Review- Creep (2014)

Directed by: Patrick Brice

Written by: Mark Duplass, Jason Blum

Starring: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice

Synopsis: Aaron answers an online ad and drives to a stranger's house to film him for the day. The man wants to make a movie for his unborn child, but his requests become more bizarre as the day goes along.

The more I thought about this movie, the more I liked it. Initially while watching it, I thought it was bad but with a few good moments. But I kept thinking about it for the rest of the day, and I came to realize that those good moments outweighed any negative aspects.

The movie suffers from a main character who is completely idiotic. So much that it takes you out of the movie. There are realistic ways to portray how the character made the decisions he did, which basically let the movie's 'Creep' named Josef stalk him and eventually kill him, but instead of taking the time to explore those avenues, they just have a scene where he calls the police once and gets angry because they apparently weren't very helpful. I guess someone who accepts obviously creepy jobs on Craigslist must not be very smart, but no one would be that stupid. It's like most horror movies in that respect, characters who make dumb decisions just so the plot can move along. Also like most horror movies, it's predictable. Within the first few seconds of the movie, you already understand what's going to happen; creepy guy who hired the main character is going to do creepy stuff and eventually kill him.

There's also issues like the use of the found footage style after the part in which the main character escapes Joseph's cabin and the ending scene where our main character dies. The found footage feels forced and doesn't work all the time. The scene which the main character dies sort of feels like a Looney Tunes gag, and it's just plain silly.

So what part of this movie works? It's all Mark Duplass and the character he plays. I'm not a fan of the movies Mark Duplass as a director, and I wasn't a fan of his acting in the film The Lazarus Effect, but he did a great job in this. He says everything naturally, and does a good job at looking unintentionally funny but creepy at the same time. This is the first time I think I've ever seen a found footage film where acting is one of the film's strong points. The character is very well written as well. His whole story about raping his wife (which was really his sister), his past mental issues, his whole love of wolves, a search for his 'buddy', and 'Peach Fuzz' were all great little things that helped build a very good character. I think the creators thought a lot about his backstory that's not directly explained (For example, I think there was some implication that his father had raped him.) It's all so believable too. There is a lot to appreciate with the character and it's something you don't find too often in modern horror movies let alone found footage movies.

I recommend this movie for his character alone. This movie is named 'Creep' for a reason. It's not filled with jump scares or blood and guts, but it is very creepy (while also being humorous). It might not be for the average horror fan, but I suppose that's what makes this a very unique movie.

5.5/10