The Creep Tapes

Acorn Media International

Serial killers have long held a fascination for film and television, with Alfred Hitchcock’s interpretation of Robert Bloch’s reimagining of Ed Gein in 1960’s Psycho having played no small part in this trend.

The idea of monsters who live among us in human form is an irresistible one for the horror and crime industries, and it’s not hard to see why. The problem is, as entertainment has grown ever more “realistic” (in form, if not always in content), this has become something of an issue.

The thing is, with decades of real-life experience and research behind us, we now know that the vast majority of serial killers are actually just pathetic twats rather than criminal masterminds. And unless you’re going the police procedural route, that’s a hard thing to make entertainment from.

It’s not that it can’t be done- 2022’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was a success because it didn’t shy away from the pathos of either the killer or his victims, who were given more humanity than in any previous version of the story (although in a colossal failure of ethics, their families weren’t consulted, which takes a bit of the edge off the credit the showrunners otherwise rightly for that).

Which has given rise to the gimmick. Whether it’s Jason’s mask or Jigsaw’s Heath Robinson torture devices, there has to be a hook (as it were).

In 2006, Dexter gave us the idea of the serial killer whose gimmick is that he’s actually the good guy. More recently, You played with what should have been a self-defeating concept — basically “what if Dexter actually WAS a massive piece of shit?” to unexpectedly great effect. Somewhere between the two, chronologically speaking, we had Patrick Brice’s Creep from 2014, whose concept — also a hard sell in terms of watchability that somehow worked incredibly well — was “what if a serial killer was utterly insufferable”?

This is still presumably off-putting for some, in much the same way that I have friends who can’t bear to watch Alan Partridge or Curb Your Enthusiasm because the cringe is too strong, but it proved a success, giving rise to a not-quite-as-good-but-still-pretty-damn-good sequel, Creep 2.

One of the better late-stage found footage movies, Creep introduced us to Josef (Mark Duplass, whose pseudonyms are strictly single-service), who lures film-makers to their deaths and collects their footage — thus justifying the found footage conceit. Alternately pathetic, deeply annoying and just plain weird, Duplass is brilliant at switching between modes without warning — especially when it’s time to be terrifying.

And now we have The Creep Tapes. Other than a basic knowledge of the premise, watching the two movies isn’t necessary to enjoy these, though it is recommended. Over six episodes we see him and his alter-ego Peachfuzz get up to all sorts of murderous shenanigans in bite-sized pieces, each episode being a self-contained “tape”. Now, to start with, I must admit I was a little sceptical — how many variations ARE there on that particular theme?

Well, as the series progresses it turns out there are quite a few. At least six, at that, and I hope we get more Creep Tapes. The first episode is largely as you’d imagine — “Jeff” has hired a guy to shoot an acting reel for him — but the weirdness and willingness to fuck with the format progresses as we go on, with the final two episodes really ramping things up on both.

If the rack of video cassettes we see in the first movie is anything to go by, Peachfuzz still has a lot more in the vaults, and I for one am looking forward to seeing them.

Previously available on Shudder, season one of The Creep Tapes is out now on blu-ray from Acorn Media International, featuring director commentaries and a Q&A with Brice and Duplass. Highly recommended.

-Justin Farrington-