The Creep Tapes Season One (2024) Review by Phil Newton

The Creep Tapes Season One (2024) Review by Phil Newton

Written by Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, and directed by Patrick Brice, Creep (2014) and its sequel Creep 2 (2017) – both available to stream on Shudder – are found footage films that primarily focus on the relationship between a predator and his prey. Our antagonist Josef (Mark Duplass) lures victims to his home by promising them a fee of $1000 to come and film him for the day, however his real motive is to toy with them and eventually kill them. After two successful films the filmmakers were discussing ideas for a third film but then decided a TV series might be a better way of exploring their ideas – and so The Creep Tapes was born.

The premise for the series is pretty straightforward – each 25 min episode features a different tape (victim) from Josef’s tape library. As in the films, the set up is pretty standard with Josef (or whatever he is calling himself at that time) concocting some spurious scenario for a (usually) desperate person to come and film him. So in the first episode ‘Mike’ we find Josef as “Jeff Daniels”, a wannabe actor who hires Mike (Mike Luciano) to come and film his audition tape for an acting school. In the second episode ‘Elliot’ we find Josef as a skydiver who got caught in a plane’s jet stream and wants bird-watcher Elliot (David Nordstrom) to film a video as he intends to sue the skydiving company.

Episode three ‘Jeremy’ has Josef posing as “Father Tom” who has invited Jeremy (Josh Fadem) over to have a discussion about religion and faith. However Jeremy has his own agenda and intends to call Father Tom out for all the sins of the Church. Episode four ‘Brad’ has Josef lure a once-famous film director (Josh Ruben) to his lair. Best known for his true crime documentaries, Josef confronts Brad with a dead body and gives him the opportunity to film the aftermath as he encourages Brad to solve the mystery and identify the killer.

It’s fun seeing Mark Duplass taking on different personas of the character for these tapes and we get to understand his methodology a little more as the series unfolds. His noisy enthusiasm is very childlike and it’s uncomfortable at times to watch as he gaslights his victims, and they gradually realise that Josef is not who he appears to be. However after four episodes it’s all a little bit the same and I was worried that the idea was running out of steam. Thankfully however the filmmakers change things up for the final two episodes.

In episode five ‘Brandt’ we find Josef as “Kyle” who’s rented a hotel room to terrorise his next victim (Scott Pitts). However when Brandt fails to show, ‘Kyle’ decides to continue filming and instead confront his co-dependency with his alter-ego Peachfuzz, the wolf mask that he often wears whilst stalking his prey. The final episode ‘Mom (and Albert)’ has Josef return home, with a body in the boot of his car, to visit his Mom (Krisha Fairchild). However things spiral out of control when Mom’s new partner Albert (John Craven) arrives and discovers Josef’s secret.

These last two episodes, filmed by Josef rather than his victims, expand on the character much more, offering an insight into his relationship with Peachfuzz and also providing a bit of backstory on his childhood and family. Whilst moving away from what made the Creep films so popular in the first place, these ideas to expand the mythology around Josef are vital to keep things fresh and make the series worth sticking with.

The Creep Tapes (Season One) is the latest Shudder original series to get a home entertainment release courtesy of Acorn Media International on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. The special features are a little thin on the ground, with just a 2 min Q&A with Mark Duplass & Patrick Brice, however each episode does come with a filmmaker commentary track which provides greater insight into the series and the character of Josef. If you’re a fan of the two films then The Creep Tapes is definitely worth your time, and it will be interesting to see what other tapes are in the library with the announcement that a second season has been commissioned.