There are few sub-genres more tired these days than the found-footage horror. When “Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” revitalized it, it felt like a deeply exciting new idea, but quickly the tropes were ran into the ground and the intrinsic cheapness of the genre began to feel like an excuse. It’s somewhat gone out of fashion in recent years, but one of the few worthwhile examples in recent years was Patrick Brice’s “Creep.”
The film didn’t break new formal ground, but thanks to assured direction by Brice, and a tremendous performance by indie king Mark Duplass (who also co-wrote and produced the film), it proved to be a pleasingly unsettling and unnerving lo-fi take on the found footage picture. And clearly it found something of an audience at home because a sequel arrives imminently, and the first trailer just dropped for “Creep 2”
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With Brice’s character Aaron having met an unfortunate end in the last film, this time Duplass’s titular weirdo has a new potential victim, in the shape of Desiree Akhavan, the excellent star of the excellent “Appropriate Behavior.” She’ll play a video artist who tries to connect with lonely men, who comes across Duplass’ character, who this time is claiming to be a serial killer. And given what we already know about him, he may well be right.
The film will be a getting a seemingly VOD-only release courtesy of The Orchard on October 24th, just in time for your Halloween-night marathon, and we’re looking forward to seeing if it’s just a retread on the original, or if it can find some innovative twists on the formula. Given Brice and Duplass’s reputations, we’d guess it’ll be the latter. Watch the trailer for “Creep 2” below, along with the full synopsis.
Desiree Akhavan (“Girls”, APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR) stars as Sara, a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. After finding an ad online for “video work,” she thinks she may have found the subject of her dreams. She drives to a remote house in the forest and meets a man claiming to be a serial killer (Mark Duplass, reprising his role from the previous film). Unable to resist the chance to create a truly shocking piece of art, she agrees to spend the day with him. However, as the day goes on she discovers she may have dug herself into a hole she can’t escape.