Creep isn't all that Creepy

Creep (2014)

Being the horror fan that I am, it wasn't long before I noticed constant recommendations on various film blogs and horror sites for a horror film called Creep. I was told that it was frightening, shocking, and in some cases even disturbing (which is a word I don't take lightly when applied to movies, if someone calls a film disturbing I expect to walk away disturbed and unable to sleep that night). Unfortunately, none of those words apply. Perhaps, somewhat interesting, or sort of unnerving in two scenes, might work better.

Creep is a found footage film (because horror doesn't have enough of those) in which a videographer named Aaron meets Josef, a man who posted a Craigslist ad explaining that he wanted someone to film him for a day so he might leave something for his unborn son, who will most likely never get to meet his father because of the brain tumor which is killing him. Then, Josef does creepy things throughout the course of the film, and jump scares Aaron (and subsequently the audience) a couple of times to be obnoxious and get a few cheap frights into the movie. For the most part, nothing really happens. While I agree that Josef is certainly unsettling, and not the sort of person someone would want to meet in real life (let alone spend a day filming), nothing shocking or frightening happens for the most part. Josef just seems strange and says a lot of weird things.

That being said, this does not mean that Creep is by any means a bad movie. It's still a good film, despite it's failure to be a particularly effective or frightening horror film (it offers little more than a handful of obnoxious jump scares at best). Despite being a found footage movie, Creep feels intimate and realistic, and this is assisted by the fact that the cast consists of only two people: Aaron and Josef. The sense of Aaron's isolation and the fact that he has truly become Josef's entire world is certainly clear throughout, as Aaron sees just how lonely and depressing Josef's life truly is. The lack of other characters also provides for an eerie and isolating tone throughout, almost as if Josef and Aaron are the only two people on Earth (despite evidence and glimpses of others throughout).

Creep is also remarkable because it is almost entirely improvised. The script provided was little more than an outline of what needed to happen in each scene, and from there the actors were allowed to expand on their characters and do what they wished. It is in that sense, that Creep is a fantastic movie which experiments with the limiting effects on a screenplay and provides an extremely large amount of creative power to its two actors. This alone is a reason to view it and watch in awe as both men delve into their roles so naturally they may as well be these men (and if that's the case, Mark Duplass is a jerk for jumping out and startling everyone so often).

Rather than a horror film (even if that is the only genre which could accurately describe it), I view Creep as an experiment in the limitations that a script can bring and the fact that a film can be built around nothing more than two talented actors improvising throughout what is nearly an entire movie. Bearing that in mind, I recommend that you check out Creep for yourself, and determine if the film is actually frightening on your own. After all, I could just be jaded and too picky, and even if Creep isn't necessarily scary, it still has plenty of merits that make it worth watching.

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