Friendly warning to those interested: This is less an animated special than two motion comic vignettes. If you're still interested after hearing that, do you, but I was caught off guard.

While the first segment "Survivor Type", based off the Stephen King short story that haunted me most throughout my teen years, has solid writing and a grotesque art style to fit, the second part is a big fumble.

"Tweeting from the Circus of the Dead" is from a Joe Hill short story that was a decade old when this went into production, and its writing about and sentiments on Twitter and teens is immensely out of touch, and obnoxious, cutting both fear and humor from the short. I've said it with other reviews and projects, but "who is this for? Who is the target audience?" should have been questions asked before this was made.

Friendly warning to those interested: This is less an animated special than two motion comic vignettes. If you're still interested after hearing that, do you, but I was caught off guard.

While the first segment "Survivor Type", based off the Stephen King short story that haunted me most throughout my teen years, has solid writing and a grotesque art style to fit, the second part is a big fumble.

"Tweeting from the Circus of the Dead" is from a Joe Hill short story that was a decade old when this went into production, and its writing about and sentiments on Twitter and teens is immensely out of touch, and obnoxious, cutting both fear and humor from the short. I've said it with other reviews and projects, but "who is this for? Who is the target audience?" should have been questions asked before this was made.

I guess this proves that I really should take into account where I’m getting my recommendations from because this was not at all it! First off, I really disliked the animation style. I understand that this is  supposed to look like a comic however everything just looked plain ugly. I don’t want to offend the art team personally but the design of the characters in the second short we’re so bad and distracting. I really think the special would’ve benefited from a simpler style similar to that of the intro from the 1982 film. The plot of each short was nothing new or original, Hill’s twitter-based novella was a particular brand of  awful. I get that Joey King’s character is supposed to be a vapid social media-obsessed teen but after just 15 minutes of listening to her ingratiating voice I really wanted to smash my tv in. And after the second Greg Nicotero insert and character with Joe Hill’s face appeared, I was completely annoyed. It seems like a no brainer...if you’re going to make a cameo in your work at least make sure that your work is not hot garbage.

I guess this proves that I really should take into account where I’m getting my recommendations from because this was not at all it! First off, I really disliked the animation style. I understand that this is  supposed to look like a comic however everything just looked plain ugly. I don’t want to offend the art team personally but the design of the characters in the second short we’re so bad and distracting. I really think the special would’ve benefited from a simpler style similar to that of the intro from the 1982 film. The plot of each short was nothing new or original, Hill’s twitter-based novella was a particular brand of  awful. I get that Joey King’s character is supposed to be a vapid social media-obsessed teen but after just 15 minutes of listening to her ingratiating voice I really wanted to smash my tv in. And after the second Greg Nicotero insert and character with Joe Hill’s face appeared, I was completely annoyed. It seems like a no brainer...if you’re going to make a cameo in your work at least make sure that your work is not hot garbage.

It’s quite a shame that these two specific stories were put together in this special. Before I get into that, I will say that the animation is not so much traditional animation as it is a motion comic. It was jarring at first but I got used to it. Now on to the stories, “Survivor Type” and “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead”. 

“Survivor Type” was based on a short story by Stephen King and was clearly the stronger of the two. This might be the most intense thing I have seen from Stephen King. I was genuinely creeped out and shocked by what was happening.

“Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” was based on a short story by Joe Hill. Unfortunately, this one does not work for me. It seemed unrealistic in the narration style of everything being a tweet and honestly fell flat compared to “Survivor Type”. 

If this was just “Survivor Type” I would give this a 5, but since “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” was also included I have to drop the score to a 3.5. But if anything please watch the first 20 mins for “Survivor Type”.

It’s quite a shame that these two specific stories were put together in this special. Before I get into that, I will say that the animation is not so much traditional animation as it is a motion comic. It was jarring at first but I got used to it. Now on to the stories, “Survivor Type” and “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead”. 

“Survivor Type” was based on a short story by Stephen King and was clearly the stronger of the two. This might be the most intense thing I have seen from Stephen King. I was genuinely creeped out and shocked by what was happening.

“Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” was based on a short story by Joe Hill. Unfortunately, this one does not work for me. It seemed unrealistic in the narration style of everything being a tweet and honestly fell flat compared to “Survivor Type”. 

If this was just “Survivor Type” I would give this a 5, but since “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” was also included I have to drop the score to a 3.5. But if anything please watch the first 20 mins for “Survivor Type”.