For context I did not watch this episode when it originally aired as I did not have cable and I watched it five years later, after the fact, in 2019. When this part of the season originally aired I had no cable and I had been having a tough time with the beginning of Season 8 because the end of Season 7 had been such an authentic emotional hit and Trout was a very specific antagonist. As such I had been since putting off watching the last half of the last season until this year. However, in my opinion, in order to enjoy this episode one must enjoy all that is B-Movie horror and mainstream horror.
There are countless horror movie references that don't just come from scene stealing Bruce Campbell and his well known B-Movies, but also from IT, Children of the Corn, Friday the 13/New Nightmare, and Night of the Living Dead, amongst others. James Roday as the director and other writers of this episode clearly love horror movies and throughout the entire episode I was giddy at the references and clapping with excitement because even if I couldn't 100% place the horror movie I could guess to some certainty the reference they were making. That's why I decided to create an IMDB account, it was for this episode because it was too low rated for the work everyone put in and for how good it was as a horror movie homage.
There are countless horror movie references that don't just come from scene stealing Bruce Campbell and his well known B-Movies, but also from IT, Children of the Corn, Friday the 13/New Nightmare, and Night of the Living Dead, amongst others. James Roday as the director and other writers of this episode clearly love horror movies and throughout the entire episode I was giddy at the references and clapping with excitement because even if I couldn't 100% place the horror movie I could guess to some certainty the reference they were making. That's why I decided to create an IMDB account, it was for this episode because it was too low rated for the work everyone put in and for how good it was as a horror movie homage.