Creeped Out – The Side Show (part 2)

Written by Dan – Thoughts on the final episode of series 1 Creeped Out Ep. 13 ‘The Side Show (part 2)’. This episode opens with Ace and the ring leader having just set out into the local town in an attempt to find Ace’s family. However with no success.

This episode might be the most insane episode of Creeped Out there’s been, but oh, wasn’t it just brilliant! If you want this post to make sense, firstly go and watch the episode, and/or have a read of my post on part one. This episode opens with Ace finding the family he’s been dreaming about, however, there’s a problem. The family have no idea who Ace is, they’ve never seen him before in their lives. So Ace is forced to apologise, and then the ring leader takes him home to the side show. Naturally Ace is let down, and above all confused – but Indigo won’t let Ace stop there, she’s sure something is up, and together they’re going to get to the bottom of it all. 

Creeped Out – Shed No Fear

Written by Dan – Creeped Out episode 10 ‘Shed No Fear’, features the Creeped Out gang attempting to create their own version of Stranger Things; and, it’s pretty good.

‘Shed No Fear’ follows the friendship of Greg and Dave. Once close friends the two found themselves drifting apart as Dave got a place on the football team, leaving Greg to defend himself behind his comic books. Then one day, David is late to school and when he arrives he’s drenched in stale water and covered in rotting leaves. Greg, concerned for his old friend decides to follow David home, and investigate as to what’s going on. David has been tasked by his family to clean out an old shed, but inside is a shadow creature, who doesn’t want the items in the shed moved around. To protect the shed the shadow creature teleports the intruders away into a near by disused swimming pool.

Creeped Out – Spaceman

Written by Dan – Thoughts on Creeped Out episode 8: ‘Spaceman’ – Thomas and his mother have moved away from the city to the country. Where he meets new friends, a local nerd called Spud, and an Alien form outer space. Trouble is who can Thomas trust?

I don’t want to be writing a negative post about Creeped Out, it hasn’t happened before; but, there’s just no way around it. This is by far the worst episode to date, it’s such a disappointment, considering the high standard we’ve had. ‘A Boy Called Red’ which I consider to be a weak episode is still far more successful. The episode is essentially an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg, 1982) homage, two boys stumble across this strange alien and agree to help him phone home. But, it’s Creeped Out so it needs an element of the strange, therefore come the end it’s revealed that the alien isn’t phoning home but calling upon the alien fleet to commence attack on earth. The issue with this as a twist is that it simply isn’t dramatic, even if you don’t expect the twist, its hardly a surprise. Of course it’s an invasion, what else was it going to be?  

Creeped Out – The Call

Written by Dan – Thoughts of Creeped Out – Episode 6: ‘The Call’ in which Pearl is having nightmares of the sea. Something is calling out to her, calling her to the ocean.

This episode of Creeped Out goes to show that we can have a creepy tale with a happy ending. As good as a story line ‘A Boy Called Red’ was it failed to be an episode of Creeped Out, this episode succeeds in achieving what ‘A Boy Called Red’ attempted to do.

‘The Call’ follows the story of Pearl, its the lead up to her 15th birthday; but there’s a problem, no one has yet accepted her invitations. It’s four days before the party and Pearl is having nightmares of the ocean, then things get worse, she’s hearing a mysterious voice which is calling her to the sea. Over the next few days; Pearl befriends a sea conservation activist, people begin hanging on Pearl’s every word, people are accepting her invites, then she finds herself an exceptional swimmer and capable of super-sonic screams. Her brother is convinced she’s a superhero, the sea conservation activist reveals that Pearl is not a human, but a siren leaving Pearl with a choice to leave her adopted family and return to her family of the sea, or to defeat the sea conservation activist (the siren who hijacked Pearl’s dreams to reveal her powers) and live with her adopted parents.

Creeped Out – Marti

Written by Dan – Thoughts on Creeped Out – Episode 4: ‘Marti’ in which a sentient mobile phone blackmails 13 year old Kim into loving it.

This episode is possibly the most unsettling viewing experience and perhaps also the most thought provoking of the series. The episode deals with concerns, which typically only concern the parents of contemporary children growing up within the digital age. Using these fears of online addiction, online bullying, and even paedophilia, the episode transforms these fears from the parent sphere into the child’s and encourages them to reflect upon and discuss these digital problems. The episode does this so well, by exploring the psychology of Kim, this weeks main protagonist, and the ways in which her online activities have cause and effect within her offline activities.   

Creeped Out – Trolled

Written by Dan – Thoughts on Creeped Out – Episode 3: ‘Trolled’

This episode follows Sam, he’s a student at St. Augustine’s Choir School, a prestigious private school. He has trust worthy friends, healthy relationship with the staff, a bright future ahead of him. Online , however, he is ‘No Face’, the scourge of the school. Sam uses his online status as means of bullying the other pupils, and manipulating his friends to his personal desires.

Sam puts out a post teasing one of his closest friends, this is shortly followed by posts announcing that his friends (who are dating) only came about from a bet, in order to try and split them up. Sam/No Face is then surprised to receive an anonymous message himself from the dauntingly named ‘BILLYGOAT356’, who delivers a warning to Stu; “That’s not very nice. Do it again and pay the price”. Sam ignores the message, ‘No Face’ is very much a part of Sam and he will use ‘No Face’ where he sees fit. Within the next day he sends out a photo edit of the Headmaster, dressing him up as a baby. BILLYGOAT356 gets in touch once again, with cryptic phrases, and paragraphs of a unreadable text. Over the next day Sam the online troll finds himself turning into a literal troll.

Creeped Out – Slapstick

Written by Dan – A discussion of CBBC’s Creeped Out – Episode 1 ‘Slapstick’

This years Halloween saw the launch of CBBC’s new horror anthology series Creeped Out, and… well it’s pretty creepy. The series follows a small masked boy known as “The Curious”, who frames the series by seeking out the strange tales and collecting mementos from the scene.

This first episode ‘Slapstick’ follows Jessie, a young teenager, who’s frustrated with her family for embarrassing her in front of the popular kids at School. Humiliated, by her parents parading their quirks in front of the other school kids, Jessie run’s off to the beach ashamed. At the beach Jessie stumbles across a Punch and Judy show. When the show ends a young teenage boy collecting change from the crowd approaches Jessie and invites her to meet the composer of the show, the delightful puppet Mr. Blackteeth.  Jessie tells Blackteeth of her fall out with her parents, and Blackteeth is quick to sympathise. Apparently wanting to help her, Blackteeth proposes an offer; with just a tap on her head she could have the power to control her parents. Still angry, Jessie accepts, though she will soon regret her decision.