CREEP 2

The Creep series may have passed a lot of people by. With a third film in development, the first two have proven to be really effective, semi-improvised, low budget horror films.

Directed by Patrick Brice the films follow a killer played by Mark Duplass - who also co-writes - through the use of found footage.

Found footage that was recorded by his victims.

Both films start with a videographer answering an online wanted ad.

The first sees Aaron (Patrick Brice)  meet Duplass’s Josef. Josef explains that he is dying, and wants to record a “Day in the life of” video for his unborn son.

Aaron consents but is increasingly put on edge by Josef’s increasingly eccentric behaviour.

The second film, which I will focus more on here, sees Duplass’s character - now using the name Aaron - at an all time low. He is a serial killer with an identity crisis. Bored of his calling and depressed by the lack of enjoyment he now derives from it.

Wanting to reignite the fire that killing used to give him he enlists Sara (Desiree Akhavan) - a filmmaker herself struggling to find her motivation and her muse - to record a documentary about him.

He promises - and he never breaks a promise - not to kill her… within the next 24 hours.

You might now be asking yourself why Sara goes along with this? Well, the simple answer is, she doesn’t believe him.

She appreciates that this man may be unhinged and dangerous (“I’ve been here 10 minutes and already had his dick in my face”), but does not believe for a second that he is the serial killer he claims to be.

Duplass plays Josef/Aaron with a childlike innocence, that underlies the true extent of the darkness within.

It is almost like watching Alan from The Hangover films, had he let go of that one final strand of sanity and let the madness truly engulf him. Josef/Aaron even has a penchant for Wolves, taking to wearing a horrific wolf mask throughout the film.

Of the original creep film Duplass said “…for me, there’s something wrong with both of these guys. Deeply. This concept of, 'who is the creep in this scenario?’” And this sentiment is even more true here.

Sara is a manipulator and voyeur. A documentary maker who seeks out the weird and the vulnerable and goads them into saying and doing things that her viewers (all nine of them) will find entertaining.

As a filmmaker it is inauthentic and contrived, but as a person her behaviour is immoral. If it were just that she sets the camera up and sees what happens that would be one thing, but the manipulation is another.

Naturally, she is nowhere near the level of the series antagonist, but both Sara and Josef/Aaron straddle the definition of creep, and the interplay between the two of them, the idea that they are both manipulating each other, and the central question of which of them will come out on top, really separates this from other B movie horrors like it.

Both performances in this two hander are fantastic. Sara has a front of calm and detachment, but behind the eyes is where Akhavans performance really shines. There is fear there, yes, but more prominently the is an excitement.

She knows that this is her chance, and she has a determination not to let it slip through her fingers.

Duplass, however, is the real scene stealer, and a further thing that makes the film work, is that the depression he feels, is genuine. The characters is genuinely having an identity crisis about his killing, and Duplass’s performance on this is note perfect.

The chemistry between the two is also excellent, and the semi-improvised nature of the film really help this along. The fact that both actors were given the freedom to try new things along the way, gives the relationship between the two, the sense that they are getting to known another, an extra layer of authenticity.

While I have focussed own Creep 2 here - as it does something more interesting with the central character - both Creep films are excellent.

With a third reportedly on the way I would highly recommend you give them some of your time.