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

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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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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