Rogue Cinema - Creepers (2008)

Creepers (2008) - By Brian Morton
Posted on Thursday, May 01 @ Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

Sometimes you can see the talent of a filmmaker, even if the film isn't as strong as it should be. That's the case in the new film from Nick Thiel and CJ Johnson, Creepers. And don't think that that means that I think Creepers is a bad movie, quite the contrary, Creepers is great sci-fi/horror, I think it just could have been better.

Creepers takes place in Los Angeles, not a normal Los Angeles, this L.A. has been attacked by something, when we first meet Thompson, he's running for his life from what might be zombies. He stops long enough to help a young lady in distress (Bridget) and the two of them race to a house, lock themselves in and prepare to sit out the attack. As they're locked inside, alone together for days upon days, the two begin to go a bit stir-crazy. They get paranoid and each suspects the other of being the enemy.

While Creepers is a pretty powerful commentary on race and trust, it treads some pretty familiar ground in the 'invasion' scenario. And, while it's a great movie, it's not all that original. Johnson's script is good, the acting is strong all around and the scenarios really drew me in, but I didn't feel like I was heading anywhere new, and, once the 'secret' was revealed, I was more interested in what comes next, it really wasn't that big a surprise. Now, don't think that I hate Creepers, quite the opposite! To put together a movie this strong on this small a budget is an amazing thing in itself, but the effects are great, the acting is excellent and the movie looks like a big budget feature. Overall, I'm giving Creepers three out of four cigars, it's not perfect and I may have felt like the ground we traveled was traveled before, but I was still happy to go there with them! You can find out more about Creepers by heading over to the Creepers MySpace page, it may be a little familiar, but it's great to see a group of amazing filmmakers flexing their muscles and doing it this well...I can't wait to see what's next! So, until next time, when I'll be locked inside my home waiting for the paperboy to quit knocking, remember that the best movies are bad movies.