All Hallows Eve (A Creepshow short on SHUDDER)

Genre: Horror
Rating: TV-MA (M)
Warnings: Brief Gore

Such a brilliant idea; I'm surprised it hasn't been done to death. Luckily for this short, it hasn't and is a fresh and interesting concept. It was even far from obvious what was happening from the beginning, letting each point be a nice reveal.

Rather than relying on jumpscares or shocking horror, this is another story that just builds up layers of creepiness and trepidation. As the teens go from house to house the sheer terror of the homeowners is unsettling. "What did they do?" you wonder, "What are they going to do?"

Despite being like mobsters shaking down people for protection, the main characters have a strong sense of sadness and anger; they aren't two dimensional baddies and you have to wonder... why? At the end, when the whole story is finally revealed, the true horror can set in. Now we know who they are and what happened, and what is it that the people were afraid of them doing... now the fantastical elements can fade out and we can be afraid of what human beings are really capable of.

The direct fear of being in that position and the adult fear of losing a child in any way makes this a damn good horror story. It's not the surprises or things like zombies and ghosts that really keep us up at night, its the stories that make us think, what if that happened to me? This hits that place, at least for me. Fair warning, its a bit of a gory event.