On the fifth anniversary of the death of their friend Billy, six friends are forced back together by his ghost. Billy’s death was officially considered an accident but old suspicions and conflicts return. When people start dying they all must ask themselves if it’s his ghost, one of them, or because they returned to The Creek?
They think Billy is trying to tell them something about his death, and they decide to return to the cabin (at the creek) where it all started, for the five year anniversary of Billy’s death . They learn some new things about themselves, and it doesn’t take long for old resentments and divisions to rear their heads. “We don’t have stuck-up bitch beer.” The storyline is reminiscent of I Know What You Did Last Summer and those type of movies…
They mention how they never saw Billy drunk, and it’s unlikely he would have drunkenly slipped and hit his head. Gee, didn’t they ever think about this stuff 5 years ago, for heaven’s sake?. “ I never really bought the fact that it was an accident.” Ya ever mention this to the police?
As they reveal more of the characters’ relationships over the course of the night, we discover more have motivations for the killings. Cue impalement by tree branch. They start blaming each other, but can’t leave, because somebody pulled all the wires outta their cars!
Billy’s ghost shows up very time somebody dies, but is Billy doing it or some crazy bastard running around the forest killing everyone?
Music by Tim Jesiolowski was pretty strong, and added some needed oomph to the movie. Obviously SOV, but looks OK for that. Competently directed by Erik Souilliard, the quality of the filming, lighting, etc., is good, better than the acting , which is so-so and mutes the impact of some of Souilliard’s smart-ass dialogue. Some of the actors’ reactions to the ghosts (and their friends getting offed all around them) seemed simplistic and wooden.
The action scenes also leave something to be desired. At one point a character has a small 2 x 4, and barely taps two guys, who both immediately fall to the ground, unable to move from that terrible blow. When the guys get hit by car it looks a bit fake too.
But Kathryn Merry is alright as Angel, the cute lead with the fucked-up hair you hope gets killed last, and director Souilliard is decent as hapless Jesse. I 
liked the asshole character Calvin, he was good in a non-actor way, coming in with a very enthusiastic portrayal. He seemed to be having fun with the role, and made me like his character, more than all the wishy-washy wimpy good characters. I was rooting for him! Even so, this film drags towards the end, and is not scary enough for horror fans and the gore isn’t enough to put it over.
It’s not really a slasher, it’s more of a mystery. It seeks to be taut and suspenseful, but doesn’t quite succeed, since we don’t get to know the characters well enough to care when they start turning up dead. And we’re not shown much of their friendships, so we have to guess at that, and it’s a little hard to relate to them. They become archetypes instead of real characters. I was reminded at one point of Stephen King, you know, a story with a rural setting, with a group of childhood friends facing the supernatural etc, etc, but without the benefit of King’s obsessive backstories.
It suffers from an underwhelming ending – The psycho went on a killing rampage ’cause nobody was friends with him? Boo hoo. Well, I guess that is a classic 80s style move, but…it seems kinda silly, that someone who is portrayed a s such a selfish sociopathic asshole would even CARE what anyone else thought.
The story itself is OK, seems to me a bit of an 80s throwback. It’s a labor of love that I have nothing but respect for, you know, the eternal story of the indie filmmaker: Shot on location with help from friend sand family, shot on weekends, starring themselves. The producer is the annoying screaming screechy girl) and director is in it as well. Those two (they’re husband and wife too!) seem to have done the lion’s share of other production work on the picture as well. Pretty good production values on a limited budget, with nice fades, wipes, etc.
For what it is it’s OK, but it is too long. Some of the talky stuff could have been cut with no loss. The high points would be the professional look – camera placement, movement and lighting and assorted trickery, etc., and the snappy dialogue. Low points would be acting and action sequences.
For more info go to: http://www.thecreekmovie.com/.
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