Creep

Creep starts promising, but ends up being another half baked found footage movie but with good intentions. Mark Duplass is a blast to watch, playing so perfectly the charismatic psycho, making you keep till the end. The weirdness of his character helped to create some tense moments throught the film, especially those with Peachfuzz. But, as almost any other films of the genre, Creep falls in the obvious clichés: stupid jumpscares (they seriously don't make any sense), the character keeps filming when he shouldn't, etc. And my complaints don't end there. Unlike Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice (also the director) just can't act, his character is extremely unbelievable because he makes the most odd decisions. But still, Creep manages to be not a total waste because of Mark Duplass and some great tension scenes. Also the movie is very short, so you may want to give it a try, but you most likely be letdown.

I see now that critics appreciated this film just as much as I did, but I had NO IDEA what I was getting into by selecting a random horror movie I had never heard of on Netflix. Creep takes every little broken piece of horror, polishes it up, and pastes it together into a beautiful and unique masterpiece. It is extremely disturbing and unsettling without once resorting to gore, which was a breath of fresh air. Be warned that the jump scares are severe but cheesy, but for good reason. Horror fans absolutely must see Creep.

I didn't really know what to expect with this film as I hadn't read many reviews, but gave it a go. It's starts off innocently enough, and the plot is easy to follow. Then we meet Josef, who right away seems a little off-kilter, but I couldn't put my finger on why until later. As the plot moves on, I felt like I'd ventured into the dark side of YouTube, when you're looking for something normal and you end up stumbling upon all kinds of crazy stuff.

The tension was very well paced and really effective, I found myself shrinking further and further down the settee. The ending was also very surprising, I was kind of expecting it but at the same time not really? If that makes sense! A good watch.

Videographer Aaron is hired by a middle aged client called Josef in a mountain cabin, just for a single day shoot, but soon ends up regretting it. Josef displays some very unsettling behaviour which includes playing scary pranks, wearing a wolf mask, hiding Aaron's car keys and a constant need for buddy hugging, but these are harmless compared to the dark secret that he has. Not counting a phone call this rather short movie has a cast of just two but the characters bounce off each other well and form a compelling story line. Found footage has been done to death by 2014 but thankfully Creep does offer an alternative to the countless paranormal and zombie entries, though would a person be filming themselves performing such mundane tasks as opening the mail, putting an extra lock on their door, making a phone call, I think not. A lot of the running time is filmed in the great outdoors and these scenic shots are pretty good. If you are looking for multiple kills and gore go elsewhere, Creep is a chilling psychological thriller which culminates in a great ending. Well worth checking out, better than its sequel in my opinion. Part produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions.

Employing found footage in a way that actually makes sense in the context of the plot, Creep is the story of an increasingly awkward relationship between two men that feels frighteningly plausible.

The film rests upon – and succeeds because of – Mark Duplass' excellent performance as the type of person we've all met at one time or another; someone a little bit too keen to be your friend, inspiring conflicting feelings of suspicion as to their motives and empathy with regard to their ill-judged attempts at social interaction. Seen through the eyes (or rather camera) of Aaron, the only other on-screen character (played by writer/director Patrick Brice), it's clear fairly early on that something isn't quite right, but should he be worried?

Despite an occasional reliance on cynical jump scares (presumably included to ensure that the tension doesn't sag – the film is dialogue-heavy) the suspense ebbs and flows nicely and keeps you guessing as to where it will end up going. Thankfully, for a film that always feels like it's building up to something, the resolution is well-judged and perfectly executed.

Overall this is a very impressive effort and marks Patrick Brice out as a filmmaker to keep an eye on.