CREEP
(Starring Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass. Written by Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass. Directed by Patrick Brice)
This is not the 1995 Tim Ritter movie CREEP starring Joel D. Wynkoop and America’s favorite nymphomaniac Kathy Willets. No this is 2014’s CREEP written by, starring and shot by Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. Yes, as you can imagine by this enormous crew, this is a point-of-view shot movie. I have to say up front, I hate point-of-view movies. Ever since that damn BLAIR WITCH PROJECT any idiot with a camera thinks he can tell a story solely from his point of view as it is happening to him. I have to say, this rarely works, it limits so much of what can be seen and the shaky out-of-focus camerawork just gets annoying after a while. I can appreciate a good point-of-view scene within a movie, but dedicating your entire movie solely to one perspective is never a good idea… in my opinion.
Our movie starts with videographer Aaron (Patrick Brice) heading out to a remote mountain house in answer to an on-line ad. Josef (Mark Duplass) is in need of a cameraman to film him for a day with the intent of giving the finish movie as a gift to his unborn son since Josef is dying from cancer and his wife is pregnant. Aaron is supposed to capture Josef communicating with his unborn son to show him who his dad was.
Right off the bat this union is going off the tracks as Josef asks Aaron to film him in the bathtub as he talks to his son about “tubbie time”. From there the two go on a really long hike, then to a café where they each reveal something they are ashamed of, and then back to the house where Josef convinces Aaron to come in for a nightcap before he leaves. Aaron discovers that his keys are gone and knows that Josef has taken them so he slips Josef a mickey so he will pass out allowing him to look for his lost keys. As he is looking Josef phones rings and Aaron answers and talks to Josef’s supposed pregnant wife, to find that Josef isn’t even married, the woman he refers to in his stories is actually his sister. Aaron freaks and tries to get out but Josef wakes up and blocks the door, but Aaron gets away.
(Starring Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass. Written by Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass. Directed by Patrick Brice)
This is not the 1995 Tim Ritter movie CREEP starring Joel D. Wynkoop and America’s favorite nymphomaniac Kathy Willets. No this is 2014’s CREEP written by, starring and shot by Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. Yes, as you can imagine by this enormous crew, this is a point-of-view shot movie. I have to say up front, I hate point-of-view movies. Ever since that damn BLAIR WITCH PROJECT any idiot with a camera thinks he can tell a story solely from his point of view as it is happening to him. I have to say, this rarely works, it limits so much of what can be seen and the shaky out-of-focus camerawork just gets annoying after a while. I can appreciate a good point-of-view scene within a movie, but dedicating your entire movie solely to one perspective is never a good idea… in my opinion.
Our movie starts with videographer Aaron (Patrick Brice) heading out to a remote mountain house in answer to an on-line ad. Josef (Mark Duplass) is in need of a cameraman to film him for a day with the intent of giving the finish movie as a gift to his unborn son since Josef is dying from cancer and his wife is pregnant. Aaron is supposed to capture Josef communicating with his unborn son to show him who his dad was.
Right off the bat this union is going off the tracks as Josef asks Aaron to film him in the bathtub as he talks to his son about “tubbie time”. From there the two go on a really long hike, then to a café where they each reveal something they are ashamed of, and then back to the house where Josef convinces Aaron to come in for a nightcap before he leaves. Aaron discovers that his keys are gone and knows that Josef has taken them so he slips Josef a mickey so he will pass out allowing him to look for his lost keys. As he is looking Josef phones rings and Aaron answers and talks to Josef’s supposed pregnant wife, to find that Josef isn’t even married, the woman he refers to in his stories is actually his sister. Aaron freaks and tries to get out but Josef wakes up and blocks the door, but Aaron gets away.
Oh crap... it's tubbie time!
The tale continues as Josef sends Aaron videos of himself and even presents. Aaron is paranoid and calls the cops but has nothing to give them as the house he was at was a rental and he doesn’t know anything real about Josef. Finally, in one final video, Josef states that he is a lonely man and feels that Aaron is his friend and asks him to meet him if he would like to make amends. Aaron decides to take him up on it and this final union will be the last.
