30 Days of October: Director Patrick Brice, "Creep"
To celebrate the chill of October, for each of the next 30 days, Film Yap writer Joshua Hull will take a look at the best in upcoming horror films and discuss them with the people who make and watch them. From big-studio horror all the way down to micro-micro-budget films, Joshua will crawl into the crypt with sinister scaremeisters and haunted horror fans to find out what makes them and their films tick.
"Creep" – Director Patrick Brice
Synopsis: When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.
What is "Creep"?
This might be a lame answer, but "Creep" remains a difficult movie for me to describe without giving too much away. It falls into the "found-footage" category in terms of its construction, but that doesn't necessarily make it an out-and-out horror film. It lives in an uncomfortable space between horror and comedy for sure. This is one of the things we've noticed audience members getting into debates about after the film. There are plenty of moments where one person is terrified and the person sitting next to them is laughing their ass off.
How did you and Mark Duplass get together to make it?
Mark and I have been friends for a couple years. He was mentoring me as I was coming out of film school at CalArts. For the most part, I was making documentary work at the time and Mark had seen my thesis film, "Maurice" (https://vimeo.com/45606784) and really liked it. We were trying to think of a project that would embrace some of our common sensibilities and out of that came "Creep." We started with a 10-page outline and the basic production model for the film and then branched out from there.
I've read "Creep" was more dark comedy until you guys took it to Jason Blum. Without spoiling the film, can you talk about what changed from pre-Blum "Creep" to post-Blum "Creep"?
About 10-20% of the material we went back and reshot once Blumhouse brought us on. Working with Jason and his team was an incredibly informative experience for both Mark and myself. We were able to get the movie into a spot where not only did we maintain everything that makes the film unique and special, but we put ourselves in a place where it would be available to a much wider audience. I'm really impressed with what we have for the finished film.
Found-footage is a style that gets a lot of grief but personally, I love it. Did you have any hangups about doing found-footage, especially when it went that horror direction?
I'm really proud of the fact that we were able to make something that people are responding to, regardless of it being in a genre that is (supposedly) going out of style. The excitement over any new genre begins to wane once audiences realize they are just getting fed the same meal over and over. It was really exciting for me to take the "found-footage" aesthetic and apply it to my filmmaking process. Every genre comes with its own set of obstacles and considerations, and it was just about finding new and interesting ways to answer these questions in the work.
How long did it take to go from concept to premiere? What was the entire process like for you?
We started production on "Creep" in February 2012 and premiered at SXSW in March 2014. This film took longer that most, as there were only three of us working on it most of the time (me, Duplass and editor / co-producer Chris Donlon) and we were discovering the movie as we made it. Making a film this way is humbling and challenging for sure, especially coming right out of the gate as both my first time making a feature and acting as well. One huge benefit for me was that during the long post-production period on "Creep," I was able to write the script for my second feature (that I am in the late stages of editing) called "The Overnight." Things lined up in a way that immediately after "Creep" premiered I went into production on "The Overnight," and now that that film is nearing completion I've freed myself up to get into "Creep 2." Basically, my model is always be finishing a project, in the middle of a project and starting a project at any given time.
It was recently announced that "Creep" would be a trilogy. Was it originally conceived as a series or did you realize midway or afterward that there was a bigger world to explore?
We always imagined the story as being something that would have a life beyond the first "Creep" for sure. Initially we were thinking it would be some sort of TV series, and Mark and I went ahead and created a bunch of scenarios for that during post-production. Once it was confirmed that TWC-Radius wanted to distribute the film and turn it into a franchise, we were able to narrow our focus in terms of what characters / elements would continue from the first "Creep" into the next two movies. What's really great about the manner in which we made the first film is that it was almost a testing process for what audiences like and don't like when it comes to these kind of movies. It's definitely going to be fun (and less time-consuming) making something with a clear, specific objective while still relying on instinct and trusting the unique process of making these small movies.
What do you think the future of indie horror / genre filmmaking looks like? It seems to me that in order for any film genre to sustain itself, it needs to be constantly changing and growing. As audiences get smarter and more film-savvy, there is more of an opportunity to create these kind of "genre hybrid" films like "Creep." I'm proud and thankful for the (horror) genre community's embrace of the movie so far. It's given us a huge drive to make the next films even better.
Finally, what horror / genre films are you looking forward to seeing most over the next year? I had been looking forward to Adam Wingard's "The Guest" since I missed it at SXSW. I saw it yesterday, and it totally blew me away. Also, David Robert Mitchell's "It Follows" sounds super exciting.