The Creeper

The Creeper is The Best Old Horror Movie that I can Think of. It is Perfect. I even Believe it Inspired Classics such as "The Fly". Of Course, the Movie is Rather Old and the Special Effects are not Something to brag about. But, All in All we Have a Classic Horror Movie which I Think should be More Famous than it is. 10 out of 10. Also Recommended: Return of the Fly.

The Creeper in the film is a black cat, actually it's a pet cat in one of the labs named Creeper that actually has little to do with the story. The female lead here has an extreme and I would say irrational fear of cats. She is perpetually on edge and usually has a bug-eyed expression on her face. She seems harmless enough but can also come across as a bit annoying at times. The doctor in the next door lab takes an interest in her and tries to console her throughout the film. The cinematography is fine and the film looks good and the seed of a story is a solid one but unfortunately it's not very well developed. The 'cat/feline' killer that kills and is intended to generate fear in the viewer is really only a hand?! That's about the sum of it, which of course is a big disappointment. For this genre of film The Creeper isn't all bad but still it is disappointing, but for those very curious it might be worth checking out just for fun.

Although the film's director and actor Onslow Stevens have done similar work for Universal, this film is more reminiscient of Val Lewton's horror thrillers for RKO. The film title itself refers to a black cat and many of the key scenes take place in dark, shadowy environments. Also, like Lewton, you don't see the monster until the very end. Interestingly, CREEPER features dream sequences that reminds me of RKO's noir films. CREEPER is from 20th Century-Fox. However, the story is typical of mid-40s Universal horror flicks while the mood is characteristic of Lewton's CAT PEOPLE films.

I am not a great fan of Jean Yarbrough, I will put him as the same scale as Reginald Le Borg. Both had very close like careers, both made cheap horror films, both directed Joe Palooka's flicks. Not the best they let in audiences memories. But this one, thanks to Eduardo Ciannelli, is very exciting, though not as the same scale as a Jacques Tourneur's horror film such as CAT PEOPLE or LEOPARD MEN, or, more simple, the Val Lewton's productions. Yarbrough was not that good, but only a little horror films director whose most of this early work is uninteresting, unlike his second part of career stuff. This one is really worth for horror fans or gem diggers.

Don't expect to see cat people or people turning to a cat then killing others because it's not really like that. This one tries to be more of a sci-fi film noir rather than a sci-fi horror.

The idea behind the film is good, there are some alright scenes but not what one would expect from a "horror" film like this. It does get suspenseful at times however. And the ending was a huge let down, not at all what audiences that would watch this type of film would care to see.

Onslow Stevens made this film better than what it really is with his presence. He is fun to watch in horror films usually.

Overall it's a let down film that has a few good moments within it.

3.5/10