2017 | unrated (R equivalent for full frontal nudity) | starring Mark Duplass, Desiree Akhavan | directed by Patrick Brice | 1hr 18mins |
Studio Pitch: It’s a found footage movie. It’s cheap!
{Contains Spoilers for Creep}
Aaron, the overly friendly and gleefully psychotic serial killer at the center of 2 Creep films is the role Mark Duplass was born to play. While I’ve rolled my eyes at his many mumble-core romantic lead roles or his sardonic jerk in The League, Duplass spinning his warm on-screen charisma into a touchy-feely organic hippie who seeks the companionship of others to murder them fits snuggly like a glove. It’s creepy and ironic in just the right ways and in Creep 2 it’s also self-aware and funny.
Creep was a found footage movie with a long wind up slowly teasing out the true nature of Aaron. Is he a lonely guy or is he actually dangerous? The end of the film answers that question with a dynamite punchline. With that question answered, how does the film turn itself into a series? The answer Duplass and director Patrick Brice come up with is to turn their concept inside out and upside down, holding what was played for genuine tension in the first film up to a self-referential examination in the 2nd. In short, they put it through the Gremlins 2 model.
The film opens with a small vignette that essentially retells the story of the first film in a single scene (Aaron meeting up with another man whom he has met online and formed a friendship with) but now knowing what we know about Aaron it all takes on a decidedly different, more uneasy, tone. Cut to Sarah (Desiree Akhavan) trying to get her hand-held camera web series “Encounters” off the ground. Sarah hopes that by answering personal ads and recording what happens she’ll find compelling life stories, but after filming several episodes she’s found herself just helping strangers move furniture. She stumbles on Aaron’s insane personal ad requesting a videographer who doesn’t scare easily. Shortly after meeting, Aaron confesses to being the nation’s most secretly prolific serial killer over an organic kale smoothie so casually that it rings like the setup for a double-twist Duplass and Brice have up their sleeve. He’s frustrated nobody knows about his great achievements and wants a videographer to document it.
Desperate to get her show off the ground Sarah is game to document his latest crime – and really for whatever Aaron throws at her – and Aaron is immediately rattled by his inability to shock and scare her. It’s an ingenious little twist that pulls the curtain back on the premise and reveals more about it’s antagonist. Creep 2 unfolds curiously unnerving and funny in equal measure as Aaron resorts to increasingly desperate attempts to rattle his new camerawoman, jumping out from behind corners, posing in the nude and wearing his wolf mask in the car and asking if it scares her. It’s left unclear what his final plan for her is and how far she will go into his madness. Those lingering questions drive the momentum all the way. What is he wanting her to document, his confession yes, but another murder? her own murder? The head games go back and forth while Aaron’s attempts to make a more self-aggrandizing Hearts of Darkness style documentary about his life journey to serial killer infamy is derailed by mechanical issues, traffic sounds in the shots and wandering around lost in the woods looking for the perfect shooting spot.
It’s a small film, it’s not exactly scary, or bloody or tense, but it’s always intriguing and unpredictable. It is compact and efficient at an hour and 18 minutes – arguably even feature length but a designation I think should be waived for found footage movies because nobody wants to sit through 80 minutes of shaky camera. It’s great stuff. Duplass is great in it. Creep 2 plays like a worthy payoff for the Creep setup. It’s a rare found footage movie that feels like it uses that style to compliment the story instead of as a cheap gimmick. It’s hard to argue that Cloverfield or The Devil Inside or As Above, So Below or any other C-grade horror film wouldn’t immediately be better if it wasn’t found footage, but I’m not certain if that’s true for the Creep films.
Creep was a wannabe slow-burn film with a lot of padding and false alarms building to a single punctuation mark that wasn’t worth the setup. Creep 2 is entertaining and bizarre from start to finish, retroactively making that film better as a first act to this one. It joins an elite group of found footage movies worth recommending.
3.5