Brilliantly dark thriller streaming on Netflix launched an unexpected franchise

Stephen Porzio

Holding a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, this Misery-inspired movie is well worth seeking out.

There’s an old adage that all you need to make an entertaining movie on a low budget is a great idea and there is no better proof of that then the 2014 horror thriller Creep, streaming on Netflix.

Built around an extraordinarily simple but effective premise, the film follows Aaron (played by co-writer and director Patrick Brice) – a cash-strapped videographer who decides to accept a Craigslist ad.

The job: travel to a remote mountain cabin and record a stranger named Josef (co-writer Mark Duplass) for a day in exchange for $1,000.

Upon arrival, the friendly Josef tells Aaron that he is terminally ill and – inspired by the forgotten Michael Keaton-starring drama My Life – that he wants Aaron’s help in recording a video diary for his unborn child.

While the day starts out normal enough, Josef’s erratic behaviour – his oversharing, his overfamiliar nature, his penchant for hiding and then jumping out and scaring Aaron, his obsession with a wolf mask he dubs ‘Peachfuzz’ – starts to concern the videographer.

Filmed completely in the found footage style, the 77-minute-long Creep was made in a very unconventional manner.

Inspired by Stephen King classic Misery, as well as their experiences on Craigslist and being thrust into very personal situations with strangers, Brice and Duplass did not complete a script. Instead, the pair just wrote an outline for their story before beginning shooting.

Already a legend in the US independent film scene when making Creep for his low-budget, character and relationship-focused movies Baghead and The Puffy Chair, Duplass told ComingSoon.net about the making of Creep:

“We built the movie out of a series of conversations together. What if we put together an outline and start shooting this thing? We accepted it was going to be a mess and, basically, refine it while we’re shooting as opposed to refining it while we’re writing. It’s an arts and crafts project. [laughs] Which was very liberating and very fun. For a year and a half, we’d shoot, edit, show it to people, see what landed. Shoot, come back…it was really fun.

“I can’t stress enough, there were 10 to 12 permutations of each scene. It was a process in the making. To say there were alt endings, sure, there were several different ways this movie could have ended. We shot all of them.”

On this process, Brice adds: “We diagnosed the problems. Did some reshooting and showed it to people, got a response.”

Because of its found-footage concept and extremely small crew, Creep cost a scant $500 to make.

And yet, this process worked a treat, turning the horror thriller’s limitations into a strength.

Lacking the visual sheen you’d associate with higher budget movies – thanks to its shaky camera filmmaking and ordinary on-location settings – its these very elements that make Creep feel all the more real and believable.

And because of this, its so easy to put yourself in the protagonist Aaron’s shoes and imagine what you would do if you were ever confronted with someone like Josef, a situation which is definitely not out of the realm of possibilities.

It’s worth noting though that the brilliantly stripped down central scenario of “what if you were stuck with an awkward person in an isolated place for a long time together alone” and the immediacy of the do-it-yourself-filmmaking approach is aided hugely by Duplass’ performance.

Alternating between likeable and funny to absolutely bone-chillingly creepy, Josef – and by extension Peachfuzz – deserve a place in the pantheon of horror villain legends.

Having seen what Brice and Duplass were able to conjure up on such a low budget, legendary horror producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Insidious, Paranormal Activity) came onboard the project.

With his involvement and strong reviews on the festival circuit (91% on Rotten Tomatoes), Creep was able to get proper distribution – with Netflix putting out the film internationally.

Speaking to the No Film School website, Duplass cited Creep when discussing this piece of advice for filmmakers starting out: “Make your first movies cheaply, and don’t be afraid to fail.”

“Can you take big creative risks for no money? Show people what you can do for nothing,” he explained.

“The tenet I’ve always followed was I never make a movie unless I know it’s gonna make its money back. Make your movie sustainable at the level you made it at.

“There are so many creative ways to make a $500 movie. Creep cost no money because we used a found-footage concept and three-person crew. We did a seven-figure sale to Netflix for that movie.”

And the success of Creep still continues to resonate.

Brice and Duplass returned for a sequel three years later in 2017 titled Creep 2, which maintained the tension of the original while amping up its comedic elements.

The found-footage follow-up was also acclaimed, earning a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, seven years later, we’re getting a six-episode spin-off series titled The Creep Tapes – premiering on 15 November – with Duplass reprising his lead role and Brice directing the entire show.

Given the humble origins of Creep, the fact that it spun out into such a critical darling, cult franchise is an incredible success story.