Film Review: Creep

 

Creep (18) 

Dir. Christopher Smith 

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)

Christopher “The Day Grandad Went Blind” Smith’s low-budget shocker CREEP takes a fairly interesting premise: “What if there is some kind of demented killer creature lurking in the depths of the tube system below London?” and then doesn't do quite enough with it. 

Starring Franka ‘Bourne Identity / Supremacy’ Potente as Kate – a party girl who falls asleep waiting for the last tube train and then has to spend the next few hours running away from Craig the Creep.

Poor Craig, he’s obviously some half-bred / scientific experimentation survivor who looks like Gollum’s retarded older human brother. At one point he puts on a surgical gown and for a while could almost pass for one of Hellraiser’s cenobites. 

Kate performs absolutely all of the ‘woman in peril’ clichés – from going back to see if her friend who is being noisily attacked is alright, through to not killing the monster even when he’s lying defenseless at her feet next to a handy spear. The tunnels and sets are only occasionally used well and the whole film feels like it could have taken off and been a new horror icon, but instead comes off a merely decent. 

Unfortunately, a couple of cool moments (Craig does get one iconic backlit pose - which doesn't seem to be available online anywhere otherwise I'd have posted it here) get washed away in a sewer pipe full of below-par production values...

As a tube commuter – I’ve got to admit that I’ve had scarier journeys to work on the Northern Line than anything on offer in Creep.

Darkmatt Rating: ööö (not a horror classic but not bad!)

"looks interesting but just not creepy enough"

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