13 Days of Halloween – Creep (2014)
Videographer Aaron (Patrick Brice) answers an ad on Craigslist for a one day shoot in a somewhat remote mountainous area. Things start off a bit shaky after he meets his client Josef (Mark Duplass) and it doesn’t take long for shaky to turn to uncomfortable and then progress to downright terrifying for Aaron.
SPOILERS
My Take: Told through the eyes or rather through the lens of Aaron’s camera, this is a found footage type of flick centered around these 2 men. Right from the start Aaron is torn between being uncomfortable with Josef to feeling sorry for the man when he finds out the purpose of the filming. Josef has a brain tumor, his wife is pregnant and he wants to make this video for his unborn son. That is all well and good but the sentimental reasoning starts to fall apart during the bath scene – tubby time. Who wants to film a man taking a bath.
As the things go on, Aaron’s car keys disappear and since he has been drinking, he is forced to stay with Josef overnight. During the sleepover, Josef tells a very disturbing story involving violating his wife while wearing a wolf’s mask dubbed Peachfuzz. Aaron has his own encounter with Peachfuzz as Josef spirals out of control and Aaron’s fate is looking pretty dire. Add to this a call Aaron picked up from Josef’s phone from a woman claiming to be Josef’s sister who says that her brother is mentally disturbed. Yeah, maybe stay away from Craigslist and going to remote areas with strange men.
Aaron somehow comes out of the experience shaken but otherwise ok until he realizes that Josef is stalking him. In a bid to end the nightmare and after another heartfelt, sad story from Josef, Aaron agrees to one more meeting which ends fatally for Aaron who, as it turns out, is not the first one to make films for Josef.
Final Thoughts: It is clear why the title of this movie is Creep. Josef is creepy as hell. Right from the start there is something off about Josef – a credit to the acting of Mark Duplass to play such an unnerving character. The tone and setting and acting in this flick are certainly perfect for the haunting season. 4 Peachfuzz masks out of 5.
Dawning Creates 