Nightmares & Dreamscapes – Crouch End (TV)

You wake to the sound of the alarm and realize that it's Friday the 13th. You stumble into the bathroom to brush your teeth and you knock the hand mirror to the floor, and viola –– seven years' bad luck! Suddenly, you sneeze. You didn't have time to put your hand in front of your mouth, so now you are in trouble for sure thanks to your soul having been jettisoned from your body. As you're walking back to your bedroom to get dressed, your black cat darts across your path. Friday the 13th all right… it is really going to be your unlucky day!

Doris (Claire Forlani) is similarly superstitious. We learn this within the first few moments of Crouch End, a one-hour mini movie airing as part of TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes miniseries based upon the short works of Stephen King.

Doris's husband, Lonnie (Eion Bailey), thinks her superstitions are cute. And both think each other is cute. The newly-wed Americans are thoroughly enjoying their honeymoon in London, even if workaholic Lonnie can't leave the office behind. When he gets an invite from a work associate to dinner at his home in Crouch End, Lonnie accepts on his and Doris's behalf, much to her consternation. All she wants is to stay in the hotel room and enjoy married life. But go they do, despite dire warnings from complete strangers that Crouch End is a 'bad' and 'dangerous' place.

They find a willing taxi driver and off they go – no sooner do they arrive than scary things start happening. Doris is bombarded by strange, unsettling visions and eventually Lonnie gets snapped up by a many-tentacled Lovecraftian-styled monster. This is not the end, however.

Crouch End is long on talk, and short on suspense, action and horror. Directed with a heavy hand by Mark Haber, the two lead actors make the best of the situation by trying to play up the newlywed romantic vibe. It's no matter, because we really don't care what happens to Doris and Lonnie. If only the characters had had a bit more pizzazz – Doris's superstitious nature could have been played up for fun, and maybe the creepy citizens of Crouch End could have been more than one-note oddities.

Clumsy CGI doesn't help some crazy editing choices (in the nightmare and horror sequences), and the color-leached cinematography seems pointless.

Crouch End is just barely worth watching, because any Stephen King story on TV is better than none.

Crouch End airs July 12 at 10 p.m., immediately following (the far superior) Battleground.

= = =

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson