Creep 2 (2017) Dir: Patrick Brice

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Patrick Brice's 'Creep' very quickly established itself as one of the best found footage horror films to come out since the subgenre's trailblazer; 'The Blair Witch Project'. I had enjoyed both of those two films a fair amount, and was keen to explore more examples of the found footage trope. This 2017 sequel, also by Brice, was therefore an easy choice.

Much like the first film, the film was made on a virtually nonexistent budget, but that, in my view, played to its advantage. It gave the film a strangely authentic feel, unlike other sometimes over-produced horror films. The use of environments already available to the filmmakers was a simple but very effective idea. In many respects, it's just like a student film, though, in fairness, better.

I found the film pretty unsettling, and definitely weird, but not at all scary. Be it the use of the same familiar jumpscares, or just a lack of originality in comparison to its predecessor, it just didn't get me. It was also, much to my surprise, a lot more sexual than I expected it would be. That said, I didn't mind that too much - I thought it lent itself well to what was an interesting and changing power dynamic between the two characters.

The story itself, while fairly basic, and with essentially the same premise as the first film, was more distinguished from said predecessor than I thought it might be. I would not say it was entirely dissimilar, but it certainly took a slightly different direction, as it pertained to the characters involved. The ending was a little silly, and kinda ruined the realism somewhat, but it still entertained.

Mark Duplass returned to his role as the titular 'creep' in the last film, and, to his testament, did just about as good a job as he had done the first time. He was very good at dragging out those slightly awkward moments, and making them that much more uncomfortable for the audience.

Desiree Akhaven, to her credit as well, also did a pretty fine job in her role. The writing for her character was a little bizarre at points, but her acting felt fairly believable, for the most part. There was the odd moment where she overdid it very slightly, but there were also some scenes where her terror or discomfort felt more than believable - it was palpable.

Overall, while I certainly enjoyed watching this film, and was drawn in by its unsettling nature for the majority of its runtime, I would still say that the original was a better horror film. This was more weird than scary, in that sense. Perhaps, having watched the original, I was slightly desensitised to the creepiness, but, for whatever reason, it just wasn't quite as effective to me.