Once again, I hate point-of-view movies because in reality you would not turn on the camera and tape yourself in every incident. Okay, Aaron talks to himself on the way to the job and talks the whole way there, I guess you might do that, not sure why or who would ever want to watch it, but okay. Of course he is following Josef to tape his day so that is legit and even in one scene Josef asks him to turn the camera off , but Aaron just puts the lens cap on and leaves it running while Josef tells him the story of his wife liking animal porn and then he rapes her while wearing a wolf mask (this wolf mask is referred to several times in the movie, it is called Peach Fuzz and even has a song, the original title for the movie was going to be Peach Fuzz), during this totally blacked out conversation they even have subtitles. The one thing he does not tape is how he escapes the house… that is just explained in one of his many on-camera exposes. But once Aaron gets home, why is he still taping himself? He gets a box from Josef so he tapes himself bringing it into the house, opening the box, playing the DVD… why? Why would you do that? He tapes himself calling the police, once again, why? Worse yet, he wakes up in the middle of the night to talk about the nightmare he had, this happens a couple times. Why would you turn your camera on to tape yourself talking about the nightmare you just had? And why is your camera on? He simply wakes up and turns on his light and starts talking to the camera which I assume was on to tape him sleeping? I expected to get a bathroom scene with him taking a shit explaining why he likes Charmin over other leading brands of toilet paper, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. What is he making with all this footage? The BORING LIFE OF AARON documentary? I realize this tells the story and they have committed to the point-of-view documentary style, but it would have been nice to legitimize why anyone would tape every thought they have for no apparent reason.
Despite my total bitching about this movie the end almost made it worth the time. What happens and then what Josef says to the camera really described a lot of people of today and what they would do in this situation. I liked the ending and I liked the acting of Mark Duplass, he captured the character and really pulled it off. Because of the ending and the acting of Duplass I am giving this three coffins for a one-time watch, but don’t expect to be thrilled by any means and anticipate occasional boredom. This would have been much better as a short story than a feature length movie as it really lags at times and many scenes come across as pointless.
With that all said I seen there was a continuation of some sort with CREEP 2 with just Mark Duplass acting and Brice directing. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch it or not. Not sure if you know it, but I hate point-of-view movies!
Once again, I hate point-of-view movies because in reality you would not turn on the camera and tape yourself in every incident. Okay, Aaron talks to himself on the way to the job and talks the whole way there, I guess you might do that, not sure why or who would ever want to watch it, but okay. Of course he is following Josef to tape his day so that is legit and even in one scene Josef asks him to turn the camera off , but Aaron just puts the lens cap on and leaves it running while Josef tells him the story of his wife liking animal porn and then he rapes her while wearing a wolf mask (this wolf mask is referred to several times in the movie, it is called Peach Fuzz and even has a song, the original title for the movie was going to be Peach Fuzz), during this totally blacked out conversation they even have subtitles. The one thing he does not tape is how he escapes the house… that is just explained in one of his many on-camera exposes. But once Aaron gets home, why is he still taping himself? He gets a box from Josef so he tapes himself bringing it into the house, opening the box, playing the DVD… why? Why would you do that? He tapes himself calling the police, once again, why? Worse yet, he wakes up in the middle of the night to talk about the nightmare he had, this happens a couple times. Why would you turn your camera on to tape yourself talking about the nightmare you just had? And why is your camera on? He simply wakes up and turns on his light and starts talking to the camera which I assume was on to tape him sleeping? I expected to get a bathroom scene with him taking a shit explaining why he likes Charmin over other leading brands of toilet paper, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. What is he making with all this footage? The BORING LIFE OF AARON documentary? I realize this tells the story and they have committed to the point-of-view documentary style, but it would have been nice to legitimize why anyone would tape every thought they have for no apparent reason.
Despite my total bitching about this movie the end almost made it worth the time. What happens and then what Josef says to the camera really described a lot of people of today and what they would do in this situation. I liked the ending and I liked the acting of Mark Duplass, he captured the character and really pulled it off. Because of the ending and the acting of Duplass I am giving this three coffins for a one-time watch, but don’t expect to be thrilled by any means and anticipate occasional boredom. This would have been much better as a short story than a feature length movie as it really lags at times and many scenes come across as pointless.
With that all said I seen there was a continuation of some sort with CREEP 2 with just Mark Duplass acting and Brice directing. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch it or not. Not sure if you know it, but I hate point-of-view movies!
