Creep Review

[Mr.HoRrOr]

Plot:A woman leaving a party winds up trapped in a London subway station. Trapped...along with "something"...else.




Cast:
Franka Potente
Vas Blackwood
Ken Campbell
Jeremy Sheffield
Paul Rattray
Kelly Scott
Sean Harris




My Thoughts:"Creep" takes a bad situation which could happen to any one of us, and makes it into a fantastic horror film.






Review:It hasn't ever happened to me, but it can possibly happen to anyone. You're a bit drunk, you're heading from a party. You decide to take the subway to your next destination.You fall asleep while waiting for the train. Seems simple enough. Heres the tricky part. You finally wake up, and realize that not only have you overslept, but the station has been locked down. and You're trapped inside for the night!On top of all that, theres some freakshow roaming the subway tunnels looking for fresh victims to slaughter. This is the premise of the british horror film "Creep".and The person in this case, is a woman named Kate. I really didn't know what to expect from this film upon viewing it. I haven't seen many british horror films for one. After the movie was over, I realized that british horror has now tag-teamed with asian/japanese horror to kick our U.S. horror movies asses.This film actually creeped me out a bit. Things you have to like about "Creep" is the use of sound effects to further enhance it's tense scenes. As well as the use of every day ordinary characters, like subway bums, and some ordinary beautiful young woman heading home from a party. Theres no fancy looking WB teens in this film folks. I for one root for the characters and actually take their situation more seriously from a viewer standpoint if they don't look like they just stepped out of a J Crew catalogue. This film also keeps our mystery slasher hidden for most of the movie, giving us a loud shrill sound everytime he kills. We don't know if it's human, or other. But in one nicely gory scene, where the subway security chief is butchered while he watches Kate on his monitor, we are led to believe that the killer is human.This film has some great intense scenes,one of which takes place at the very beginning. Even the opening credits set the tone of the film very well.This movie was written for it's setting perfectly. A movie like this wouldn't work in the burbs or the city. The dark tunnels, and maze-like structure of the London subway system work perfectly to keep the viewer glued to the screen wondering whats gonna happen next to our damzel in distress. The movie also sets up it's kills quite nicely. Never rushed, or sloppily done, and very gruesome. and The characters in the film with the exception of one guy (you'll understand why once you see the movie), are likeable so it actually kind of sucks when they die. Especially one of the characters near the end of the movie who at the beginning, we are led to believe met his demise at the hands of our mystery murderer.Our main female character spends most of the film trying to find her way out of the maze that is the London subway system. Shes calm at first once she realizes the situation shes in, she even runs into a friend of hers on the last train of the night which shows up and acts as a momentary savior for the female lead. But the film then quickly snaps into *uh oh* mode a few moments once the train stops,the lights go out, and the conductor is shown to be dead. As more and more blood continues to be shed, and people disappear the situation gets more dangerous and frightening for Kate, whos played very well by Franka Potente. This woman nails all of her scenes perfectly. Making you actually concerned for her well being in the movie. The distress angle in the film is played very well also. Everytime Kate manages to find help from an assortment of people, our killer soon shows up to do his slice n dice thing on said person. Eventually Kate winds up alone in all of this, and her only hope is to keep evading her attacker until she gets lucky enough to find another way out of the subway system. As good as this film was, it makes one mistake near the end, when it tries to set up a potential backstory and subplot by tossing us a total curveball in the middle of a very intense chase scene involving Kate, and one other character evading the killer. The subplot steals a bit from "MILO" and various other mad doctor type of horror films. The problem is this subplot isn't explained enough and therefore should've been left out completely IMO atleast. It's not the type of subplot you can use in short, but one that requires alot more explaining than what was given. It does however explain the killers appearance though once we finally get a good look at him. One assumes that this subplot connects to the watery prison cages, and what happens a few moments later to one other thought to be dead female character which is a scene in itself that needs explaining.Still, it doesn't hamper that much what is a great horror movie with a great sense of realism and intense scene after intense scene.Our female lead eventually has to confront her attacker in order to escape with her life. This is a nicely done scene, and most importantly realistic as opposed to other horror films where the victim or victims all of a sudden becomes foxy brown at the final moment, and the antagonist becomes their whipping boy.I really wasn't expecting to like "Creep" as much as I did going into it. This is a gem of a british horror movie. I suggest that you guys catch this one in theaters once it hits the states. Or if it hits the states and gets a DVD/Video release,head on over to wherever you rent from, and rent this movie.You won't be disappointed.





Pros:Great atmosphere,likeable characters,great female lead who nails most of her scenes, good dialogue,and some nice sound effects all combine to make this movie very intense. The film didn't have much music or an original score. It relied mainly on blood curdling sound effects at the right moments in the film.Which worked very well.When the killer is finally revealed, he looks nasty enough, which is also a plus.





Cons:Hard to find one, but one minor con was the unexplained subplot involving the picture, the operating room, and what happened to the Mandy character and why.




Overall:Worth checking out indeed.A situation horror film that works on almost every level, by using a simplistic formula and ordinary characters.