CREEP (2014)
Standard Edition Blu-ray
Label: Second Slight Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Cert. 15
Duration: 77 Minutes 43 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78;1)
Director: Patrick Brice
Cast: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass
Found-footage/mumblecore entry Creep (2014) is directed, co-written and stars Patrick Brice (There's Someone Inside Your House) as cash-strapped videographer Aaron, who answers an online ad for a one-day videographer assignment in a remote mountain town. He documents his travels up the mountain, arriving at the vacation home of Josef (Mark Duplass, Baghead), the guy who hired him. Josef shares that he is a liver cancer survivor, but has recently been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and he may have only 2-3 months to live. He also shares that his is pregnant with their first child, and that he has hired Aaron to document a video message/diary for his unborn child, citing the film My Life (1993) starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman as an inspiration for the idea. Aaron agrees and and Josef pays him $1000 in advance for his services.
Right from the get-go Josef comes off as just a little weird, not threatening mind you, but weird. He doesn't seem to have an personal boundaries, he's hugging Aaron and commenting how kind he seems, taking many opportunities to jump-scare him, and calling him friend, which I think is weird for someone you just met - but he has a brain tumor, who knows how that might affect his disposition. As filming officially starts his first request is already a bit bizarre, he tells Aaron to follow him to the bathroom, and then proceeds to get undressed and jump in the bathtub, requesting that Aaron film what he calls "Tubby Time", a ritual he says he shared with his own father when he was young, and Aaron films him enacting Tubby Time with his unborn child. Right there, it's already awkward and uncomfortable, he just met this guy, he should get out of there, especially when he indicates this is gonna be the least weird things they do today! While still in the tub Josef starts contemplating suicide instead of waiting for a sad and painful death, and feigns drowning himself in the tub, nope... get out!
Aaron however is a sweet and kind person, to a fault, the sort of guy who wants to see the good in people... and he really needs that money apparently, so he stays on, dutifully capturing the days events on video, but as the day goes on things get weirder and even more uncomfortable. Josef is a bit of a master manipulator, he never comes off as threatening, using his seemingly inevitable death as an anchor to keep Aaron on-task, but later while drinking whiskey he reveals something he did to his wife while wearing a wolf mask he earlier pulled out of the closet, and at that point even nice guy Aaron is shaken, and attempts to leave, but when he tries he cannot find his car keys. Godammit, he waited too long. After Josef passes out Aaron ends up intercepting a call from Josef's sister, whose name is Angela (uh-oh) who tells him he should get the fuck out of that house, and this is when Josef realizes he might be in not just an uncomfortably awkward situation, but perhaps a potentially dangerous one. There's a bit of a scuffle and Aaron manages to get away. Later he video documents himself at his home telling us how the strange encounter has left him shaken, and that he is now plagued by nightmares, and how Josef has started mailing him DVDs and other odd items, culminating in Josef leaving a final video disc inside Aaron's home, requesting a last meeting in a public park so that he can explain himself and apologize.
It's an interesting flick, one that I put off seeing for a decade, because to be honest it just didn;t seem to be my bag, but here I am watching it, and I have to say, it's a pretty tight found footage flick. One, it has a simple premise, and I find that many of the best found footage flicks keep it simple. It's a one-line premise, and it's executed well. Second, fucking Mark Duplass is so freaking good in this role, he is unnerving, slyly manipulative and strangely charismatic. We've all met someone who is this sort of weird but seemingly harmless type of person, that have a weird aura, a strange energy, they laugh weird, have an off-kilter smile, they say things that are just out of the ordinary, but seem harmless. We tolerate their peculiarities so as not to make an awkward situation, but that voice in your head and feeling in your gut sets of your Spidey-sense, telling you to distance yourself from that person - you should listen to that instinct, social niceties be damned! This flick shows you the outcome when someone who should have picked-up on the weird vibes and extricated themselves from the situation, but because of manners, social niceties, and a sweet disposition - and because of financial considerations as well, stays, and by the time they realized they're into it up to their neck, it might be too late to get out of it.
Recent films like Speak No Evil (2022) and Beezel (2024) definitely have recycled what I think this film in particular adeptly brought to the table a decade ago, that the fear of creating an awkward situation when you feel that tingling in your guts telling you that you need to get out of a situation after encountering someone who just seems a bit off. It's films like this that keep the found-footage sub-genre evergreen, it's not so much a genre as a medium, which you can use to make whatever you like, it's up to you to keep in interesting, to tell a story worth telling, and not overstep your means, and to maintain the reality of it, and Creep does that so well.
Audio/Video: Creep (2014) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Second Sight Films, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (1.78:1). Just because the film was meant to emulate, and was shot on, consumer grade, hand-held video it doesn't exactly translate to HD perfection, by design, but it generally looks quite strong in that regard, with the inherent video noise. Audio comes by way of English PCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, and again, it's limited but seems accurate to what a handheld video from this era would have sounded like, complete with it's limitations.
Second Sight pack this release with new and archival extras, we get a new, exclusive Audio Commentary with director Patrick Brice, editor Christopher Donlon and actor Mark Duplass' the Archive Audio Commentary with Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass; a new 37-min Peachfuzz: Interview with director Patrick Brice' the new 19-min Into Darker Territory: Interview with actor Mark Duplass; a new 16-min Expand the Universe: Interview with editor Christopher Donlon; a 31-min 10 Years of Creep: A live Q&A with Cast and Crew; and 12-min of Deleted and Alternative Scenes and Endings.
This standard Blu-ray release arrives in an oversized black keepcase with a single-sided wrap, a deluxe edition limited version, with a rigid slipbox, book, and art cards is also currently available from Second Sight, while supplies last.
Special Features:
• NEW! Audio Commentary with director Patrick Brice, editor Christopher Donlon and actor Mark Duplass
• Archive Audio Commentary with Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass
• NEW! Peachfuzz: Interview with director Patrick Brice (36:56)
• NEW! Into Darker Territory: Interview with actor Mark Duplass (18:54)
• NEW! Expand the Universe: Interview with editor Christopher Donlon (16:00)
• 10 Years of Creep: A live Q&A with Cast and Crew (30:49)
• Deleted Scene: Cold Opening (2:08)
• Alternative Scene: Message to Aaron (2:12)
• Alternative Endings (7:30)
• NEW! Expand the Universe: Interview with editor Christopher Donlon (16:00)
• 10 Years of Creep: A live Q&A with Cast and Crew (30:49)
• Deleted Scene: Cold Opening (2:08)
• Alternative Scene: Message to Aaron (2:12)
• Alternative Endings (7:30)
Screenshots from the Second Sight Films Blu-ray:
Extras:
