Supernatural – Episode 4-5 Review

Shows

Maybe my hopes were raised to unrealistically high levels by the awesome title/opening credits, but it seemed like “Monster Movie” took an awfully long time to get going and didn’t really do enough to take advantage of its format. Don’t get me wrong, there was still some great moments, and overall it was a good episode and a nice change of pace from the darker episodes we’ve had lately, but it didn’t achieve the “instant classic” status I was expecting after seeing the opening credits.

Part of the problem is that the episode didn’t quite hit the “monster movie” tone it was going for. The black and white was a nice touch, but it didn’t look like an old movie, it just looked like a regular episode, but in black and white. It’s unrealistic to expect them to get a bunch of old cameras and other equipment to film with, but even some artificial dust and scratches could have gone a long way.

The music wasn’t quite right either. I can’t put my finger on what the problem was, but it just didn’t feel like music you’d hear in a 50s monster movie.

The monsters could have looked cheesier too. Dracula was fine, and we didn’t really get a good look at the werewolf, but the mummy certainly could have gone cheesier (by wrapping the whole facial area in bandages as well). It would have even made sense from a plot perspective; the shapeshifter was obsessed with old movie monsters so the cheesier the costume, the better.

As I mentioned above, “Monster Movie” took a while to get going. It wasn’t really until Dean’s encounter with Dracula (and Dracula’s escape on a scooter, of all things) that the episode hit its stride.

I was kind of worried that the shapeshifter angle immediately after that would take some of the fun out of the episode, but it didn’t. I’m also glad they didn’t spend a lot of time on the mystery of who the shapeshifter could be. There were only really three possible suspects and Ed was too obvious, leaving only Lucy and the Sheriff. It took about 30 seconds from when Dean said there was a shapeshifter until I felt confident that Lucy was that shifter (and only about 3-4 minutes for the episode to confirm that).

I liked that they took a page out of monster movies and made the shapeshifter into a tragic figure. It both fit the theme, and made sense in the Supernatural universe. If memory serves, unlike most monsters on the show, shapeshifters don’t actually need to kill, maim or otherwise harm humans in order to survive. Thus, there’s no reason for a shapeshifter to automatically be “evil.” And Lucy/Dracula wasn’t evil. She tried to live a normal life and only after years of mistreatment did she turn to monster movies (and imitating those monsters) for comfort.

After the first thirty seconds, I was all ready to place this up there with “Ghostfacers!” as one of the funniest episodes of Supernatural. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode, though containing some brilliant moments, failed to live up to my admittedly high expectations.

Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.