Courtesy: Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon

REVIEW: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS “Squidferatu; Slappy Daze”

By David King

October 15, 2022

Overview“Squidferatu”Squidward ventures to Nosferatu’s castle after accidentally receiving his mail…“Slappy Daze”Nosferatu’s minion Slappy (voiced by Tom Kenny) kills sometime around Bikini Bottom while his master is getting a doctor’s checkup…Our TakeFor the first episode, much of it works as a comical Halloween special you’d come to expect from Spongebob with the two visiting a neighbor who’s a vampire with his servant Slappy Laszlo who in a nutshell is a caricature of the actor Peter Lorre, who was also caricatured in many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies throughout the 1930s to the 50s. And an established recurring character who’s the servant to Nosferatu/Count Orlock. When it does cut to them meeting Orlock, he’s mostly done in stop motion photo realistic images while Slappy is entirely animated with most of the scenery in a drab black & white filter on most of the proceedings that capture the feel of classic Universal Horror films.As for the other episode, it’s also focused on Slappy with the same drab classic horror film castle setting, but this time occasionally focusing on Orlock getting a doctor’s treatment which is a lot harder than it sounds and at times, comes across as slapstick comedy with Slappy having adventures outside of the castle while his “Master” is out getting proper medical treatments for a common cold.Overall, a passable Halloween special even if it wasn’t full-on scary like most should be. It’s horror themed but I’m sure there are better Halloween specials that Spongebob has done in the past. At the very least we do get to see another character expanded upon within Spongebob’s universe deal with his day-to-day life even if he’s meant as a grotesque parody of classic horror.