"Ashes on My Pillow" - Channel Zero S04E01 Review

Okay, for Channel Zero I probably won't review each episode of the new "season" "The Dream Door" individually. Too much overlap with other stuff that I review, and Syfy is airing it in America on six consecutive nights. Presumably leading up to Halloween. If it was one night, I could probably slot it in. But since I've got a spare half hour or so tonight...

For those not in the know, Channel Zero is a Syfy anthology series similar in basic concept to American Horror Story. Each season is a standalone story, although Channel Zero's stories are based on "creepypastas": short-form Internet pieces told in the third-person. Series creator Nick Antosca has said the stories are jumping-off points for his own twisted little tales. And he's right. I've read the original stories.

For instance, in season 4, "Butcher's Block", Antosca & Co. took the creepypasta of a staircase standing by itself in the middle of the forest, and turned it into a psychological analysis of the female character and her concern about mental illness. Toss in an immortal family that used to live on the city block and committed bloody sacrifices to their dark god, make Rutger Hauer the family patriarch, and give him the ability to cut out mental illness from a person's brain. And hey presto! you've got a season of Channel Zero.

"The Dream Door" tells the tale of Jillian (Maria Sten) and Tom (Brandon Scott) Hodgson. They were childhood friends, and through circumstances not revealed in episode 1 but seem to have to do with her father's infidelity, Jillian moved in with Tom's family at an early age. They're now adults and marry each other, and move back into the house. A mysterious door appears in their basement, and they eventually get it open with the help of Tom's landscaping business partner and friend Jason (Nicholas Tucci). We also find out that as a child, Jillian was obsessed with contortionists and drew crayon stories of a contortionist-clown, Pretzel Jack.

The door conceals a stairway that leads to another similar door, but this has a white handprint on it. The stairway and the room beyond the door can't possibly exist, as they check with the neighbor Ian (Steven Robertson). Meanwhile, Jillian suspects Tom is having an affair, just like her father cheated on her mother. Her suspicions and trust issues drive her to her therapist, Abel Carnacki (Steven Weber). Abel advises her to talk to Tom about her suspicions, and that festering suspicions ruin marriages.

Jillian's paranoia keeps growing, and Tom doesn't help by going to see some woman. His wife follows him and sees him go inside, and then goes to ask Jason about whether Tom is having an affair. Jason insists Tom isn't and says Jillian is letting her paranoia get the best of her. And then Pretzel Jack (Troy James) jumps out with a screwdriver, stabs Jason to death, performs briefly for Jillian, and then walks out.

As you can tell from this description, Channel Zero is often a bare-bones type of story. We don't find out much of the Hodgson's backstory, or why the "dream door" appears, or why Pretzel Jack suddenly appears. As directed by E.L. Katz, this season's regular director, the story is told in spare sketchings that portray the suburbs as barren and low-populated wastelands. Much as director Steven Piet did with season 2, "No End House". Although it's a pretty typical style for the show: other directors did the same thing with small towns ("Candle Cove") and urban blight ("Butcher's Block").

The story as of episode 1 suggests Pretzel Jack is Jillian's suspicion and mistrust made real and carries out her subconscious (and not so subconscious) thoughts. When Jillian thinks Jason is gaslighting her, Jack jumps out and kills Jason. As such, the acting primarily comes down to how good Ms. Sten is. And she's... really good. Sten portrays love, sex, suspicion, and mistrust. If "Butcher's Block" was an examination of a woman's fear of mental illness made real, "The Dream Door" is an examination of a woman's suspicion and mistrust made real.

At the end of the day, the last three seasons didn't make much sense except through some kind of weird internal logic. And it looks like "The Dream Door" will do the same thing. It's similar in some ways to movies like Don't Look Now (1973), and Italian giallo movies in general like Suspiria. Heck, "Butcher's Block" had a creepy dwarf dressed in red, just like Don't Look Now.

Channel Zero tends to move slowly and specialize more in building up atmosphere. There's plenty of blood, if that's your thing. But while American Horror Story tends to go with a broad brush and overly-emotional silent-movie style emoting, Channel Zero is very, very subdued while ladling on the horror. It's more psychological horror (despite the gore and killings) than Friday the 13th or a Freddy Krueger movie.

So if that's your thing, give it a try. If it's not, don't. If you want to see if it interests you... hey, it's only six episodes and Syfy's airing schedule this year means it will be over and done with in six nights. What have you got to lose?

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?