Summary
- Patrick Brice has proven himself to be a versatile horror filmmaker, excelling in both found-footage horror comedies and conventional slashers.
- Creep and its sequel showcase Brice's ability to blend humor and horror, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats with tension and unexpected twists.
- There's Someone Inside Your House demonstrates Brice's range as a filmmaker, delivering a throwback slasher with influences from iconic directors like John Carpenter and Wes Craven.
Netflix has a pretty lengthy list of fantastic horror directors at their disposal, but a lot of people would say their best is undoubtedly Mike Flanagan. The horror maestro has given the streamer perhaps the greatest horror TV show of all time in The Haunting of Hill House. This year, he went out with a bag as The Fall of the House of Usher enjoyed weeks at the top of Netflix's most-watched shows. But who takes over the mantle now that Flanagan has gone to Prime Video? Well, that answer is actually pretty easy: Patrick Brice.
Between his Creep duology and There's Someone Inside Your House, Brice has proven himself to be one of the more versatile filmmakers working in the genre. With the former, he has spooked and scared audiences with two lo-fi found-footage horror comedies. These movies aren't laugh riots or anything, but their pitch-black sense of humor and killer Mark Duplass performances at the center make them so unsettling and uncomfortable that you can't help but laugh. Then, with There's Someone Inside Your House, Brice showed that he has the chops to make a conventional and fun slasher in collaboration with some of today's genre filmmaking giants, James Wan and Shawn Levy. Loads of horror filmmakers find their way of scaring people, and they stick with it. Brice, on the other hand, is Netflix's horror Swiss army knife.
Creep
- Release Date
- June 23, 2015
- Runtime
- 77 minutes
- Director
- Patrick Brice
Cast
-
Katie AseltonAngela -
Aaron -
Josef
WHERE TO WATCH
A young videographer answers an online ad for a one-day job in a remote town to record the last messages of a dying man. When he notices the man's odd behavior, he starts to question his intentions.
- Main Genre
- Horror
'Creep' Proved That Patrick Brice Is a Horror King
Patrick Brice exploded onto the scene with Creep, released in 2014. The found footage movie follows Aaron (Brice), a videographer who takes a job to document a day in the life of a dying man. Initially, this wasn't intended to be a horror film at all. Instead, it was conceived by Brice and Duplass as a dark comedy, but after showing the film around to friends and people like Jason Blum, it got retooled, ripped apart, and put back together into the version that it is today. In an interview with Decider, Brice explained the way that Blumhouse changed Creep for the better by saying:
"...once Jason Blum and Blumhouse became involved, that was definitely our modus operandi from that point on. As we filmed these reshoots and they continued, especially in that last twenty minutes of the movie, we were able to be much more deliberate about incorporating this dark stuff into the movie and going to this dark place. We wanted to rope people in with the love and the comedy and the tense weirdness of the opening of the film and then, hopefully, just throw them for a loop by the end of the movie."
This masterfully worked to Creep's advantage. Before it would eventually become the modern classic that it is, Creep was just a little movie that you'd scroll past on Netflix with a spooky poster of a man's silhouette. There's no way that you could anticipate the amount of loops that this movie throws you through. Since it is found footage, we are technically experiencing Aaron's point of view, but with the way that Duplass is talking to the camera the entire time, it feels as though he's speaking directly to the audience. We're made to endure his awkward stories, inappropriate jokes, and misleading statements for the entire film. The fear of horror movies usually comes from tension, shock, or gore; rarely ever does this genre use comedy to scare viewers. With Creep, Brice and Duplass know that on the other side of every laugh, there could be a shriek.
Creep is filled to the brim with these moments. Every time that the movie makes you cackle nervously, you're also gripping the sides of your seat, wondering what's about to happen next. Duplass's performance as Josef, especially, makes this work, not just by being genuinely hilarious, but also by lying to Aaron left and right. We can't trust a word that comes out of this guy's mouth. All of that being said, Brice isn't averse to jump scares or violence. Creep has a few moments where it indulges in horror's most played-out tricks, but because Brice and Duplass spend most of the runtime ratcheting up the tension, these moments are fully earned.
Patrick Brice Exercised His Horror Comedy Muscles With 'Creep 2'
Even if the original Creep was the only horror movie that Patrick Brice had ever made, I have a feeling that we would still be singing his praises as one of Netflix's best filmmakers in the genre. But, thankfully, this is not the case. Three years after the original, Brice and Duplass re-teamed for Creep 2, this time joined by Desiree Akhavan. The sequel isn't exactly reinventing the wheel or anything, but that's okay. Instead, Creep 2 plays its own game so well that you hope it never stops. It follows a very similar premise, but this time, the killer now goes by Aaron (Duplass), and he lures a videographer (Akhavan) in by claiming to be a serial killer, as opposed to saying he's dying and wants to be filmed for his son to see.
Creep 2 leans a bit more into the comedy angle than its predecessor, and particularly plays into the chemistry between its leads. Brice only had to write and direct this time, meaning he could focus a bit more on pulling two great performances out of Duplass and Akhavan. Akhavan's character, Sara, is seen on camera more than Aaron was in the first film, so there's less of Duplass talking directly to the audience, and more of a back-and-forth between these Aaron and Sara. Because of this, Creep 2 isn't quite as scary as the original. Nonetheless, Brice still manages to pull off a hilariously eerie ride and continues to keep his audience second-guessing everything happening on and off-screen.
'There's Someone Inside Your House' is Patrick Brice's First Full-Blown Horror Movie
Patrick Brice's third foray into horror isn't exactly what fans expected. Instead of jumping down the Creep rabbit hole for a third time, Brice would deliver a bit of a throwback slasher movie to Netflix. The result was There's Someone Inside Your House, an adaptation of the novel by Stephanie Perkins that follows members of a high school's graduating class who are being stalked by a masked killer. It might not be the most original plot in the world, but sometimes you just want to watch a filmmaker exercise the influences of their favorite directors a little. In this case, it feels like Brice taking a jab at some John Carpenter and Wes Craven-isms. This is also a James Wan and Shawn Levy-produced feature, two filmmakers whose footprints are felt immensely here. You've got the commitment to horror that Wan brings, while also bearing that youthful energy of Levy's works.
Brice ditches the found footage approach in favor of conventional and effective slasher scares, and a heavy dose of atmosphere. It's also fun to see Brice let go of comedy for a change. Despite being horror comedies, the Creep movies feel a little more grim than this because of the deranged nature of Duplass's performances. That said, There's Someone Inside Your House proves that Brice isn't a one-trick pony, and can lend his skills to horror movies both mainstream and experimental.
Netflix needs to keep giving Patrick Brice their money. Why they don't have him make a horror movie every year or two for their service, I'll never know. He's proven twice that he can make effective, no-budget films, while also being capable of going down the road of glossier, more mainstream fare. No matter which way he goes, horror fans know that they can always count on a killer experience from Patrick Brice.
Creep and Brice's other movies are all available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix.
Your comment has not been saved