Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Creep Movie Review – Reddit Tricked Me Again



Runtime: 77 minutes
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Rating: R
Director: Patrick Brice

In this found footage flick, we meet Aaron, a camera operator heading to the mountains for a short term job. He accepted a job on Craiglist from a man named Josef. When he arrives at the man's house though, he finds it empty and deserted. Just as he gets ready to leave, Josef pops up and apologizes for being late. He explains that he hired Aaron to help him make a video for his unborn child.

Citing the extremely good by under appreciated flick My Life with Nicole Kidman and Michael Keaton, he says that his wife is pregnant but that he recently learned he's dying of cancer and wants to make a film for his child. He makes Aaron film him taking a bath with his “child” before suggesting they go for a walk in the woods. When Aaron finds a wolf mask in the closet, Josef just laughs it off as something that belonged to his dad.

As they spend more time together though, it becomes clear that there is something wrong with Josef. He tells him a story about catching his wife watching bestiality porn and then basically raping her while wearing the wolf mask, lies about a diner he takes him to, and can't seem to keep his stories straight. After convincing Aaron to stay for a drink, Josef hides his keys and things get even darker.

There have been at least three threads on Reddit over the last few weeks that had someone recommend Creep because the movie was so dark and twisted. Honestly though? I've seen movies that were a lot more dark and twisted. Mark Duplass does a pretty good job of coming across as a creep, but the first half of the film leaves you wondering if he's really a bad guy or if Aaron just sees too much into things. So the guy wants to mimic bathing his son or he wants footage of him playing in the woods or he wants to take his new friend to his favorite diner? It honestly seems like Aaron doesn't want to be there and is willing to look too hard for an excuse to leave.

Honestly, the whole section of the film that takes place in the cabin, which is a good portion of the movie, is pretty slow and sometimes boring. It isn't until Aaron goes home that the movie finally gets going. That's when he starts getting packages from Josef. While some of the videos and stuff he sends are really creepy, others actually seem apology gifts.

I think that casting Mark Duplass was a great idea. After seeing him in so many funny movies and on so many comedy shows, it was a nice change of pace to see him playing a character who might be a serial killer but might just be any random guy you might pass on the street. His casting though just might make you think twice about those slightly weird people you see every day.

While Reddit users seem to love Creep, I wasn't a big fan.