VOD Review: Creep (2015)

(aka Peachfuzz)
Release Date: June 23rd.
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: Mark Duplass & Patrick Brice.
Directed by: Patrick Brice.
Starring: Mark Duplass & Patrick Brice.
 
Creep is a very simple, straight-forward Found Footage/POV movie that doesn't waste many of its 78 minutes. It stars only two actors (three if you count the voice on the phone), it's comprised mostly of dialogue, and it contains almost no violence or gore gags...

Which is why I was so surprised at how well it worked.

Creep brings to light both the seedy dangers of Craigslist, and the baffling stupidity of a hipster wannabe filmmaker (we're assuming that he's a wannabe filmmaker, but we're pretty sure that he's a genuine hipster.) Anyhow, after responding to an ad on Craigslist, in which someone is willing to pay $1000 for a day of discreet filming, hipster Aaron heads off into the remote mountains to earn himself a quick payday... because there's nothing suspicious about the whole arrangement at all.

WHAT'S THE MATTER, STARBUCKS DOESN'T DELIVER TO THE REMOTE WOODS?

The job involves Aaron filming a lonely, odd guy named Josef for the day. Josef is dying of cancer, and since he won't be around to see his son born, he wants to make a video diary of sorts to leave him; you know, to let him know how much he would have loved him, and give him valuable life lessons and such. Sounds sweet, right? Well it isn't!

NOTHING SWEET ABOUT THIS GUY AT ALL.

Something feels immediately off about Josef. At first he seems like just a socially retarded oddball who gets a kick out of scaring Aaron by jumping out at him, showing him a scary wolf mask, and singing a horrible song while wearing that mask,  but it soon becomes apparent that the guy is far more disturbed than he is odd. Tubby Time. That's what clued us into the fact that he might just be unhinged, but will Aaron ever catch on?

Creepiness ensues.

YOU DUN GOOFED.

When it comes to Found Footage/First Person Horror flicks, there's really not much that hasn't already been done. We get the joke, and it's really not funny anymore. In the case of Creep though, Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass did what most filmmakers fail to do when making a FF flick; they kept it simple, they played it smart, and they made it plausible.

The movie does a decent job of being naturally unsettling, with most of the creepy bits coming from the fact that you know something bad and horrific is coming, but you don't know what it is, or when it's going to happen. I know, the same could be said for most Horror movies, but in this case, there really is an uneasy sense of impending doom hanging in the air. Mark Duplass probably deserves most of the credit for that, as he plays a character that is fairly sympathetic and likable, but you can tell that he's just biding his time before he unleashes his inner Creep on the poor sap who he lured into the woods from Craigslist. He makes for a pretty convincing bad guy.

THIS IS TUBBY TIME, AND THERE IS NOTHING NOT HORRIFYING ABOUT IT.

Now, we're not saying that there aren't a few moments in Creep that made us shake our heads in frustration, because there are, but they were truly few and far between. We're still not sure what the dude was doing sleeping with his camera already on, and the whole ridiculous "the character only sees what he's seeing through his camera" thing was ever-present, but for the most part, everything involving the camera, and why it needed to be on constantly, made sense. In fact, the biggest "Oh, come on!" moment in the movie was actually rectified immediately after the fact by one of the characters, which was pretty cool. In that respect, Creep is a pretty self-aware movie.

Not everything about the movie is great or rings true though. As with most Found Footage flicks, common sense seems to be on vacation for the most part. I get that Aaron buys into Josef's story and feels bad for him, but as the uncomfortable weirdness of their arrangement gets more and more intense, we're not really sure what kept him from running for his life, in the literal sense. We personally would have been gone after Tubby Time, but the real watershed moment for anyone with half a brain should have been when the Creep put on the wolf mask and stood in front of the door like "you're not going anywhere." Bet my ass I'm not going anywhere.

FUCK. YOU.

Also, who doesn't keep their car keys on them at all times, especially when you're responding to a fishy Craigslist ad that has you traveling to a remote location to make some quick cash? And when you hear creepy noises in the middle of the night, does anyone with any sense in their head journey outside (leaving their door wide open), and walk around their neighborhood saying "Hello? Is anybody there?" While filming it?!?  Aaron was a moron.

AT LEAST HE LEARNED HIS LESSON IN THE END, AND HE WON'T BE SO FOOLISH GOING FORWARD.

Darkly humorous, genuinely intense, and downright unnerving at times, Creep is a welcome addition to the Found Footage pantheon. It's not a perfect movie, and there's not a lot of "action" throughout, but it succeeds at being a quick trip down a terrifying path that most Horror fans will probably enjoy.

If you've got iTunes, give it a rent.

B

Creep is available now on iTunes. 

Creep was originally called Peachfuzz. It's probably not a bad thing that they changed the title.