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.

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.

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.

When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.

Initially, I was very skeptical that this would be very good. It seems to have a cast and crew of around ten people, which is not often enough to make a movie. And then it is found footage, which is by far the worst trend in horror today. Even more than zombies, which is hard to believe.

There are moments that make no sense, because you might wonder why a camera would be on. That is a fault most found footage has. But you sort of have to accept that aspect. And then, it sort of gets better as it goes. Not because it's brilliant, but because the performances are rather effective. Scripted dialogue comes out sounding natural and "the creep" is just weird enough to be believable and disturbing.

The found footage horror genre feels like a train that should have left the station a long time ago but sticks around waiting to see who else they can cram on board so they can squeeze a couple more bucks out of. Well, I'm glad that train stuck around to let "Creep" in, proving the genre isn't quite out of steam yet.

It's not so much the found footage aspect that makes "Creep" successful but the creative infusion of the mumblecore genre that breathes some life and/or scary death into the film. "Creep" is a two-hander that is co-written and co-acted by Patrick Brice (who also serves as director) and mumblecore king Mark Duplass. Brice and Duplass are able to funnel the mumblecore's priority of character development and use of a more natural dialogue, or in this case, a very naturally unnerving dialogue, into the staples of a Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity) produced horror film. The combination of these three's efforts make for one, well, creepy film.

Brice plays Aaron, a normal guy looking to make a little extra cash when he answers a craigslist ad that will pay him $1,000 for a days work to videotape a day in the life of Josef, played by Duplass. The shoot has Aaron driving to Josef's family cabin at a remote mountain town where instantly both we the audience and Aaron feel things aren't right. Josef greets Aaron with a loud sneaky surprise hello, and then, foregoing a handshake, straight to a stranger hug. That last sentence pretty much captures the film experience as you go back and forth from shocking jump scares and very unsettling interactions between the vulnerable Aaron and the assertively goofy Josef.

Kudos to Mark Duplass for creating a character that is thoroughly terrifying but relatable enough and more importantly sympathetic enough to believably keep Aaron in a situation that just gets weirder and dangerously weirder. Scenes that include a naked bathing Josef giving a mimed bath to his unborn son, which he calls "tubby time", will long stay in my memory banks under the title 'frightening'. "Creep" excels by shifting gears from hilarious, to sad, to scary, to sometimes all of that at the same time. And to each their own, in the SXSW Q & A after the screening Duplass said it was great to watch as some of the audience would laugh at one part but others in the audience would wince in terror.

While Duplass and Brice heaped praises on horror guru Blum, saying they helped them achieve effectiveness in a genre they've never attempted, I still had my qualms. The jump scares become all too repetitive hitting a mathematical equation that Duplass said Blum taught them. "One jump scare every 10 minutes to keep them in the mood." Another one of my horror pet peeves is when the holder of the hand held camera in a found footage film only see's what the lense sees. So when in an open room and the camera moves left so does the character's vision which results to something surprising them by jumping out to us on screen when all that character has to do is move their own head back and forth to keep informed on what's around them (thanks for letting me rant).

The end which I won't get into has a few moments of 'you should have called the cops so much sooner', but that can't take away from intense ominous vibe that permeates. I dug "Creep", it's a film that is greatly helped by a very good actor who taps into his inner creep and gets under your skin.

"This" gets under your skin.

1 Timothy 4:1