Creep (2014)

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Synopsis

When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, to video the last messages of a dying man, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.

Review

Creep is a clever film. Playing just two actors off against each other with a found footage bent can give you some issues. It's a hard sell. But when Aaron arrives at the house of Josef, a dying man, who wishes that his "last moments" be recorded for his future child, something is weird. This film is not the like others.

The whole thing is off kilter from the start.

Patrick Brice (The Overnight) stars as Aaron, a hard up videographer who should have chosen a different job. Mark Duplass (Zero Dark Thirty) is Josef, a dying man who wants nothing but his memories saved. The problem comes when Duplass cranks creepy up to ten.

From the very start there is something wrong with Josef.

Initially Josef asks that he be recorded as if he would be experiencing his interactions with his offspring. Then he gets weirder. Actually it's weird to begin with. Trust me. Weird.

Patrick Brice is behind the camera through much of the film and aside from his narration-like voice you see little from him from scene to scene. It's just Mark Duplass' Josef on screen getting stranger and stranger. Yet Aaron doesn't seem to be picking up on any of it.

Josef describes his bizarre rape of his own wife. And yet Aaron doesn't bolt. Within the running time you will scream at the screen over and over. And it gets worse.

And worse.

Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass are the Directors, Writers, and Stars. It actually shows. Their chemistry is amazing. For every fault that a character does, it's... sort of understandable. They bond and are bonded. It's hard to explain how these two characters blend together during the film.

The film  ramps up the tension from minute one to an ultimately satisfying crescendo. It's bleak, sure, and certainly not for everyone, but it is a solid horror, and if it's your bag, one to watch.

But you have to watch it to find out...