Every Haunting Hour Ever #41: Grampires (Part 1)

Season: 3
Episode: 1
Original Airdate: October 13, 2012 
Director: Neill Fearnley 

Hello there ladies and gentlemen! This is Azu here and welcome to the debut episode of season three. Season one opened with a killer doll that got run over by a truck. Season two opened with an episode that made the plot of Last Action Hero work. So how can season three top those episodes? Well by making Christopher Lloyd a vampire of course! Yes! I'm not kidding. That's the actual plot of this episode. While the premise sounds great, does the episode execute it well? Let's dive right in and find out! 

Mike (Mitchell Kummen) and Cristen (Chanelle Peloso) visit Grampa Montgomery (Christopher Lloyd) at his retirement community where everyone (including the grandfather) is a vampire.

One of the things I enjoyed about this episode was how well it balanced certain elements. For me, I felt like the episode had the right mix of scary moments and comedic moments. I never felt that the episode was too scary nor too goofy. Though I will say that the goofy moments (such as the ladies at the retirement village bickering over the ruse of wanting sugar to make a cobbler when they talk to Mike at their grandpa's estate) were a bit toned down compared to some of the more horrific moments (such as part of the cold opening that focused on Mike's nightmare that involved him and his grandpa).

The other thing I like about this episode is the setting. They really do a nice job making the retirement village look bleak with cool colours (mostly blues, greys, black, and greens) and there are very few moments where you get to see warm colours (once in the grandpa's garage and the other being in the market that Mike visits towards the end of the episode). It may seem like a small detail, but it really does set the mood and atmosphere of the episode in a very subtle way. 

If I had one issue with the episode, it would be the reveal of the grandpa's vampire side. Now let me make one thing clear. The reveal itself isn't that bad. I mean it's not too goofy and over the top and really doesn't take away from the tone the episode is going for. The problem I have with the reveal is the timing of said reveal. You see, I feel like it's revealed too soon as I'd expect the episode to create a bit more build up and wait until the second part of the episode to reveal it. I mean you could argue that revealing it a bit sooner than expected could create build up as you wait for the grandpa to reveal his secret to Mike after revealing it to his granddaughter Cristen but I still feel like the reveal happened too soon.

Overall, Grampires (Part 1) is a rather decent episode as it did a good job engulfing me into the world they set up and keeping me invested in the story. While this part of the episode didn't really blow me away like Creature Feature did, I still found it to be a good episode nonetheless. Keep in mind that there's still another part to this episode that will hopefully be better than this one. 

Overall Grade: C+