The London Underground is the true star of the show in Creep, as sewage works introduce us to the dank milieu before we see a woman en route to a party getting stuck overnight at Charing Cross.
Creep – not to be confused with the stellar POV horror which came out a decade later – exploits all the horrors that can be found in subways, tunnels, the isolation, the smells/sewage, noise, junkies, rats etc. (and boy, are there a lot of rats). And it relishes in its location too, unlike say, the Bradley Cooper-starrer, Midnight Meat Train, wherein the subway system is just background rather than foreground too.
The specificity of locale is a plus, and Creep will definitely resonate with big city commuters above others.
Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) plays Kate, whose pre-drinking makes her pass out on the platform. She boards the last train, only to be accosted by a randy colleague from a prior office party.
But Creep takes a detour from what could’ve been a stalk-and-slash thriller, a la the similarly plotted though quite great of its type, P2, which features a protagonist trapped in an underground parking garage. It brings subterranean terror through a deformed Hills Have Eyes-esque antagonist, operating a sewer dungeon/lab.
There are a few horrors that tap the anxiety of subway commutes, most notably Maniac and Demons, courtesy of the Berlin S-Bahn and the creepy man in the chrome mask. But few would dare set a whole film there, and populate it with pretty accurate characters too – affable homeless people, indifferent security guards, reluctant union/city workers .
***1/2 (out of 5)
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