‘Teen Wolf’ Season 5 Pilot “Creatures of the Night” sets a Creepy and Nightmarish Tone

“Creatures of the Night” sets  a Creepy & Nightmarish Tone

Chilly rain, dark shadows and the imposing cold steel of Eichen House bring us into a nightmarish opening of the newest episode of ‘Teen Wolf’. The series is stepping further and further away from the ‘horror lite’ vibes in the earlier seasons. Hell. Yeah.

The gothic prison of an Asylum might as well be a character in and of itself. Yes, it’s that freaking awesome. Right from the get-go we get a vacant-faced Lydia standing up catatonic in the showers. The stoic Eichen house employees, more like prison warders aren’t having it, and they escort the bedraggled beauty, who can barely walk to her cold cell of a room through the halls of other imprisoned patients. It’s like a twisted perp walk with the dark and shadowy tones and the flickering lights and muted focus of the camera.

After a skeevy Eichen House nurse gets his rocks off trying to inject the stiff-as-a-board and zonked out Lydia with more sedatives, he gets a hell of a surprise when Lydia jolts up and shrieks. Her banshee powers not only smash light bulbs, shatter glass, and wreck havoc on anything in her path but now they make her stronger. They also release a whoosh of a sound waves that act as a shield to throw her Eichen House attackers around like rag dolls, in some fight scenes that would make any X-Men mutant proud.

After being thwarted by an old face, werewolf Aiden who stalks out of the shadows and blocks her off, Lydia is tazed by the Eichen swarm.

Which brings us zooming to an outdoorsy bromance moment with Scott and Stiles leaning against Stiles’s powder blue Jeep while gazing and the stars and full moon and talking about their feelings. ‘Teen Wolf’ continues to reinforce that guys do have feelings, in an especially tender moment where Stiles just barely holds his anxiety in as he talks about not wanting to lose his BFFL Scott or other high school friends after senior year. Oh yeah, and Liam is listening on as he’s chained to a tree so he doesn’t tear through the streets of Beacon Hills again as naked wolf boy. True story.

Dylan O'Brien (Stiles) & Tyler Posey (Scott) are attached at the hip in real life too.

An eerie storm with bolts of lightning, and dark swirling clouds only gets more and more threatening as the boys head for Beacon Hills High School to meet up with their peers to participate in the traditional senior hazing known as ‘senior scribe day’ at midnight. The ominous weather patterns are just like those in the preview of the future we had of Lydia in Eichen house, and it basically screams EVIL IS COMING. Or, more like, evil is already here.

The lurking sense of dread only intensifies when Parrish is sent to check out a dilapidated abandoned mansion (of course) because Sheriff Stilinski said ‘noise complaints’ keep being filed by neighbors. Hearing scratching inside the walls, Parrish has the brilliant idea to chip away at the stony barrier to free whatever poor soul is trapped. Instead, in a horrific scene black blood oozes out of the wall, and a new werewolf bursts out of the wall koolaid man style. The hellish new adversary is hulking, slathered in blood and with a sneer full of fangs he slashes at Parrish with his radioactive wolverine claws. He states the obvious that Parrish ain’t no werewolf but that he’s something. Parrish’s golden eyes and his accelerated healing just add to the mystery of whatever creature feature the cute deputy happens to be.

Parrish has got a little somethin somethin going on.

This hulking new werewolf, is after Scott McCall, natch. News of his True Alphaness have been spreading far and wide, and this new terror is determined to Bring.Him.Down.

As the storm rages on, and mass power outages continue to rip through the city and make things only more dire, we cut to Kira in a car with her folks. On the way to the high school, the cutie Kitsune tries to get in touch with Scott as she’s in gridlocked traffic on the highway that is of ‘War Of The Worlds’ proportions (of course minus the aliens and Dakota Fanning's constant shrieking). A new guy ogles a bit too obviously at Kira. Kira isn’t having any of the come-hither newbie’s attempts to flirt her up, in a moment that is dead on in character for her.

We’ve got the new werewolf baddie prowling around the scenes throughout the episode, creeping ever closer to having a go at Scott. While Scott, who’s already suspicious about the bad things to come (especially after his speech to Stiles in the opening scene that this balance has to tip “one way or another”) zooms off on his motorcycle to pick up Kira to bring her to the senior’s event. Zipping through the stand still traffic he reunites with Kira who had been vacationing in New York during their summer vacation, with a Passionate Kiss in The Rain™ with all the cars of onlookers around them.

Pack partay in Stiles's jeep. Malia (Shelley Hennig) is workin the new bob 'do.

Once he makes it back to the high school, and he and Kira share another Passionate Kiss in The Rain™ under an overhang across from the school, the promised show down between the werewolf out for Scott’s blood, and our favorite true alpha. Kira takes accessories to a new level as she whips off her belt only for it to unfold out to be her katana. Never one to run from a fight, Kira charges at the big bad wolf with her fatal fashion statement turned weapon. But it’s Scott, who not only survives the glowing blue talons of this new villain, but still hasn’t lost his True Alpha powers despite this guys efforts to demolish him. Scott further humiliates the brute by knocking off his wolverine claws that are actually falsies to begin with, and both watch them clatter to the ground.

How Scott was able to withstand the attack and still come out with his powers intact only adds to the mystery of Scott’s true alphaness. The joyous moment is cut short, however, when the guy who was previously eyeing Kira in the traffic jam, comes out of the shadows. Grinning at the gang -- because at this point Stiles and Malia have joined Scott and Kira, their pack is never separate for too long after all-- he steps forward and introduces himself as Theo, one of Scott’s and Stiles’s friends from 4th grade.

Theo is barking up the rock tree. Especially where Kira's concerned.

Looks like Stiles’s desire for lasting friendship has been answered in a particularly strange way. Even more bizarre, Theo has heard of Scott’s true alphaness and is eager to join his pack. Theo’s enthusiasm reeks of ulterior motive and as long as it doesn’t drag in another trite love triangle to the show, it’s bound to be interesting to see his dynamic between the gang and especially hot head beta Liam.

Back in the school, the seniors infiltrate the library where it turns out the senior scribe event is a harmless act of ‘vandalism’ where the teens write their initials onto library bookshelf they emptied. This tame act actually shows us a closer up and personal view of Malia who hesitates before putting a ‘T’ for Tate as her last name on her initials, after finding out Peter Hale is her biological father last season. And Scott, with a slightly pained look on his face jots down an ‘AA’ under his name to commemorate their fallen friend Allison Argent. The group shares a look and the quick moment really does tug at the heart strings.

I usually don't go for schmaltzy moves like this, but could these two be any sweeter?! 

It’s the closing scenes that crank up the dial on this nightmarish opening. The werewolf who failed to take down Scott is taken down himself by Darth Vader masked mad scientist creeps. In their underground laboratory with fog and green lights, surrounded by creepy crawlers suspended in huge tubes full of murky water, he’s skewered. The masked menaces tear his stomach open and a flock of crows burst out of the gash.

Then we’re back to Future!Lydia where she’s still semi conscious and interviewed by a Eichen house doctor about what happened to her friends. In chilling snapshots of what’s to come we see all of her friends in various states of mortal danger-- Stiles bloodied up falling out of his upside down Jeep, and Malia huddled in a cave as she meets the desert wolf, a menacing shadow looming over her, are just the first glimpses. With her impending teenage lobotomy this episode leaves a hell of an impression.

"Creatures of the Night", has brought a even greater darkness and terror to this already thrilling paranormal show and I couldn’t be more freaking excited to see what season five is going to throw at us.

The pack reminisces over Allison, while the worst is yet to come.

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