July 21 2013 – In the social media vernacular, “going fish’n” has nothing to do with rivers or chum, but what you catch can be deadly. For Erica (Monica Chambers), and Cally (Rohnja Morrow ), landing an online carp like Jerry (Darryl Baldwin), an over sized, overly medicated, infantile mute, becomes their newest Internet play toy and fetish for table turning revenge in this Russ Meyers inspired horror, Creeper.
The epicentre of the horror revolves around the social media website, ConnectMeNet, as our two doms and their sidekick girlfriends focus their revenge on all those creepy online Melvins’ who manipulate eligible young girls just looking for the one on the latest chat line. But, what starts out as humiliating and manipulative directives towards Jerry via ConnectMe, quickly escalates into snuff talk territory as their insatiable appetite for revenge heightens. A series of online chats eventually leads to a secluded face to face meeting where a confused and intoxicated Jerry endures a disturbing tag team beat down as he becomes the vessel for all their online frustrations. To solidify their alibi, Erica and Cally play the victim card to a tee when they contact the police showing them all the evidence they’ve collected and explain they were the targets of an online predator; only to find out that upon further investigation, the police yielded no predator.
Fast forward one year and any fears our novice black widows may have harboured, have long since subsided. Conversely, the off the grid and under medicated Jerry has morphed into a tech savvy behemoth in full revenge mode. Director, Matthew Gunnoe crafts a beautiful bait-and-switch by arcing the child-like characteristics of Jerry into a steely, methodical executioner under pinned by simmering aggression and soulless dead eyes.
No details are spared as Jerry displays both the means and the where-with-all to execute psychological scenarios of death on his now helpless perpetrators. Classic revenge never goes out of style and Gunnoe serves up meaty mouthfuls of heart pound fare. The Unrated Directors Cut with ample nudity harkens back to the Russ Meyer’s sexploitation films of the 70’s in both look and narration. Russ would be proud. That is not to say Creeper is not without some glaring technical flaws and continuity stumbles, but strong acting from Darryl Baldwin helped minimizes these faux pas to minor footnotes.
Verdict – 3.5/5: Director, Matthew Gunnoe’s Creeper taps into the yin and yang of our social media generation as this tech horror is taken online then off through friending then foe. With liberal amounts of blood and gore, Gunnoe backfills his indie inspired film with intelligent narrative twist reinforced by strong characters. Those looking for a twisted horror romp slightly off the beaten track, then Creeper is for you.
Your new friend can be the deadliest foe.
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 2012
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Matthew Gunnoe
Writer: Matthew Gunnoe
Cast: Darryl Baldwin, Monica Chambers, Rohnja Morrow, Amber Sym, Brittany Cardella, Caitlin Bond, David Vogel, Luis Reyes
Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
Runtime: 93 minutes
