Creeping Death

Matt Sampere had an idea years ago of a story he wanted to tell.

Matt wrote, directed and starred in Creeping Death, a movie that doesn't overcomplicate things and just tells a tale based in my favourite season of the year Halloween.

The movie caught the essence of autumn perfectly from the opening scenes.

It had it all with gore and great storytelling.

Yes characters came across unlikeable (like so many big budget Hollywood movies) so I found myself rooting for the monster which I thought looked very cool!

It also had great emotional scenes with his mother which pulled at the heart strings.

This was a film that I got the chance to be a screener thanks to Alex from Simply Legendary Publicity. What I knew was that this was coming to Screambox, which is a solid streaming if you like horror films. I thought with October looming and these being a supernatural slasher with a creature as the killer, I decided to watch for review. Other than that, I came to this one blind. I did think we had an interesting title.

Synopsis: Tim's (Matt Sampere) mother has brain cancer. His friends steal a sack unleashing the Aos Si (Alan Maxson), a Celtic spirit on Halloween night. They must survive the night or sacrifice their lives to this vengeful spirit that pursues them for their trespass.

We start this off on Halloween night. We have a guy who scares ungrateful kids as he's dressed up like a scarecrow. He goes inside his house. There's a knock at the door. He yells to whoever it is to go away. They knock again. He opens it and we don't see the person. What we do see is that they have large hands with claw-like fingernails. This guy is killed by having the bottle he's drinking from shoved into his mouth. His head is then stomped in.

This then shifts into the past of the morning for this Halloween. Tim Garner is working at a pumpkin patch. He's annoyed by a woman who is shopping there. There's also Mr. Brownstone (Andy Horowitz) who's struggling with something in the back of his truck. Tim goes to help and he's scolded. Before this old man leaves, Tim notices that whatever is in this bag is bleeding.

Tim then returns home where he learns from his father, Fred (Scott Lea), that he's not going to be able to go out with his friends like he thinks. His mother is Linda (Monique Parent) and she's battling cancer. Her diagnosis isn't good, but she is fighting. Fred feels for his son and apologizes for everything that he's given up, but they all must help. Tim takes this out on Linda when he goes inside. She's understanding though and they share cookies.

Earlier we did see the friends that he's supposed to hang out with. Tim has a crush on Danielle (Delian Lincourt). It sounds like he hasn't told her how he feels and she's set to be going away for college soon. She's hanging out with Tim's best friend of Tramer (Ian Brown). He lives with Nate (Hunter Kohl) who is a jerk. There's also Isaac (K. Cody Hunt), who is an idiot, and he's seeing PJ (Elise St John). They decide to play a prank on Mr. Brownstone. Things take a turn when they see him put out a burlap sack on his porch. They steal it and take it to Tim's house.

This proves to be a bad decision. Tramer dropped his phone in the process. It is used to call Nate. Mr. Brownstone demands they bring what they took back at once. What they didn't know is that this bag contains dead animals. They get Tim to drive them to return what they stole. What they find there is beyond their belief. There also have been news report about vandalism and a series of disappearances that could be linked. At Mr. Brownstone's place they find a book detailing what he knows about the vengeful spirit from the synopsis, the Aos Si.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is that I'm a sucker when you introduce folklore that I'm not familiar with. I did quick research and this does exist in Scottish legend. I'll credit there they found this and decided to incorporate it into the monster that we have as our villain. This is something that I would like to know more about, but since our characters don't, I can work with it. This is a positive in its favor still.

Then to flesh more of this out, I do like this idea of the Aos Si. This is comparable to a fairy or an elf. It is interesting as well that they're supposed to live in a world that is like ours, just an alternate one. There is a scene where our main group that we're following see it and there's blur or a distortion. I liked what they did there visually. They also introduce that this could be the first 'trick or treater'. I'm not sure how much of that is just made up for the movie, but that was a cool touch. Things get explained there as Tim reads from the text that they took. I'm a sucker for this so credit using this for the lore.

I'll then shift over to discuss the subgenre. This is a supernatural slasher film. If you know me, I judge these films on whether we have good characters or kills. The best has both. This leans into the latter. They use practical effects where they could. The kills are brutal so credit there. This sets the tone from the start with the first one. We have a great set up to Tramer getting his phone back with a 'jack o' lantern'. This isn't a traditional slasher, but we are getting a variation. This comes from the way our monster follows the characters and how they're killed.

Let's then shift over to the other aspect I look for, good characters. The caliber of acting here is in line with the budget. Sampere, who is also the writer and director, gave himself the role that needed the most emotion. He's fine there, but just falls a bit short. Lincourt, St John, Hunt and Brown were all decent as well. Kohl is the best since he's gets the be the jerk. He owns that role. I did feel for Parent, she did seem like someone battling cancer and that hit me the feelings. Lea works as Tim's father. Maxson is a good size for the role of the creature. I'll also credit Horowitz, Jody Pucello and the rest of the cast to round this out for what was needed.

