Summary
John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams is the perfect binge-worthy series to watch this spooky season.
The Peacock original series John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams Season 1 sees John Carpenter get in the director’s chair for the first time in over thirteen years. The brilliant mind behind the Halloween franchise gives us fresh new scares.
Throughout the six episodes of John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams, we follow six different stories of demons, ghosts, and slashers that have been terrorizing neighborhoods nationwide. Each story is told by the people who have survived them while getting reenactments of what went down.
John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams Season 1 review and plot summary
When you start watching Suburban Screams you can’t help but be sucked into the first episode, “Kelly”. The episode’s setup reminded me of the horror film Talk To Me, as it puts you directly in the shoes of these characters and tries to figure out what you, as the viewer, would do if you were them.
Due to this, you add an extra layer to the viewing experience that makes it personal. I loved that Carpenter understood this and delivered it in a way that could make you stay on your toes.
If you’ve ever watched a docu-series with reenactments, Suburban Screams has that element in each episode. As a result, we do get some bad acting. Now, the part I wasn’t sure of when watching is, “Is it intentional?” Of course, we may never know for sure, but if it were, I think it would change the experience.
Some Suburban Screams episodes work better than others simply based on the stories. My personal favorites were “Kelly”, “A Killer Comes Home”, and “Phone Stalker”. I thought the stories were more captivating and delivered some incredibly creepy moments.
John Carpenter hasn’t lost his touch one bit. Although Episode 4, “Bunny Man”, didn’t deliver how I wanted it to, Carpenter perfectly shot every scene with the Bunny Man. It was eerily shot in the same way he would shoot Michael Myers in Halloween. You had this larger-than-life stature, and he shoots him to be so terrifying it comes off to perfection.
Another thing I loved that Carpenter did was how he’d shoot the present-day people telling the story. Nothing was ever bright and vibrant, but it was always dark and murky to meet that similar tone in the stories they were telling.
Is John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams Season 1 worth watching?
Although there are some weak episodes, John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams delivers a must-watch spooky series for everyone to enjoy during the Halloween season.
Is the show perfect? No, the bad acting mixed with some stories that didn’t land is an issue, but being able to watch John Carpenter bring to life some scary urban legend-type stories was pretty cool. I would even be down for Carpenter to bring us more of these stories next Halloween.
What did you think of John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams Season 1? Comment below.
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