GIVING YOU THE CREEPS

Producer, director, writer and all-around horror guru Greg Nicotero loves Creepshow season two – and he’s got every right to!

- DARREN SCOTT

GREG NICOTERO is a happy man. Busy, but happy. When SFX catches up with the horror master on the phone, he’s been facing zombies during the day on season 11 of The Walking Dead and by night he’s deep in the edits for season three of Creepshow. “I turn 58 years old in two weeks and I’m still going to work with the same amount of giddy glee that I did when I stepped foot on the set of Day Of The Dead in 1984,” he laughs.

But hang on – season three of Creepshow? “When we were shooting season two,” Nicotero says, talking about the new episodes that air in April, “we kind of rolled right into season three. I think the network was just waiting to announce it, but by the time they had announced it, we were almost done filming it already,” he chuckles. “We were very fortunate, we were one of the first long-form productions to get back to work and we piggybacked an entire third season onto our production slate.”

YOU CREEP WHAT YOU SHOW

Shudder’s frankly brilliant reboot of George A Romero’s 1982 anthology movie broke records when it debuted in September 2019 – world events meant that an animated Halloween special followed at Halloween 2020, and the intended first episode of season two, “Shapeshifters Anonymous”, became a holiday event in December.

With the second season delayed, and a return to The Walking Dead imminent, producer Nicotero had to move between production “bubbles”. “But it’s fun!” he exclaims. “I mean, I’m having a blast.”

How do you follow up with that “difficult second album” when it comes to curating horror stories?

“I’ll be really honest with you,” he begins tentatively. “Season one of