Creep, 2014
Aaron (Patrick Brice) is hired for a job on a remote mountaintop, where he is employed to spend a day or two filming Josef (Mark Duplass), who claims to be dying of brain cancer. Josef supposedly wants to document some of his life for his unborn child, Buddy. But it quickly becomes clear that all is not what it seems to be.
Creep already had one strike against it, namely that I am not the biggest fan of found footage films. While the movie did some things that I liked, overall I struggled with a lot of the character choices.
Duplass is suitably creepy as Josef, and I liked how the film portrayed the way that Josef immediately begins pushing boundaries with Aaron. It's one of many ways that the film leverages the fact that Aaron's character is a man and not a woman: we can just barely believe that Aaron would stay in a room with a man who, like ten minutes after they meet, strips naked in front of him.
The character of Aaron, though, is where the movie kind of falls apart for me. The entire first half--consisting of the escalating weirdness between the two men--squeaks by, if only because you can see how Josef manipulates Aaron.
But once we transition to a point where Aaron has returned home, it just doesn't wash. We watch a frustrating phone call that Aaron has with the police, unable to give them any concrete information about the man who is stalking him. But Aaron has no friends or family? Was this established and I totally missed it? I find it entirely unbelievable that Aaron wouldn't go to someone for help or reassurance. Further, I'm sorry, but
WARNING: spoilers below
Aaron going alone to an isolated spot and sitting with his back turned? No, absolutely not.
Aaron going alone to an isolated spot and sitting with his back turned? No, absolutely not.
The movie tries to lampshade some of these issues, but I just don't buy it. Very much like horror movies that trade in poor character decision after poor character decision, there's an alienating effect that makes it harder to stick with Aaron as a protagonist.