Movies
[Review] Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘Creepy’ Earns its Title
It has been 10 years since Kiyoshi Kurosawa unleashed a horror film unto the world (2006’s Retribution), and even longer since his smash hits Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001). He returns to the genre he is known for with Creepy, which has its Texas premiere at the Austin Asian American Film Festival tomorrow night. Creepy is a slow burn thriller that has a few pacing issues, but committed performances and fascinating direction make the film worth a watch.
Based on the novel by Yutaka Maekawa and co-written by Chihiro Ikeda and Kurosawa himself, Creepy starts promisingly. The film opens in an interrogation room in which expert criminal psychologist Koichi Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is interrogating a man who he deems to be the “perfect psychopath.” After a mishap leaves the criminal dead and Takakura wounded, he quits the force and retires to the countryside with his wife Yasuko (Yûko Takeuchi). He eventually grows restless and begins looking into a missing persons case from six years ago in which a father, mother and son disappeared, leaving behind the daughter Saki (Haruna Kawaguchi) with no memory of what happened. Meanwhile, Yasuko tries to befriend their new neighbor Mr. Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa) who is the embodiment of the film’s title.
Kurosawa telegraphs fairly early on that Nishino is somehow connected to the missing persons case. This makes the first hour or so of the film’s 130-minute runtime drag in places. The last act is appropriately disturbing, but because you know exactly where it’s going it takes a lot of the suspense out of the proceedings. There are still plenty of twists and turns to be had, as Saki slowly regains her memory of what happened the night her family disappeared and Nishino’s invalid wife, who never comes out of the house, is repeatedly brought up in conversation but never seen. It’s also difficult to avoid the chills that are sent up your spine when Nishino’s daugher tells Takakura “He’s not my father. He’s a total stranger.” The horror elements are there and they are effective, but the film could have easily been trimmed by about 20 minutes.
That being said, Creepy is filmed expertly. Kurosawa frames his shots from a distance, giving many scenes an impersonal feel. You begin to feel like a voyeur spying on your neighbor, which is undoubtedly the intention. Akiko Ashizawa’s cinematography is also impressive, such as a scene in which the camera pans out at an overhead angle, showing just how alone the Takakura is in an abandoned neighborhood. It works from a literal standpoint and as a metaphor for the inner turmoil he is suffering from. So if you find yourself bored with the events transpiring on screen, you will at least be mesmerized by the filming style.
Every performer gives a remarkably committed performance, but the true standout is Kagawa as the eerie Nishino and his sinister smile (pictured above). He is, well, creepy. One moment he’s amiable and the next he’s withdrawn and a few moments later he’s absolutely loathsome. The shifts in character are seamless and simply engrossing. Frustrations will be had with nearly every character in the film, as they are all incredibly flawed and make some terrible choices. This can make Creepy difficult to watch at times, but it does provide a necessary amount of realism to the characters.
Creepy isn’t exactly the return to form that fans are expecting from Kurusawa, but there is plenty to like about it. Filled with top-notch performances, haunting cinematography and wonderful direction from Kurusawa, Creepy is worth checking out for those looking for a creepy (sorry) good time.
Creepy will have its Texas premiere at the Austin Asian American Film Festival on Saturday November 5th at 8:45pm CT.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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