The Creep Tapes Season Two (2025) Review by Phil Newton
Created by Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, directed by Patrick Brice, and starring Mark Duplass in the lead role, the Creep series continues with a second season of six 20-25 minute episodes. If you’re late to the party then Creep (2014) and its sequel Creep 2 (2017) are found footage films that primarily focus on the relationship between a predator and his prey. Our antagonist Josef (Mark Duplass) aka PeachFuzz when he dons his wolf mask, 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. A streaming series The Creep Tapes (2024) followed – available on Shudder, as are both films – with each episode featuring a different tape (victim) from Josef’s library.
As per the first season, 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, however this time around the locations are more varied rather than the majority of the action taking place at Josef’s house. In the first episode ‘Joesph’ we meet Joseph (David Dastmalchian) a copycat killer inspired by the original Creep tape which he discovered on the dark web. Unluckily for him the real Josef responds to his latest job ad for a videographer. In the second episode ‘Wes’ we find Josef as estate agent “Trip Engold” who wants to film a pilot for a house-flipping show. As he drives out to a house in the woods, Wes (Diego Josef) is quick to sense danger and attempts to escape, with the arrival of the police only complicating matters for Josef.
Episode three ‘Mark’ is a playful riff on the movie Saw with Josef and Mark (Robert Longstreet) waking up chained in a basement. A voice announcing itself as The Wolf Slayer then poses a series of puzzles for the pair to solve in order to escape, alas Mark is totally clueless, much to Josef’s frustration. These opening three episodes make a reasonably strong start to the new season; there’s a lot of fun to be had watching Joseph reenact scenes from the film whilst Josef pre-empts or nitpicks his every more – and having Dastmalchian appear as his nemesis is inspired casting. The Saw-inspired episode is a lot of fun too, not least due to a mid-story twist which made me crack up with laughter.
Episode four ‘Ava’ has “David” as a Joe Exotic type character who lures Ava (Taylor Garron) to an animal sanctuary in order to film a fundraising video. Except there are no animals, just some animal figures that David plays with – undeterred, Ava sees this as an opportunity to document a clearly damaged individual who is dealing with the trauma of abuse. In episode five ‘Nick’ he assumes the identity of Dr. Avison (who he just killed) in order to conduct an emergency therapy session with patient Nick (Timm Sharp). It’s Christmas Eve and our bogus therapist suggests donning a Santa suit to help Nick work through his childhood trauma. Neither of these two episodes offer very much to further the character of Josef/Peachfuzz and my interest began to wane at this point.
Season Two concludes with ‘Angela’ in which Josef’s sister Angela (Katie Aselton) – who was heard, but never seen, in the original film – demands that her brother visit her home. Seemingly under house arrest, and intoxicated, Angela manipulates Josef into recreating an old home movie from their childhood. There’s an uncomfortable incestuous tension to the pair’s relationship as Angela repeatedly attempts to seduce her brother. Like the previous season, which introduced Josef’s mother in its final episode, it’s interesting to learn more about Josef’s backstory and it’s also fun watching Duplass pair up with Aselton – his real-life spouse.
That being said, by the conclusion of this season I feel like Brice and Duplass have said all that they have to say about Josef – his alter-ego Peachfuzz feels pushed more into the background this time around. Duplass of course totally inhibits the role with aplomb and totally nails the quietly terrifying way in which he gaslights his victims. The idea of each episode being a single video tape works well, and could allow the series to run and run, but despite a handful of entertaining episodes and fresh ideas there’s too many filler episodes that follow a familiar formula.
The Creep Tapes (Season Two) is the latest Shudder original series to get a home entertainment release courtesy of Acorn Media International on the Blu-ray format. The special features are sadly absent aside from a filmmaker commentary track over each episode which provides greater insight into the series and the character of Josef. If you’re a fan of the films and the previous season then The Creep Tapes (Season Two) will probably draw you in, albeit with diminishing returns. It will be interesting to see what fresh ideas Brice and Duplass can bring to Season Three – which is currently filming – to sustain interest beyond this point.