Creep

UK / Germany, 2004. Directed by Christopher Smith. Franka Potente, Vas Blackwood, Ken Campbell, Jeremy Sheffield, Paul Rattray, Kelly Scott, Sean Harris.

Smart city girl Kate (Potente) leaves a party and plans to take a tube train to another location where she’s heard George Clooney is going to be in attendance. But it’s late, she falls asleep on the platform and wakes up to find herself locked in the tube station. There then follows a sequence of events which become ever more nightmarish as Kate finds herself and others (a homeless couple, a sewage worker and a potential rapist) pursued through the tunnels and passageways by something rather unpleasant. People die and there’s lots of blood. The opening sequence, a prologue of sorts which has sewage workers Vas Blackwood and Ken Campbell trawling through the Underground’s tunnels, is nicely done and sets up an expectation for the film which isn’t quite delivered. There’s some good tension and the atmosphere is suitably claustrophobic, but the film gradually descends into a gore-fest which is more unpleasant than truly frightening, particularly a torture scene towards the end. There is a back-story of sorts which hints at why the perpetrator does what they do, but it’s pretty sketchy and an attempt to generate audience sympathy for the character doesn’t work. Kate herself doesn’t generate much sympathy either, and her attitudes towards the homeless are signalled early on as a device which facilitates an ironic ending to the film. As a horror movie it’s certainly competent if not likeable and first-time director Christopher Smith shows much potential.