Creepypasta review.
Screambox brings us a horror anthology that does an impressive job sustaining atmosphere despite its short segments. Creepypasta‘s bite-sized horror stories combine for a fun watch.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Creepypasta streams exclusively on Screambox May 23
Creepypasta
Directed by Carlos Cobos Aroca, Berkley Brady, Mikel Cravatta, Carlos Omar De Leon, Daniel Garcia, Tony Morales, Paul Stamper and Buz Wallick
Written by David Bond, Gregory S. Burkart, Vincent Vena Cava, Carlos Omar De Leon, Daniel Garcia, Tony Morales, Marc Vidal Morcillo and Rebecca Swan
Starring Angelic Zambrana, Silivia Casanova, Griffen Robert Faulkner, Anthony T. Solano and Eva Isanta
Creepypasta Review
I’ll admit I didn’t know what Creepypasta meant when I learned of this movie. It probably ages me to say that…but I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word before. If you find yourself in a similar position to me…I can do your google work for you: Creepypasta refers to horror related content shared around the internet. So…Slender Man is an example of this…something I had heard of but didn’t know fell into a specifically branded category. Last year’s Grimcutty is another. Perhaps they said the term within that film and my brain just let it pass by. Either way…here we have a horror anthology that takes the term as both its title and central plot device.
A man wakes up in a house with a couple of dead bodies and searches for information on usb flash drives. The drives contain short, unrelated videos of people experiencing unexplained phenomena. Will he find the drive with the clues he’s looking for before he runs out of time? Will his mind stay intact even if he does?
Creepypasta does a very good job in keeping a consistent tone despite being comprised of unrelated sort stories. There are ten segments contained in the wraparound story. It holds its impressive atmosphere throughout almost every video. Given the different writers/directors and cast involved in producing parts of the film…this is no small accomplishment. Anthology movies often suffer from a section of two that break up the flow or feel of the overall product. Creepypasta conquers this issue by featuring so many segments…and not letting any of them overstay their welcome.
Let’s start with the wraparound story. Traditionally, these are tough. Creepypasta mostly keeps theirs simple. Purely a device to give us access to the ten short stories that comprise the bulk of the film. That is until we reach the end and learn a lot more about the man we’ve been watching and what his exact predicament is. It’s not bad…which is all you can really ask from the framing story. There are a couple of neat moments at the end to pay off a story you didn’t know was being told.
In addition to the framing device, Creepypasta also employs a narrator. It’s mostly filler until the end of the movie where it too is given more context. I generally find narration that isn’t done for comedic purposes to be unnecessary. That’s true here too until it isn’t. It’s nice to have a trope recontextualized in a way that makes it a forgiving plot device.
An anthology is only as good as the segments that make it up. Creepypasta doesn’t have anything that I’d call a standout section…but what it does do is string together a steady line of effective shorts. The whole is made greater by the sum of its parts. There isn’t one bad segment in Creepypasta. Even if you come across something that doesn’t strike your fancy…they’re all so short that it won’t disrupt your enjoyment of the overall film.
While there is no official throughline connecting the ten short segments in Creepypasta…many of them do have a similar premise. A person (or persons) in a house where a boogeyman or monster of some kind exists just out of sight. These usually climax with the protagonist being pulled back into the darkness by the visitor. And here’s the thing…it works. Like…every time. Whether it is a monster under the bed, something in your peripheral vision, a tall boogeyman, or a creepy kid with balloons. Whether it’s an old lady, a group of wine drinking friends, a babysitter, or a guy watching his tv. Creepypasta deals in the familiar and that’s what keeps its effectiveness rolling.
I’d argue that nine of the ten segments aim for a feeling of familiarity and realism. Only one segment of a man being lured into the woods with a surprising payoff breaks that mold. Mostly, Creepypasta is interested in making you think twice about the sound you think you heard or object you think you saw the next time that you are alone in the house. It’s the commitment to this idea that lets the movie build tension as opposed to restarting the clock with each new story.
With ten strong, and brief, segments and a framing story that does what it needs to…Creepypasta is one of the more consistent anthologies we’ve seen in a while. That consistency of atmosphere and focus on things that go bump in the night make Creepypasta work differently than many anthologies. And better than most.
Scare Value
We’ve covered enough anthologies by now to have pointed out the pitfalls of the genre. Creepypasta manages to avoid some of the biggest ones by presenting short stories that feel connected even though they aren’t. Style, atmosphere, a shared brevity…the ten segments contained mostly feel right at home together. The wraparound story isn’t the best (or worst) we’ve seen…but it does what it needs to.
3.5/5
Creepypasta Link
Streaming on Screambox May 23
Creepypasta Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Creepypasta, check out Messiah of Evil and Clock
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