For my money, Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass’ Creep franchise is one of the best in contemporary horror. It takes the found-footage genre and deconstructs it, doing away with supernatural whimsy and placing the core of the terror in the hands of our very human antagonist. After two successful films, the series now hits the small screen with The Creep Tapes. While it takes slightly longer to eschew the films’ formula, the payoff in its latter episodes is more than worth the wait.
Though audiences can watch The Creep Tapes without much prior knowledge of the two films, its setup is rooted in the original’s lore. What unfolds in this six-episode first season (with another already confirmed) are VHS recordings strewn on Josef’s (Duplass) shelves in the 2014 original. It’s a peek behind the curtain at some of his early killings, and a deeper look at his upbringing and personal life.
Or at least, that is what The Creep Tapes eventually turns into after its first three episodes. Each one plays out as a separate victim (Mike, Elliot, and Jeremy) falls prey to Duplass’ killer, who still goes unnamed in the wider lore. My main question going into this first batch of episodes was how it would subvert what has become a well-trodden formula: victim enters the killer’s eccentric world, victim gets creeped out, victim dies.
To start with, it doesn’t. Each of those opening episodes has a familiar setup and resolution, and while the wry scripts from Brice and Duplass poke fun at this, it can feel like a show where you know what to expect. That’s no slight on Duplass in particular, who is fantastic as ever throughout the series. He bears absolutely everything and displays staggering range to portray six different people, all with their own personality and backstory – but one main goal.
Just as you think the formula is getting tired, The Creep Tapes‘ latter half becomes much more inventive. The fourth episode, Brad, pokes fun at the artifice of true crime coverage and the reification of real-life murders on social media by following Duplass’ character after one of his killings. It’s the first episode so far in the show that feels different; like it wants to make a point and expand the franchise’s storytelling as opposed to giving us more of the same.
Things only get better from there: episode five takes a magnifying glass into the killer’s psyche and split personality, while the finale finally shows us some of his personal life and family upbringing. Just as the lack of innovation in the early episodes starts to wear thin, Brice and Duplass know exactly how to add some much-needed texture to the storytelling. These episodes are genuinely gripping: almost entirely anchored by Duplass’ continuously eclectic and commanding screen presence, with plenty of confidence in the themes it covers and direction it takes.
Throughout it all, as I’ve hinted at, it’s Mark Duplass who holds The Creep Tapes together. I truly believe him to be one of the most versatile and talented actors working today, and his performance here only adds fuel to that fire. He so seamlessly flits between weird and menacing, but also quirky and funny – with the kind of magnetism that’s so important when he’s often the only one on-screen. Even when the first half sags, his dynamism is enough to keep you watching.
In its infancy, The Creep Tapes struggles to justify its existence. Don’t get me wrong, it’s never anything below entertainingly disturbing, but it doesn’t use the shorter format and anthology structure to diversify the storytelling in any meaningful way. It makes it even sweeter once the show hits its stride and achieves this, though, with a three-episode run at its back end that is just as engaging as the original films. Hopefully, with a second season in the works, The Creep Tapes can pick up where it left off and hit the ground running with even more handheld depravity.
★★★½
The Creep Tapes Season One is out now on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital from Acorn Media International.
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