“Creep” on a Limited Edition Second Sight Films Boxset!
Aaron, a videographer, travels to a lakeside cabin in Crestline, California after responding to an online ad for a single day’s worth of work. There is where he meets Josef, a husband and soon-to-be father dying of terminal brain cancer who wants to film the entire day as a memoriam video for his unborn child. As the camera rolls, Aaron captures Josef’s strange yet sad behavior in an outpour of unstable emotions that put Aaron in an uncomfortable spot. When Aaron learns Josef might not be sane, he’s able to elude the creep’s attempts to hold Aaron captive, but the videographer hasn’t entirely escaped Josef’s obsession with video recordings and unusual gifts being sent to Aaron’s home address. The call to the police proves pointless when Aaron can’t provide detail information about his former, one-day employer and he often feels not alone in his home, but Josef’s last recording shows a different, desperate side of Josef Aaron can’t ignore.
What happens when two guys with a camera try to shoot a comedy about two strangers having an awkward encounter? They end up making one hell of an awkwardly scary horror film. That’s what happened to Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass on their 2014 found footage film “Creep.” Brice directed the feature along with co-writing the unsettling dark human nature story with Mark Duplass that proved to be more than just another found footage folly as the original film spawned an expansive, 2017 sequel and this year’s Shudder series “The Creep Tapes” with both Brice and Duplass returning to fill their original, multi-capacitated roles in front and behind the camera. When those close to Brice and Duplass had screened the originally intended comedy, the feedback was to pivot to an uneasy loner and a serial stalker and that’s where producer Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions came into play that secured additional shots and reshoots to recut and expand upon the creepy creeper. “Creep” is also a production Duplass Brothers Productions with another “Creep” franchise regular, Christopher Donlon, serving as co-producer.
With a cast of two, the story must be engaging, interesting, scary, and above in order to continuously captivate or induce edge of your seat anxiety-riddled anticipation. Brice and Duplass control the narrative by being on both ends of the camera that could only go in one of two directions – be a disastrous outcome of looping and stagnant underdevelopments really about nothing at all or could be evolve constantly, but slowly, to build upon, but not reveal to hastily, a slow burn of psychopathic tendencies toward one person. Duplass as the dying Josef leaves a frightening, unsettling impression of a man glowing with mania and he’s ever effervescent in trying to playfully scare Aaron, played by Patrick Brice looking through the lens, anyway he can, such as running off into the wilderness to pop up and scream, put on a ferocious-looking wolf mask and do a song and dance act that pinches the nerves, and tell him secretive stories of his life that would disturb any listener. Amid the craziness, we’re not sure why the character of Aaron would stay and film while being subjected to Josef’s impulses. Yes, Josef pays him handsomely for a one-day gig but there’s no desperation in Aaron to warrant what seems to be frisky abuse at hands of a grown man on the verge of breakdown. Audiences from the get-go will experience Aaron’s painful staidness of passivity while Josef just runs him like a high school track and while internally thinking how absent Aaron’s situational awareness is, this act of humoring another person can be totally plausible to a fatal flaw.
Found footage has been mostly overused, misused, and abused for the better part of 20-or-so plus years thanks to the global success of “Blair Witch Project,” but there are diamonds in the rough that stand out amongst the murky muddied subgenre and “Creep” is one of those sparkling few to emerge. What’s fascinating about the design is it doesn’t try to do too much within the frame. Simple jump scare gags, such as popping out behind doors, are heart-jarringly effective without all the razzle dazzle of visual effects or practical makeup effects. Another star quality is the story’s music soundtrack, there is none. Silence is golden. One of my personal pet peeves with found footage is the use of a musical score that instantly eliminates the realism the subgenre naturally wants to perceive. “Creep’s” longevity as a realistic scary situation within the unembellished optical camera nerve lasts because of the smaller things, such as having no soundtrack alongside the raw video recording that creates a deafening, shivering quietness and enhances those basic jump scares to a pee-your-pants level. There’s no overcomplication of material, no unnecessary enhancing, just two guys with a camera trying to make a comedy and come out with a “Creep” of a film.
“Creep,” the small film that could, receives a new limited-edition Blu-ray set from UK label, Second Sight Films. The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 is collaborative product with Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment and denotes a picture-perfect home video quality found footage always strives to reflect with a 24 FPS run and an image decoding that averages in the mid-30s. A wide variety of healthy raw-for-realism shots from a Panasonic AG-DVX100 B version digital handheld that allowed to shoot in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Darkened shades, contrasting variables, and an ungraded finish is a part of the found footage game, but the way Brice handles the camera is less shaky than most of the subgenre, completed with steadier, tracking shots or left-in-place recordings. Details are not always going to be defined but for this subgenre, a subtle interlacing effect is appropriate and welcoming. The lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix is recorded from the DVX100’s onboard external microphone that captures the natural elements as well as a softer dialogue track for those in front of the camera compared to behind, creating an organic depth where needed, such as when Josef runs off into the woods we hear the fading crackling of brush under running footsteps. There are some added elements into the sound design for long shots that need more than what the microphone can offer and those are meticulous placed to work with the images. The softer dialogue does not give away to intelligible or obstructed dialogue as conversation, whether at a slower speech delivery or a heighted yell or scream, maintains prominence and, occasionally, does feedback slightly into the external microphone, adding to the realism of found footage. English subtitles are optionally available. Second Sight boxset are jammed packed full of succulent, exclusive content and “Creep” is not exception to the rule. The set houses a new audio commentary with director Patrick Brice, editor Christopher Donlon, and actor Mark Duplass, an archival commentary with Brice and Duplass from the initial home video release, a new interview with Patrick Brice Peachfuzz, a new interview with Mark Duplass Into Darker Territory, a new interview with editor Christopher Donlon Expand the Universe, a live Q&A with cast and crew 10 Years of Creep, and deleted and alternate scenes and ending that hark back to the “Creep’s” original intention of an awkward and sad comedy. The limited-edition contents include a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Luke Headland that plays into the fuchsia coloring motif we’ve seen lately with Second Sight front covers, 6 collectible art cards, and a 70-page colored book with additional Headland art and new essays from Kat Ellinger, David Kittredge, Amber T, Sarah Appleton, and Blu-ray acknowledgments and credits. The release comes region free with an open licensing and so the 78-minute film, which is UK certified 15 film for strong violence, and references to sexual violence, can be enjoyed globally.
Last Rites: “Creep” will definitely creep you out. Second Sight’s highly anticipated and supplemental heavy set contends to be the last best physical release of this calendar year, closing 2024 by showcasing a troublesome and quirky sociopath and his unforgettable aberrant fixations.
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