Connect with us

News

‘Creep 2’ (2017) Manages to Outdo the Original

Published

on

Released in 2014, the Mark Duplass-starring found footage movie Creep almost instantly gained a cult following. Three years later, Duplass is back to star in a sequel – and somehow, it’s even better than the first. Yes, my friends, miracles do happen, and here’s your proof.

In the first film, Aaron (Duplass) is a deranged serial killer who hires a man on Craigslist to do create a documentary about Aaron. But being that this is a horror film, Aaron is obviously up to no good; he spends the film tormenting, weirding out, and eventually killing his hired filmmaker. A sequel could have gone the same route, but that would have been boring – a rehash. Too many horror movies are guilty of doing exactly that, but Creep 2 knows that in order to warrant its existence, it has got to do things differently.

This time around, we find ourselves following Sara (played by Desiree Akhavan), an aspiring documentarian. She has a series called “Encounters” on YouTube where she tries to connect with the weird and the lonely, and it is failing miserably. But when she finds an advertisement for Aaron, her luck begins to change – for better or for worse. This time around, Aaron’s much more forthcoming. He explains that he is a serial killer and making movies himself no longer has the thrill that it used to. Instead, he wants Sara to film him as he explains his life as a killer while also offering her protection for a period of 24 hours.

It was fun unraveling the quirks (if you’d want to call them something as innocent as quirks) of Duplass’ character, but it’s even more fun now that we know outright that he’s a maniac. There’s no big mystery about the character, so Duplass is able to have fun with Aaron and inject a healthy amount of humor into the character. Yes, it’s bizarre, and yes, it’s weird, but it’s not all that disturbing; tense, in some parts, but nothing that’s really unnerving like the original. However, this is a strength, and certainly not a weakness.

Creep 2 is not without blood, however, but I wouldn’t spoil it for the viewer. You can be sure that despite the amped up laughs, this is still very much a horror movie; it’s just a different kind than what many of us are used to. It’s a movie that wants to play with us. Aaron jumps out at Sara when they first meet in an attempt to squeeze out a quick jumpscare, but she, like the audience, is unfazed. The movie is aware of just about every horror trope and realizes that in order to do something memorable, it has to abandon the more common tricks employed by the average horror movie. I think this speaks volumes for the horror genre as a whole, and director Patrick Brice has made a film in agreement with this way of thinking.

Fans of the original will absolutely enjoy the sequel. Many will also find it to be far superior. Creep was an excellent first date, but by Creep 2, I know that there’s something very special here.

The Orchard

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading