Creep

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.

If we contrast this movie with its great grand-pappy, Blair Witch, we see just how far the found footage genre has come, which is surprising, considering that around the time of Blair Witch, it didn't really feel like there was a lot of mileage in that particular sub genre.

For me, Creep's greatest strength is the black humor. It's a seriously funny movie but never loses the tension that simmers under its surface. We've seen this kind of stalker idea many times before in conventional cinema of the nineties, such as Hand that Rocks the Cradle, The Fan and Cable Guy but this one really puts the viewer in the shoes of the one who is stalked.

Mark Duplass puts in a legendary performance as Josef. The first time we see him on screen, it's kind of hard to imagine him as the Creep he is meant to be but as the movie draws to its conclusion, he nails it.

It practically has "cult classic" stamped all over it.

When i first watched this back in 2022, right when i kicked off my Letterboxd account, i hated this movie completely. I got zero enjoyment out of it. On rewatch i liked it a little bit more, but i still didn't love my time with it. My first nitpick is the pacing of the film. It's very slow even for a found footage flick, and it felt like a slog to get through very quickly. The acting performances also didn't sell me. I guess the actings fine. But there are scenes where it's apparent that Patrick Brice is not an experienced actor.

The movie holds creepy moments but fails to lift off the ground for me. It felt like it was leading up to something super impactful, which it did someone. That axe scene is so creepy and unsettling, and is easily the best thing about this movie. Honestly the whole second half of the film is pretty solid. But again i'm still not completely on board with this movie and i'm honestly surprised it's as highly regarded as it is. It's not a bad movie by any means.

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.

This found footage film follows videographer Aaron as he answers an ad to film a guy called Josef for the day. $1000. No questions asked. As Aaron spends more and more time with Josef, it becomes fairly obvious that Josef is not who he says he is, and as Josef begins to act more and more bizarre, Aaron starts to fear for his own safety.

For a low budget horror film this ticks a lot of boxes. We've all met people like this, and the way Josef is playful yet also sinister generates this uneasy vibe throughout the whole film. We are screaming for Aaron to just run and get away, and when he finally does the film descends into a pure paranoia fest. The ending was oddly interesting yet somehow unsatifying, but overall this is a great little horror that tries something new and mostly pulls it off. Give it a go.