By Gabby Foor
After my last opportunity to review a Dark Sky Films feature I was eager to see what The Creeping had to offer, and my god, I was not disappointed. This moving haunted house story hits all the marks a good ghost story should, whilst working in darker personal aspects like illness, grief and abuse. Jamie Hooper masterfully builds a family dynamic, then rips it apart between the gravity of the haunting and the horrific sins that inspired it. With gorgeous visuals and a talented cast, it looks like they’ve done it again with a truly unnerving film that is as dreadful as it is beautiful.
Starting in the past with a tender but creepy bedtime story, it seems young Anna and her father Harry (Johnathan Nyati) enjoy a good spooky tale. But when Anna ventures into the dark house against her father’s advice, a chair moves on its own, sending her fleeing. As the presence takes to hammering away at her door, it bursts open, and as it does, we burst into the year 1985, to Anna (Riann Steele) all grown up and seemingly past her brush with wickedness. With a tense string score setting the tone, we follow her to her grandmother (Jane Lowe) Lucy’s house, where Anna will be helping Karen (Sophie Thompson), her live-in caretaker, tend to Lucy’s needs as her dementia progresses. Tight shots on vacant spaces or family photos emphasize this family’s anxiety and loss as Anna faces discussing her father’s passing, as well as the fact that Lucy continually confuses Anna for Maggie, Anna’s mother, who passed away during childbirth.
After Karen tries to calm Anna’s fluctuating emotions about Lucy, she takes the time to get reacquainted with the property after a little ghostly moment in the bedroom. Nostalgia takes hold as one of a few wistful, gorgeous technicolor memories that appear throughout the film takes over for Anna, and she remembers fonder times in the house with her father. As the warmth of the moment fades, Anna returns to take over for Karen on the night watch and is forced to recall the death of her parents due to Lucy’s dementia. As Lucy tries to recall a song from Harry and Maggie’s wedding, she is driven to a frenzy, until it’s time for bed and her memory fails again, once again mistaking Anna for Maggie. This dance is painful to watch for anyone with aging parents as Anna tries to pierce the fog of the disease, but with minimal success.
At last on the first night, the entity – fond of 3:23am – plagues Anna with nightmares and visions (keep a close eye on them), opening her door to invite a similar exploration to her childhood. Instead of ghosts however, she finds Lucy, shrouded, methodically scrubbing the floor in a trance. This alone is enough of a horror movie if you’ve seen The Visit or The Taking of Deborah Logan. Exploration in the house the next morning leads to the discovery of a two-way baby alarm to keep an eye on Lucy, who is rambling that someone has been talking to her, “creeping around”, not that Karen pays any mind as she continues her duties. After getting Lucy fresh air in the garden, Lucy is distressed by something only she can see (for the moment) in the window we were focused on not that long ago, as we arrived at the house. Later, with Lucy finally tucked into bed, Anna can appreciate the pool, with the baby alarm not far away. While Anna enjoys her swim, however, she stops as she hears Lucy talking frantically through the feedback on the monitor, but there’s one thing she didn’t count on: that there is someone else talking back to her.
With influences and themes from films of all ages such as The Taking of Deborah Logan to The Dark and the Wicked, this film seamlessly blends the terrors of real life with supernatural pressures. Seeing Lucy in her frenzies as her illness consumes her, causing her to wander at night or behave in terrifying ways, reminds me how scary this disease is. On the other side, well timed and well utilized special effects deliver, and old-fashioned haunted house tricks make the movie tense throughout. Chairs are moved, cabinets bang, voices come from nowhere and glowing eyes cut through the dark; it’s classic but expected haunted house fare that doesn’t feel too stale here. What struck me was that the entity never overwhelms the message of the story, though its depiction and screen time is unsettling to say the least, especially when its motives are laid bare. This was evil once in human form: some secrets don’t want to stay buried, and every victim needs a voice. This delicate balance that collides into all of the answers we have been waiting for is perfectly executed to deliver the humanity of the family’s story as well as the sinister appearance and effects you may expect from an evil of this caliber.
This sordid subject matter preoccupied me at a primal level – that someone or something so close to me could be so evil and demented, or that people are all too capable of such repugnant acts as those in The Creeping. With that said, even with such delicate subject matter, Hooper and his team carry this with grace and taste, making no meals out of hard topics or victims. This story has a hell of an ending with reveals that unveil incredibly dark secrets, making sense of events and of each character’s arc. I can’t recommend this story enough, of a family and its discord, and a haunting so powerful it could split every member apart. Ending both with notes of tragedy and chords of hope, this story may not be happy, but it has heart-warming moments and a conclusion that redeems the horrors of the past. The Creeping is one of the best ghost stories I’ve seen in a while, and I hope you take the time, now that it’s out of the shadows and available for streaming, to take a look.
The Creeping (2022) is available now.