Channel Zero: Season 2

"Wait, Season 2?" you're asking, completely aware of everything I have ever seen and posted, and everything I have not. "What about Season 1?"

So, Channel Zero is an anthology horror show on Syfy. Every season is based loosely on a different creepypasta, and this season was called No-End House, based on a creepypasta of the same name. I'm not a big creepypasta fan by any stretch, and had never heard of the story being adapted and expanded here into a six-hour TV season, but I figured, back in mid-Septemebr when this season debuted, hey, why not, it's spooky television, 'tis the season, whatever.

I liked it! The first episode really had to hook me in order to keep me coming back and, well, it did. It's decidedly low-budget by modern cable standards, but the way it was shot - nothing but plain, drab, Canadian suburbs in flat wide shots - gave the whole thing a good and creepy vibe.

I'll admit that I slowly lost some of the details of the plot as it unfolded, but the basic premise here is that a couple of college kids decide to check out this new haunted house on the edge of town comprised of six rooms, each one scarier and freakier than the last. They start off in a large group, but as panic and fear set in, the group is scattered and must face the later rooms as individuals; one gets the sense that this is intentional, as the main girl's experience in the fifth room deals explicitly with her own dead father. Anyway, barrelling through the nearest exit door, she comes across one of her friends, and together they flee for their homes. But the houses all have the number six on them... and when our main character arrives home, who's that whistling and cooking breakfast in the kitchen? Yes, of course - it's her dear dead dad!

So the sixth and final room of the house, it turns out, is the creepy alternate world. This is all the first episode, by the way, so I've barely spoiled anything - and still, it's worth watching! Even if you bail here.

The remaining five episodes sort of lose some steam. The characters slowly figure out that they're still in the house, but with perks like "my dead father is back," do they really want to leave it? What follows is this weird mess I only half-understood that dealt with amnesia and cannibals - and of course, yes, a mid-season heel turn by one of the college kids, who is embracing life in the alternate-house-world, danger and all. But, sure enough, after some ferocious and gorey in-fighting, our group makes it back to the haunted house (within the sixth room, within the house?) and makes it back through the exit to the real world, just as you'd expect

But, folks, here's what you wouldn't expect - this is only the end of episode four. I won't even begin to spoil the remaining two!

So yeah, I was about as into this as I'd have expected to be, jumping in on a whim and all. Will I go back and watch Season 1? For that matter, will I be back for Season 3? Eh, who knows? Too soon to tell. And far too much other TV.