Summary
A Creeped Out episode that harks back to school-based favorites from decades ago, with a modern edge and terrific story. Keep them coming!
This Creeped Out Season 2 Episode 5 recap for the episode titled “The Unfortunate Five” contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
The Unfortunate Five, the fifth episode of Creeped Out season two, gives us again what Creeped Out does best: a story that can be enjoyed by both kids and their parents, a blend of nostalgic and modern. Five high school students, Jude (Brielle Robillard), Willow (Olivia Presti), Stan (Yatharth Bhatt), Mayel (Claire Qute) and Feng (Dante Zee) find themselves stuck at school on a weekend detention; but instead of standard essay-style punishment, they are presented with an external consultant, commissioned to help soothe their anger. Her “YUMM” approach turns out to be less the yoga, unblocking, mindfulness and meditation that she professes and more – let’s say – predatory.
So essentially what starts out looking like The Breakfast Club becomes kind of The Faculty in style: familiar (to some of us grown-ups), but lots of fun and barely predictable at all. In twenty-five minutes, we have character development, action, tension, betrayal and cynicism… for adolescents. Granted the students are largely two-dimensional types (but portrayed very well, by a cast taken from TV pedigree such as The Expanse and Odd Squad), but the mix is such that almost anything can happen. Well done to Emma Campbell, first time writer for Creeped Out.
From the start, “The Unfortunate Five” had a lovely mischievous tone; and it makes perfect sense when you realise the episode was directed by Bruce McDonald, the man behind Pontypool. The mischief was perfectly personified by Morgan Kohan, who played Faye, the vampire-in-hippy’s-clothing. She’s the one who first gave me the Faculty vibe: sweet and professional one minute, knowingly therapizing the students; and licking her lips at their various traumas and tempers the next. Oh, and whoever thought to cast Tony Nappo (who you might recognize from Killjoys, but I recognized him from Saw II and IV) as the school vice-principal was an absolute genius.
I’m not going to tell you how the story ends: that’s not my style at all, and you can still see it on BBC iPlayer for another few weeks. But the ending is worth a mention for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the ending is very ambiguous, morally speaking. My son loved “The Unfortunate Five”, but asked me: “did they win?” and it led to some lovely discussion about the nature of horror endings. Secondly, The Curious (Lukas Engel), the character who “collects” these stories, actually appears within the boundaries of the story itself for the first time; not that the characters interact with him/it, but we, the audience can see he’s there.
And a third reason: there’s a gobsmacking special effect near the end which wasn’t hinted at in the slightest. I’ve seen similar in adult horror films, but never in a kids’ TV show until now! Bravo again, Bede and Butler.
