Horror Express is a little-thought about early 70's joint starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing dealing with a hideous monster who gets loose on a train, and raises some hot rails to hell (Had to squeeze in a Blue Oyster Cult reference, sorry, folks). It's a joyously odd choice for this vignette episode of Greg Nicotero's cable show. Shamefully underused almost-star Justin Long (Dodgeball, Tusk, Drag Me to Hell) wonderfully plays an electronics inventor that creates a virtual reality tanning bed that allows you to actually be in a film of your choice, which in this case is the affore mentioned Horror Express.
So money would seem like a great reason to create something like this, but Long seems more interested in having erotic interludes with Silvia Tortosa, the seductive countess from the film, than anything else. Of course, Long's wife has no patience for those shenanigans and has an answer that consists of tin-snips and George A. Romero. The morality tale concept that Creepshow is known for, as a direct descendent of EC Comics glorious four color horror comic books definitely presents itself here. The original 1982 Creepshow film was written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero as a direct salute to EC, and at least to me, is a classic of horror filmdom, and Nicotero is doing his best to continue it on, albeit in the television medium.
Dana Gould is a writer with 20 years plus of stand up experience and a wonderful taste for horror. He wrote this episode, and with obvious great love and affection for the grisly medium. As the creator of the hilarious John C. McGinley vehicle Stan Against Evil, which ran 3 seasons on IFC, he's no stranger to penning comic horror. He's a strong comedic actor as well, as he also played a goofball cemetery caretaker on Stan, and has a great "disagreement" with James Duval in the anthology suite Tales of Halloween that is both disgusting and hilarious, and probably the highlight of the film.
This particular episode was directed by Romero protege Greg Nicotero himself, one of the founding fathers of the KNB effects group, and helmer of some of the best episodes of The Walking Dead. Nicotero has become deeply entrenched in the current status of the horror genre, growing beyond just practical special effects, and every time I see his name on something, it pricks up my ears, because I know it's going to be at the very least, interesting. And here, the mash-up of the horror anthology, technology's temptations, sprinkled with a somewhat obscure cult horror film starring two kings of the genre just feels like something people will be watching on many Halloweens, for years to come.
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