All that is left is finished with filmmaking. I've already said that the practical effects were good. The cinematography and the framing also help there. They did well to hide the seams. I'll credit once again the cool shot where we see the Aos Si with the distortion of light. There is CGI that we see here as well. That wasn't great, but not enough to ruin this. The only other thing to bring up would be the music and sound design. There is a generic vibe of slasher inspired music. That is a good touch. The sound design of the kills was good so credit that as well.

In conclusion, there are good things about this film. I like the lore that we're introducing with the monster in this supernatural slasher. There are good elements here with the kills, so credit the practical effects, cinematography and the framing. The acting is a bit amateurish, which is fine.

That reminds me of the heyday of this subgenre. The CGI effects leave something to be desired, thankfully they don't use much there. I'm just not the biggest fan of this subgenre. Not a bad film though, especially to fans of movies like this.

My Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

I was really looking forward to Creeping Death after seeing the trailers, but unfortunately, it fell flat on almost every level. The plot was predictable and lacked any real tension, making it hard to stay engaged. The characters were one-dimensional, with motivations that felt forced and unconvincing.

The dialogue was cringe-worthy at times, filled with clichés that took me right out of the story.

While the visuals were decent, they couldn't save the film from its lackluster writing and direction. Overall, Creeping Death was a missed opportunity, leaving me more frustrated than entertained. I'd give it a pass if I were you.

Trying to take care of his mother, a teen finds his friends have disrupted his Halloween plans by stealing a sack of sacrificial offerings for a Celtic deity known as Aos Si which has now turned its attention to them and forces him to help stop the creature from taking them all out.

This was a generally decent if somewhat underwhelming effort at times. One of the better features here is the solid sense of atmosphere and lore attempted here incorporating the Celtic deity into the mix during the holiday season. The main idea of the deity effectively being an early purveyor of Halloween lore by offering the kind of setup that shows itself as an early setup for trick-or-treating in how people would leave sacrificial gifts for it in exchange for their safety and is a practice honored by the town that they're too self-centered to honor. With the way it works here involving the being as a figure that they anger and have it be targeting them for the remainder of the first, this setup brings about a lot of rather fun traditional revenge motifs which are woven together quite nicely bringing in the folklore of the spirit's origins to change things up. That also allows the film to ramp up the holiday aesthetic here with the usual assortment of decor and ornamentation found during the holiday, as the whole thing is littered with trick-or-treaters, lighted pumpkins, and everyone going around in their costumes before being attacked by the creature in some gruesome and graphic attacks. The look of the spirit is decent enough, but its inhuman appearance and powers make the encounters solid enough, including the necking couple outside the friend's house, the race to get away when it appears outside the group or the attack at the house where it generates some fun stalking scenes along with several great kills. There are some big issues to be had with this one. One of the main issues with the film is the sense of over-familiarity that runs wild throughout here as everything comes across as any number of similar genre efforts. Featuring an assortment of unlikable teens getting in over their heads by disrupting something and getting a supernatural act of vengeance to stalk them for their misdeeds is not as original a premise as it should be with everything here running through the same patterns a storyline like this usually dictates. By staying in such familiar realms, it doesn't do much of anything new and remains familiar and predictable as a result of the assortment of teens he's stalking the usual unlikable selection of figures in this type of film doesn't help this one much. The other big drawback with the film is the lack of explanation for why the main teen who knows about the creature and what's going on has to go through with helping the other group get away from the creature. The blackmail used to get him onto their side being friends in the past and how to help them get away with the desecration of the sacrificial offering makes no sense and putting himself in danger to help them figure out what's going on isn't well throughout. The last factor with this one is an uneven first half where there's way too much emphasis on the cancer diagnosis to give the film enough time to get much else explored or explained before getting to more traditional matters in the second half. These all manage to bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Brief Nudity.

No pun intended - actually I am not sure if you can say that it is steady. It is really tough to rate and review something that one has put so much heart and soul into. But as the director said, before we watched his movie on one of the biggest screens in the world, he edited this on a laptop. I don't think he could imagine the scope ... and what it does watching this on a big screen - I don't think he was aware of lighting issues or other issues (editing wise) that would arise.

But even without those you really have to suspend your disbelief ... you have to just take the flaws this throws at you (including some very bad acting and plot holes that might have been bigger than the screen we watched this on) ... if you can, maybe you'll be able to enjoy this more. But you live and learn and maybe the next effort of this filmmaker will be better.