User Reviews

Great jump scare right in the opening scene with the creepy screaming bird, sets the tone just right from the outset! Observing Jack from afar in his fiery lair and grumbling to himself of his inability to destroy his greatest enemy, Aku seizes the chance to manipulate a humble stick that jack uses at a crossroads to choose a path and points it in the direction that will lead him to a spooky ancient haunted graveyard where he entraps his foe and uses his evil power to reanimate hordes of the dead to attack the samurai and bring him down through sheer weight of numbers. After dispatching many of the charging and wailing horrid ghouls that assail him from every direction at once, Jack starts to grow exhausted and desperate as he races through the labyrinth of the vast graveyard until he runs into a foul banshee-like spirit that possesses his sword and sends it flying right into Aku's gloating clutches. And the egotistical demon is such a genuine immense terror as he launches an assault on Jack and attacks him with his own sword and chases him through the maze of tombs, transforming into multiple forms as he does so. I love villains that can wisecrack and chew the scenery but then quickly switch to a menacing threat. Jack puts up a great fight to say he's fighting Aku without the aid of his magical weapon, where most others would have been pulverised in moments. But even he can't hold out alone against an ocean of darkness forever and he is eventually overwhelmed by the tentacled mass that Aku turns into and is seized and pinned down. And it really appears that the mighty hero has finally met his doom as Aku prepares to strike him down with the sword...until he is saved by a miracle of its making that not even he knew about. It is kind of dumb how Aku keeps the one thing that can harm him anywhere near Jack when he could easily cast it into oblivion where the samurai could never get it back. But then again, he is Aku! This great episode lives up to the promise of its title and works just how you'd expect, Jack + zombies = awesome!!! I like how the action starts out small and subtle as Jack enters the mist-shrouded land of the dead and at first hears only eerie children's giggling and encounters scary disappearing tombstones before he is eventually being swarmed by the undead. I love the fluidity in the animation as Jack runs through zombies while he's fighting them, and it looks excellent when he's vainly avoiding and fending off the lashing tentacles of Aku, it's very thrilling visually. I like the peaceful touch of the sun rising over the graveyard as Jack leaves at the end. Darkness before the dawn as they say. This is a touch more on the macabre side than your average Samurai Jack episode, but it's a Terrific fun little spooky romp that I for one always loved. Happy Halloween!