Mark Duplass returns as his ominous and mysterious serial killer character, sometimes dubbed "Peachfuzz" because of the wolf mask he wears in the first two movies. Except this time, we get to see him in bite-sized stories as the new series The Creep Tapes takes an episode approach. Each episode is set up like one of the killer's old tapes recently rediscovered, mimicking the found-footage format from the films.
Episode 1 kicks off with "Mike," and I'll admit that this episode, in particular, doesn't feel like much of a departure from the movies. It's another situation where the killer, who I'm going to keep calling Peachfuzz for simplicity's sake, lures an aspiring filmmaker to a creep cabin in the woods under the guise of wanting assistance in creating an acting coach video. He dangles $1,000 over Mike's head even as things get increasingly weird.
As we've seen before in Creep and Creep 2, it doesn't take long for Peachfuzz to become unsettling. He doesn't go about any of the filmmaking as one would expect. This is a character that might eventually resort to murder, but he relishes everything that comes before. While chatting with creators Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, Brice compared it to when a cat plays with a mouse. Once the mouse is dead, the cat has to move on and find something else to keep it entertained. It's similar here. After the murder, the tension is gone.
The Creep Tapes episode 1 really just feels like a shortened version of one of the movies, but that's not a bad thing. Duplass is so disturbing in this role and excels at creating unease that fans of suspenseful storytelling will find themselves gripped from the jump.
In some ways, it's almost like a procedural, we know what to expect at this point, but the fun part is seeing how they're going to get to that point where Mike ultimately realizes he's in an unescapable situation with a madman.
The first two episodes of The Creep Tapes are now on Shudder and AMC+, new episodes release on Fridays.