Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King/Crouch End

Crouch End
Episode 2
Airdate	July 12, 2006
Written by	Kim LeMasters
Directed by	Mark Haber
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Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King

Crouch End is the second episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.

Starring: Claire Forlani (Doris Freeman), Eion Bailey (Lonnie Freeman)

Co-Stars: Ryan Sheldrake (The Boy), Eva Lazzaro (The Girl), Marijke Mann (Woman in Lift), Jean Marc Russ (Rat Man #1), Josh Futcher (Rat Man #2), Martin Broome (Rat Man #3), Luke Walker II (PC Farnham), John Flauss (Man in Street), Monica Maughan (Woman in Street), Jennifer Congram (Concierge), Kenneth Ransom (Cabby), Linal Haft (Archibald), Don Bridges (Dark Coated Man)

Plot Overview

A couple are honeymooning in London, but get a phone call and have to go to Crouch End on business. While shopping the husband, Lonnie, asks a cab driver how long it would take to get to Crouch End and he recommended not going at all, saying it wasn't a place for strangers. They get a cab anyways and head for the town. The wife, Doris, is scared on the way when she reads a sign about a drowning. When they get into Crouch End she sees a look of wolves on bikers' faces. The cab driver says that the town was built on the druid town of Slaughter Tower.

After Lonnie makes a phone call they notice that the cab is gone; before even being payed. But he has the address so they try to find his friend on foot. They get lost so he tries to find a telephone to call his friend while she waits out in the road. He gets directions and they continue down the road. They come upon a house where they hear someone groaning and Lonnie wants to investigate, but Doris is troubled by the sign she read back in London. He goes on and is seemingly swallowed up by something in the hole and spit back out. Covered in a tar-like substance, he gets up and they run towards a major road.

Lonnie begins acting a bit more angry than he had been and claims that he can't remember what had just happened. He attempts to call his friend but the phone dies and he throws it. Still, he wants to continue to their house for dinner despite Doris' protests. Eventually they decide to go west and try to make it back to their hotel. They approach a watchtower that Doris recognized and head in that direction but are interrupted by an underpass that has a black-hole lack wind. This drives Lonnie nearly crazy and he grabs Doris and says that they have to go. He says that something is happening to him. They think they see traffic but Lonnie becomes sick and takes off running.

Doris tries to catch back up with him but is grabbed by a large monster that looks like the cat she had seen earlier. She begins running but has lost her husband. She finds the kids who they had run into earlier and they begin chanting. She then sees her husband who is acting strangely saying that now they will be together forever, but he is swallowed by a monster with tenacles. She runs and finds some people who point her in the direction of the police station. The police have a cat named Lonnie, the same cat that Doris had seen several times that day.

Notes

• This episode brought in 4.8 million viewers. This is a drop from 5.2 million in the first episode.

Trivia

• This short references the Cthulhu mythos often.

Reviews

• Overall Grade: C+ with 1 review
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 1 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0
• C+ This another fairly good, but not great, short story from this series. It deals a lot with the Cthulhu mythos and the story obviously has that as a dominant inspiration. The pacing is a little slow and the acting by the husband is a little too The Shining towards the end, but overall I could rewatch this and not be bored. --MateoP 22:06, 16 July 2006 (EDT)