Movie Info
Movie Name: Creep
Studio: Blumhouse Productions
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): March 8, 2014 (South by Southwest)/June 23, 2015 (iTunes)
MPAA Rating: R
Ok. I’d already be out the door here with the tubby-time…
Aaron (Patrick Brice) thinks he’s picked up an easy moneymaker when he answers an ad from a man named Josef (Mark Duplass). Josef reveals he’s dying from a rare form of cancer and that he wants Aaron to help him record a dying message for his unborn son. Aaron agrees to follow Josef for the day and record him…but Josef might be hiding secrets from Aaron that could make the job a lot harder than Aaron expected.
Directed by Patrick Brice and writing by Brice and Mark Duplass, Creep is a horror-suspense thriller. The movie premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2014 and later was available on demand and Netflix.
All of my friends dress like werewolves and block the door.
The movie plays with the whole idea of found footage. The story’s set-up and how it plays out sometimes is preposterous but there is something compelling about Creep that keeps you watching. Due to how the movie unfolds, a *****Spoiler Alert***** is in effect for the review.
I like a lot of what Creep did. I like the weirdness of the story, but it is also a fault of the film. I don’t see Patrick Brice continuing with the job multiple times throughout the story and I especially don’t see the story unfolding as it does when Brice escapes the cabin. Duplass’ character begins to stalk Brice and the police aren’t interested and Brice continues to put himself in danger…it leads to an unrealistic (but cool) final scene.
Mark Duplass is a bit too creepy as Aaron. From the onset, he is shown to be “off” and I don’t know that I’d stick with him past the bath scene. I know what he’s going for with the character and for Brice’s character he can write off some due to his sickness. Duplass isn’t charming…he’s just creepy (hence the title). I kept be unsure if he was just coming on to Brice’s character throughout the movie (which you think would send him running).
Kind of like one of those pastoral scenes were something horrible is happening in the corner…
The movie is shot nicely. It is the found-footage style of movie and it is a lot smoother than some of the “running” found footage movies since most of the shots are held pretty steady. They do some interesting things in the film (like turning the video off for a scene) and the final scene is very chilling with the no-cut axe murder of Brice…it is shocking.
Creep does a lot good but misses the mark a bit in tone and story. I overall I liked the movie and can recommend it, but it could have been a great movie with some minor tweaking and changes…one of the most compelling parts of the film is a sequence where I thought we were going to learn that Brice was the “creep”…that would have been a change-up that would have been fun and unexpected. Creep is meant to be the first part of a Creep trilogy but Creep 2 hasn’t been planned for release.
Stream it now on Amazon.com:
