‘Creep: Limited Edition’ Blu-ray Review

Stars: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass | Written by Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass | Directed by Patrick Brice

Lauded as one of Empire’s 50 best horrors of the 21st Century, Creep is a product of the “mumblecore” era of genre filmmaking, some would say pioneered by this film’s star Mark Duplass; whose feature prior to this, Safety Not Guaranteed, that really caught my attention. If you haven’t seen that film then I strongly recommend you prioritise that. It’s fumbling work of offbeat sci-fi whimsy that you won’t regret spending a little quality time with.

Creep, however, is a markedly different beast. It’s a two-hander, featuring Duplass and Patrick Brice (who incidentally worked on the music for Safety Not Guaranteed) and is presented as found footage, which as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m pretty bored with, but this makes a better attempt than most to integrate the format into the narrative, rather than just doing it because it’s cheap. Duplass plays a fella with cancer who hires a cameraman to film him for a day in order to provide a record of his life for his unborn child. The pair meet at Duplass’s cabin in the woods and things quickly escalate into weirdness, unpleasantness and then downright terror.

Key to the film’s success or failure is the handling of Duplass’s titular creep. Underplay it and the film has no tension, but overdo it and the film just looks ridiculous. Fortunately, Duplass gets it right – his character is abnormally wacky, but you understand that this is a fault in his psyche, not overacting. The sinisterly quirky feel, indie-smarts and the growing sense of impending doom reminded me a lot of last year’s Cheap Thrills, which is most definitely a compliment. It’s impressive how such a foreboding atmosphere is built with so few elements – just two guys talking and a camera. Oh and a wolf mask. Watch out for that. It’s not nice.

Arguably, Creep follows a fairly predictable progression through to its conclusion. And whilst the characters are well drawn, we don’t particularly learn anything we weren’t necessarily expecting from them. But the film’s true strength is in experimenting with how much can be done with so little. Apparently the whole thing was improvised by its two leads from a ten-page synopsis, and in retrospect, this makes its creativity and quality of performances all the more impressive. I was left unnerved, discomforted and a little relieved when it was all over. It’s by no means a game-changer or anything, but as a late-night chiller, it works pretty damn well.

Limited Edition Contents:

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Luke Headland
• 70-page book with new essays by Sarah Appleton, Kat Ellinger, David Kittredge and Amber T
• Six collectors’ art cards

Special Features:

• New audio commentary with director Patrick Brice, editor Christopher Donlon and actor MarkDuplass
• Archive audio commentary with Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass
• Peachfuzz: A new interview with director Patrick Brice
• Into Darker Territory: A new interview with actor Mark Duplass
• Expand the Universe: A new interview with editor Christopher Donlon
• 10 Years of Creep: A live Q&A with cast and crew
• Deleted Scene: Cold Opening
• Alternative Scene: Message to Aaron
• Alternative Endings

Creep is out now as both a limited edition and standard Blu-ray, from Second Sight Films.