living Dead, where zombies tear him apart. If the Creep's outro is anything to go by, he even became a zombie himself.
• Homage: The way Simon appears in movies, being green-screened and interacting with characters that (mostly) can't actually interact back, could likely be an homage to Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. It's rather fitting, considering that the film and this episode are both written by noted comedy actors.
• I Have No Daughter!: Renee's father cut her out of the family completely after she disobeyed his suspicions about Simon, and Renee notes that the kind of man he is means that he'll never ever change his mind.
• It's All About Me: Simon is utterly self-absorbed and lives in a world of his own. When he isn't making love to the Countess, he prides himself as a film-loving genius who hardly gives his wife the time of day, even after he caused her to be forever estranged from her father.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Simon is initially presented as an awkward up-and-coming inventor who is ecstatic to find that the project he's spent months building is a success. He also seems to think the world of Renee and excitedly shows her his work, assuring her that he didn't just invent the Immersopod to escape his life when he accidentally offends her. It's on that very same night he is revealed to be a selfish, one-dimensional, and utterly horny man-child, blowing Renee off to have repeated encounters, and eventual sex, with the film character he's been in love with since he was an actual child. He even admits to the Countess that he doesn't actually love Renee, only her.
• Karma Houdini: As far as we know, the Countess gets away with cheating on her husband, slapping Renee across the face, and telling her that Simon doesn't love her.
• Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: The Countess. She doesn't know that she's a character in a movie being simulated in a VR machine, but she falls for Simon after only two meetings. Unless of course, Simon deliberately programmed that aspect of her personality.
• Lampshade Hanging: When he isn't meeting and/or making love to the Countess, Simon spends all his time inside Horror Express hanging a lampshade on everything in his vicinity.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Immersopod functions as one, as it's able to transport a person into any movie they want, as well as talk to the characters and even alter the plot as they see fit.
• Manchild: Simon is ultimately revealed to be a dorky hornball who lives in his own fantasy world. He has an obsessive attraction to the leading female character in his favorite movie, and invents the Immersopod solely so he can enter said movie and make love to said character as many times as he wants, rebuking his wife in the process.
• Master of Unlocking: In Horror Express, a thief who picks the lock of the monster's crate becomes its first victim, and the monster itself uses its newly acquired skills from the thief to pick open the lock of its crate. When Simon meets Prof. Saxton, he uncovers the thief's corpse to move the plot forward.
• MST: Simon does this whenever he's immersed inside a movie, to establish what an annoyance he can be.
• Mundane Utility: Simon invents a machine that can literally put people into any movie they want, able to interact with the characters and change the plot to their liking. And what does he do with it? Use it to cheat on his wife with the fictional woman he's loved ever since he was a kid.
• Never My Fault: Thanks to his unending pride, Simon never notices anything suspicious or insensitive that he says to Renee.
• Oblivious to Hints: Simon's ego and grandstanding blind him to Renee's hints that she knows what he's up to. Even before Renee found out, Simon basically shoves everything not involving his fantasies to the curb.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Renee's father severed all ties with his daughter when she married Simon and ignored his warnings about him, and judging by the phone call she has with him, he continues to do so to this day.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Simon has a huge crush on the Countess, ever since he first saw Horror Express as a boy. She's even his sole reason for inventing the Immersopod in the first place.
• Plain Jane: During their first argument, Renee admits that she isn't particularly "attractive or exciting" as other women, and figures that Simon only married her because her family's rich, which turns out to be true.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: While Simon knows the somewhat-obscure Horror Express well enough that he can recite lines from the film by heart, it takes him quite a few minutes for him to recognize the more well-known Night of the Living Dead.
• Properly Paranoid: Renee's father had told her prior to her wedding that Simon was just marrying her for her money and would make her look like a fool. After discovering Simon has spent all his time in their brief marriage squandering her finances to create a machine that essentially allows him to get it on with his longtime crush, Renee slowly realizes that her father was right about Simon all along.
• Recursive Canon: At the very end of the Creep's epilogue, he is pounced on by a zombie that looks suspiciously like Simon (except that his thumb is still attached).
• Sanity Slippage: After nearly getting her mind wiped by Horror Express' monster, Renee seems to have jumped off the slippery slope, leaving Simon to die in Night of the Living Dead (1968). Of course, that isn't to say he didn't deserve it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Horror Express plays a major role in the episode's plot, as Simon creates and uses the Immersopod to repeatedly enter the film.
  • Night of the Living Dead (1968) also makes an appearance at the end, when Renee uses it to ensure Simon meets his doom. The episode's framing segments even feature the Creep playing a VR game modeled after the film, which incorporates actual dialogue from the film itself. In the epilogue, the game is shown to incorporate the helicopter escape and shopping mall attack from Dawn Of The Dead and the cargo elevator from Day Of The Dead in its features, likely as a tribute to director George A. Romero, who directed all three films as well as the original Creepshow.
  • Simon namedrops The Godfather and Jaws when describing how any movie can be stored in the Immersopod's hard drives.
  • Upon meeting Prof. Saxton, played by Christopher Lee, Simon rattles off various roles that he has played, notably Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Saruman the White.
  • When Simon meets the Countess for the first time, he namedrops Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead) and The Spice Girls to convince her that he's from England.
  • Upon activating the Immersopod for the first time, Simon silently says "Rock and roll." to himself.
  • According to Renee, she learned what virtual reality was after reading a certain book "by a man named William Gibson."
• Skewed Priorities: Simon invents a state of the art VR home theater system that actually allows people to enter and change the plot of any movie they want. Rather than patent the system and have it mass-produced to become rich (off of his own money), he selfishly uses the prototype to escape his real life marriage and cheat on his wife with the movie character he's had a crush on as a kid.
• Squee: Simon does this when he meets Alexander Saxton, Christopher Lee's character, listing the other roles Lee has played over the years.
  • He also has a similar, but smaller, reaction to Peter Cushing's character, Dr. Wells.
• Tears of Blood: The monster is able to inflict this on any victim it catches as their intellect is absorbed. When Renee falls into its clutches and manages to shut off the machine, she finds that said tears are still on her face in the real world.
• Tempting Fate: After chasing away the Countess, Renee takes a minute to stop and yell about how she hates Horror Express and that no one has even seen it. Cue the monster capturing and nearly draining her.
• Trapped in TV Land: Simon invents a machine that is capable of doing this, and he voluntarily enters his favorite movie to make love to the character he's had a crush on for years.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Simon's father, who let him watch Horror Express when he was a kid for whatever reason, and ultimately let the movie rule his son's life.
• Virtual-Reality Warper: Unknown to Simon, his repeated encounters with the Countess ended up giving her a mind of her own, as she recognizes Renee as his wife and utters the Wham Line below.
• Wham Line: "He will never be yours!" Said by the Countess to Renee just before she slaps her across the face, revealing that Simon's frequent interactions with her have presumably given her free will to deviate from the movie's script, and further revealing that the Immersopod's levels of interactivity are able to work both ways.
• Woman Scorned: Renee becomes an insane one after her journey inside Horror Express, where she traps Simon inside Night of the Living Dead and sics the zombies on him.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: When inside the Immersopod, injuries sustained in a movie carry over into the real world, and vice versa. When Renee discovers this fact, she takes advantage of it to ensure Simon meets his death inside his own invention.

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