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.

Being from upstate New York, I loved all the upstate New York references and all the subtle Easter eggs you wouldn't see them then if you weren't looking for them. I thought the lighting was awesome and some great camera shots, angles like an old style, classic Halloween slash and dash movie. There are also many things that were unanswered and left open for a possible sequel or part 2. The bad guys mask was epic, that should be in all the Halloween stores this year in my opinion. The dude's eyes and twisted smile were very well thought up and put together. If youre from upstate New York, and you pay attention you'll see a lot of the same things that I saw. As a 'watch too much TV and shows' kind of person I thought this was a great first shot at what could be a series. 👏 👏

With no expectations going in, I was delighted to find this movie being one of those hilariously terrible, so-bad-it's-good movies that you can laugh with and at from beginning to end.

If only there were some more gold nuggets of lines like "Do you know how to have a conversation, dude?" and "My nipples are as hard as rocks!" and "Oh no, it's face, that's a face, that's a face!" and "This is why you never got into film school, you know nothing about cinematography" (ironic!), this would be deserving of yearly rewatches in cult fashion.

Oh, and it's pretty amazing how some people created IMDb accounts just to give this one a 10 star rating and a review with remarkably high praise. So weird, right?!

As I happened to stumble upon the 2023 horror movie "Creeping Death" by chance here in 2024, I opted to watch it since it was a horror movie that I had not seen before, much less actually heard about. And thus, I suppose that writer and director Matt Sampere has every opportunity to entertain and scare me with this movie.

The storyline was pretty straightforward, and while it certainly was a watchable horror movie, you're not in for a grand horror experience from writer and director Matt Sampere. The movie was, at best, a generic horror experience. Sure, I found the storyline to be adequate, but it was by no means a movie that brought anything new to the horror genre.

While I was actually not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, I will say that the acting performances were actually fair. They had a good ensemble of actors and actresses to portray the various characters in the movie.

Visually then the movie was okay. It was not a movie that made use of an abundance of special effects. But whatever effects were in the movie were actually fair enough and served their purpose.

If you enjoy horror movies, by all means give "Creeping Death" a chance. You might just happen to enjoy the movie a lot more than I did. There are far worse horror movies out there, so why not give this movie a fair chance?

My rating of "Creeping Death" lands on a five out of ten stars.