Unnerving Horror Thriller That Feels Real On Netflix Is Guaranteed To Get Under Your Skin
If found footage horror movies are your jam, you owe it to yourself to check out Creep on Netflix. The 2014 movie has a breezy runtime of 1 hour 17 minutes, making it the perfect scary movie to check out if you want something short and sweet. Don’t let its length fool you, though. Creep has enough good scares packed into its short runtime to keep even the most seasoned horror fan on edge until the credits roll.
The found footage horror Creep is streaming on Netflix.
Creep is a psychological horror movie on Netflix from first-time director Patrick Brice. It stars The League‘s Mark Duplass as a soon-to-be father with a fatal brain tumor and Brice as the videographer hired to shoot a series of videos for the unborn child to watch after its father’s death. The only other actor in the movie is Katie Aselton, another The League alum and real-life spouse of Mark Duplass.
The film came out of a series of conversations between Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. The conversations led to the idea for Creep, and the two creators decided to make up a movie around the concept. The only “script” for Creep was a five-page outline, giving Brice and Duplass the freedom to improvise much of the scenes.
As a result, most of the scenes in Creep exist in multiple versions, some much different than the ones in the film as it’s available now on Netflix. At least three alternate endings are known to exist for the film.
Creep follows Aaron (Patrick Brice) as he follows the terminal Josef (Mark Duplass) around and films him leaving messages for his unborn child. As time passes, Josef gets gradually weirder, and Aaron becomes more and more uncomfortable in his presence.
Duplass has said in interviews that Creep‘s story was inspired by “character-driven dramas” that mainly focus on two actors, like My Dinner with Andre (1981), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Misery (1990).
After a confession from Josef that he raped his wife while wearing a Halloween werewolf mask, Aaron decides it’s time for him and Josef to part ways.
A phone call from Josef’s sister—the woman Josef had been pretending was his wife—urging Aaron to escape from her psychotic brother causes the filmmaker to leave Josef behind. The two men scuffle, but ultimately, Aaron gets away.
The rest of Creep involves Aaron getting mysterious DVDs from Josef, like a twisted version of the original Netflix business model. Without giving away the ending, let’s just say that Josef’s stalking and psychological torture of Aaron gets progressively worse until the movie’s gut-wrenching finale.
Duplass has said in interviews that Creep‘s story was inspired by “character-driven dramas” that mainly focus on two actors, like My Dinner with Andre (1981), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Misery (1990).
Creep received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and audiences…
Duplass’ other major influence was a series of odd Craigslist encounters the actor had experienced over the years. Brice and Duplass started working on Creep under the working title Peachfuzz—the name Josef gives the creepy wolf mask seen throughout the Netflix thriller.
The decision to change the movie’s title came after the two filmmakers decided that they didn’t want the audience to be so hung up on why the movie was called Peachfuzz—the significance behind the name doesn’t come up untell well into the film’s runtime—that they missed all of the drama happening on screen. The film’s loose structure and non-existent screenplay allowed Duplass to work out “10 to 12 permutations of each scene.”
The film had a premiere at the SXSW festival on March 8, 2014. In June of the same year, Creep had a limited video-on-demand release before finding a permanent home on Netflix. The movie debuted on the streamer on July 14, 2015. It proved popular enough to earn a physical release in April of the following year.
Creep received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and audiences, garnering a 90% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s critical consensus of Creep called the Netflix thriller “a smart oddball take on found-footage horror.” In 2017, Creep 2— also available on Netflix–was released to an equally positive critical reception.
If you’re looking for a short, scary movie to put on for Halloween that still packs a punch, you can’t go wrong with Creep. Creep is—and we mean this as a compliment—a total mindf**k that you should check out on Netflix ASAP.
