How Charlotte Bywater's Hidden Door Creepypasta Compares To Channel Zero's Dream Door
Here's how Charlotte Bywater's Creepypasta "Hidden Door" compares to its adaptation in Channel Zero: The Dream Door. Creepypasta is a unique brand of horror fiction that emerged with the rise of the internet, and they take the form of eerie, fictional urban legends or first-hand accounts of some horrific event. Slender Man was born from this thread, first appearing in some photoshopped pictures before a whole mythology was built up around him, leading to video games and even a movie of the same name.
Other famous Creepypastas include the stories "Ted The Caver" and "Jeff The Killer." These tales can range from quite short to borderline novella length, such as the "Godzilla NES Creepypasta." Surprisingly, there aren't that many movie or TV adaptations of these tales, with most like Living Dark: The Story Of Ted The Caver tending to be indie productions. The most popular adaptation is SYFY's Channel Zero. This show adapted a different Creepypasta for each series, with season one focusing on "Candle Cove."
Channel Zero season 4 is dubbed The Dream Door and adapted Charlotte Bywater's "Hidden Door," AKA "I Found A Hidden Door In My Cellar, and I Think I've Made a Big Mistake." This seriously creepy tale is told from the perspective of the husband of a married duo, who uncover a secret doorway in their basement and something sinister inside. This tale can be found on Reddit and is quite short, but in addition to providing the setup for The Dream Door's entire season, the first episode is broadly quite faithful to the original story but greatly expands on certain elements.
Charlotte Bywater's "Hidden Door" sees the married couple living in their house for five years before discovering the doorway behind some wallpaper, which leads down some steps to another door - which logically should cut into their neighbor's house but doesn't. The husband then descends the stairs alone in the dark and walks into the room at the bottom, only to see a figure in a black hat standing still in the corner. This thing moves unnaturally, prompting the husband to flee. He, his wife and neighbor call the police who discover the room and house are empty, and what looks like symbols drawn with dried blood are on the walls. The husband and wife seal up the room, with the former feeling they've let something horrible loose in the world.
Channel Zero: The Dream Door sees couple Jillian and Tom move into the latter's old childhood house. The door appears mysteriously one night and they call their best friend to help them open it. This section plays out in a similiar way, though the creature who escapes the room is revealed to be "Pretzel Jack," Jillian's imaginary childhood friend. Jack can seem cute or horrifying depending on the scene and is a contortionist. It turns out Jillian has a special power to create living things with her mind - who come through doors that's manifest them into reality - and Jack reacts to her moods - so if she's angry at someone her imaginary friend will graphically slaughter them. The neighbor character is somewhat ported over from the Creepypasta on the show in the seemingly friendly Ian, but as the series unfolds his true intentions come clear.