The Creep Tapes on Shudder expand the horror universe in terrifying fashion

The Creep movies are two of the most frightening films to debut on Netflix. Now the franchise has made the move to Shudder via a sequel series, and the result is just as terrifying, and maybe even better.

The first Creep movie was launched on an unsuspecting public a decade ago. The brainchild of Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass, the filmmakers also starred as a videographer (Brice) tasked with shooting footage of his eccentric client (Duplass). But all is not as it seems, and genuine horror ensues.

Creep 2 followed in 2017, wherein the Duplass character – and his Peachfuzz alter-ego – terrorised a new victim. And while there was talk of a third movie, that threequel never materialised.

Instead, Brice and Duplass have now made a spinoff series for Shudder, the first three episodes of which debuted at Fantastic Fest. Meaning we now know what to expect from the further adventures of Peachfuzz.

What are The Creep Tapes about?

The Creep Tapes are shorter than the Creep movies, but continue to focus on the serial killer played by Mark Duplass, revolving around his efforts to find victims and then murder them.

Episode 1 is titled ‘Mike’ and serves as something of a soft reboot for newcomers, playing out in similar fashion to the first movie.

Mike is a filmmaker lured to the house of an actor named ‘Jeff Daniels’ (Duplass) to help make an audition tape for the “most prestigious nine month acting for camera programme in the country.”

Fun is had when the pair try to re-enact a scene from Misery. But then proceedings take a dark turn, in line with the original.

Episode 2 of The Creep Tapes is titled ‘Brandt’ and plays out in a motel room where the Duplass character is having something of existential crisis, as he confronts his co-dependent relationship with Peachfuzz.

Episode 3 is titled ‘Mom (and Albert)’ and sees the character heading home to see his mother. All kinds of Freudian issues are alluded to, and when he meets his mom’s new beau, it’s fair to say their interaction doesn’t go well.

Mark Duplass on why Creep is now a TV series

Shudder

Speaking at the post-screening Q&A at Fantastic Fest, Mark Duplass said of the transition from movie to show: “I thought at first it was a failure on our part to not come up with a third film that we thought was really good.

“Then at a certain point I was walking around my neighbourhood and I called Patrick and I was like ‘We’ve got all these great ideas for Creep 3 – what if we just make them all and let’s make a TV show out of this? We can make tons of these. Because you’re busy and because I’m busy we won’t have to set aside 12 days, we can just run away for two or three days at a time.’

“So this whole thing that you’re seeing up here is a very pragmatic, reverse-engineering of what we have available, time, creative energy, and money, to make it work.”

As for making Creep movies vs shooting Creep shows, Duplass said: “It’s so much more fun filming the episodes. We have always felt a struggle to really make 80 minutes work with this character and in this format. There are a number of challenges, not the least of which is just having a character stay around that long.”

Having seen all three episodes at Fantastic Fest, I’m inclined to agree with Duplass. The movies do have you wondering why the victims don’t just leave when proceedings turn weird and then scary.

But the short length of the episodes mean it’s entirely believable that the protagonist would forgive one strange comment or the odd bit of bad behavior without feeling the need to leave.

The shorter run-times also make the stories more palatable. This is cringe horror – like The Office is cringe comedy – and just as it would be agony to spend 90-minutes in the company of David Brent but 25-minutes is fine, so it’s tough spending all that time with Duplass’s character. Meaning for my money, these brief tales are even more effective than their feature-length counterparts.

The first two episodes of The Creep Tapes launch of Shudder on November 15, with the rest dropping weekly thereafter. You can check out more of our Fantastic Fest coverage via reviews of Heretic, Terrifier 3, and Apartment 7A.