Times Is Tough In Musky Holler (A Creepshow short on SHUDDER)

Genre: Horror
Rating: TV-MA (M)
​Warnings: Sexual Assault mention, Child Abuse mention

With enough world-building to make Tolkien proud stuffed into half a TV programme episode, this short is a waste of a bunch of good ideas. Cults, apocalypses and moralistic dives into human nature and modern entertainment are hurried and glossed over in an attempt to fit them all into one short film.

​Most of the actual story events are told in dialogue, with minimalist flashbacks. As well as squandering the visual possibilities, it makes it hard to actually follow and process the many plot points.

The sexual assault and child abuse are thrown in as rapidly and carelessly as everything else, leaving them as a bad taste shock tactic. Instead of a dark, real-life horror, it feels like it's just shoehorned in for the sake of being edgy. What could have been a few reasonable shorts is instead a confusing mess. The ending introduces zombies, confusing what could have been a plot pay off. Dropping its half of the episode, this one is not worth watching.