The Creep Behind the Camera

Being an admirer of the film "Ed Wood", I came across another movie that was supposed to be as bad, if not worse, than "Plan Nine from Outer Space".

Thus I was led to "The Creeping Terror". Saw some snippets of "The Creep Behind the Camera", so I purchased the blu-ray to try and learn more about the back-story behind the film.

While the "docu-drama" was mildly interesting, in the end I was left dissatisfied by the experience.

The main reason for this, is the tendency of modern documentaries to go in for rather cheesy "re-enactments" of events. Which usually involves mediocre actors doing bad soap opera, that has little to do with how the people were and what actually happened. It also gives directors an opportunity muddle actual events, for the sake of drama and helping viewers to "relate".

I found the best part of the film to be recollections from persons who were actually involved in the events in question. However this was relegated to definite second-place, as this "docu-movie" seemed to focus more on rather over-the-top dramatizations, that I suspect were highly embellished over actual events.

Please--documentary makers---just give us the well researched facts. And especially recollections from folks who actually were witnesses to events. Yes, I know there is a dread of "talking heads" being boring. But you are NOT making a drama intended to win an Oscar for acting. Just the facts and some explanation of what happened and why.

Look, maybe it's not important that the story of "The Creeping Terror" is told with historical accuracy, but some of this movie is not only exaggerated for laughs, it's a lot of nonsense. Charles Manson was in Prison and had not come to California yet when "The Creeping Terror" was filmed. I was hoping this would be a well researched film which actually told the true story of the making of the film.

I wanted to like this, I really did. But I feel a bit like a chump for having shelled out for the Blu-ray only to be thwarted not even halfway through it when it introduces perhaps cinema's least convincing Charles Manson to date. But beyond poor casting, it's bulls-t. Once you start introducing stuff like that into a so-called true story it casts everything in doubt, so I abandoned it. A little creative leeway is fine for something like this (like the Orson Welles encounter in Ed Wood), but some fabrications are a bridge too far. Manson was not at Spahn Ranch in 1963/64, so what am I to believe? It's a shame. This would have been an interesting story had they kept to the real story, whatever that might be.

Had a chance to see this movie in Colorado. Great story! It was fun to see how crappy horror movies like The Creeping Terror actually made it to film, and the back story about the slimy director conning everybody to be in it. Especially liked the cutaways to the interviews of the actual people involved in making the original film.

Solid acting and great photography and sound... even if it's not a multi-million dollar budget movie. If you are a fan of "bad" horror movies, you'll definitely have to watch this movie! Makes me want to watch The Creeping Terror again with new eyes this time!

Loved the last scene with the Bee Gee's "I started a joke"! (I won't spoil it for you)

The Creep Behind the Camera (2014)

*** (out of 4)

THE CREEPING TERROR is considered by many to be one of the very worst films ever made. THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA tells the story of its making. We meet Art Nelson (Josh Phillips) who is your typical con man who decides that he wants to break into show business. He finds someone willing to put up the money and he sets out to make the greatest monster movie ever made but falls well short.

THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA apparently started off as a regular documentary on the making of THE CREEPING TERROR but somewhere along the way they decided to do much more than that. This film is pretty uneven and a bit all over the place but there's no question that it's very well-made and features some great performances. Part of it is a documentary on THE CREEPING TERROR as we get interviews with many of the cast and crew. The other part of this is a re-enactment or actual film about its director who is best known as Vic Savage.

To be honest, I wish this thing had been two separate movies because when you mix an actual documentary with an actual film it just doesn't quite work as well as it could have. I really loved the B&W interviews with the original cast and crew but sadly there's not too much of this. I would have really enjoyed seeing these interviews put together in the form of a featurette to where we could have gotten to hear more of their stories about what it was like on the set of THE CREEPING TERROR. I'm sure there were many more crazy stories that could have been told but instead we get the re-enactment stuff.

As far as that goes, it seems the main goal of this movie was to show you what an evil person Vic Savage was. Throughout the re-enactment footage we get clips of him physically, mentally and sexually abusing his wife. We learn that he liked nine-year-old girls and we learn that he was a druggie, a loser and just not a very good person. Whenever that isn't happening we get behind-the-scenes footage of them making THE CREEPING TERROR. Again, this re-enactment footage makes for a great film but then you've got the previously mentioned B&W clips from the real people commenting. I just don't think the two went well together but separately they work.

I will add that I thought Phillips was extremely good in the lead role and that Jodi Lynn Thomas was also excellent in her part of the wife. Bill LeVasseur and Brian McCulley are also very good as are the rest of the supporting cast. THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA is certainly flawed and somewhat uneven but at the same time I give the filmmakers credit for trying to do something different.