The Creek (2007)
Reviewed by Geno McGahee - August 31, 2008
“Some things don’t go unpunished.” – Angel (Kathryn Merry)
There have been many movies about groups of friends getting together after many years due to an unexpected and tragic death. We had THE CLASS REUINION MASSACRE, SLAUGHTER HIGH, INVITATION, and CRAZY EIGHTS, but now we have the low budget production putting a new spin on the story in Erik Soulliard’s THE CREEK. Soulliard and Annubis Productions bring forth this film that will be released on October 28th, proving that you don’t need a huge budget to bring quality to the screen, although it does suffer from some of the typical low budget problems, which I will get into.
We begin with a group of friends that all have suffered the loss of a friend, Billy (Tim Jesiolowski), but they are now seeing him in ghost form. It’s CGI, and typically cheap CGI is a recipe for disaster, but it’s not too bad when you see the ghost roaming around and making scary faces. Ghosts have a hard time communicating, so scary faces are a good way to show emotion and to tell the group that something is very wrong.
The group congregates initially at Jesse’s (Erik Soulliard) garage, and that is where they all tell the tale and admit that they are seeing ghosts. They agree that there must be a reason for this and agree to return to the place where Billy had died…a cabin in the woods. We have the bartender, punky redhead, Angel (Kathryn Merry), the nice guy Coop (Brian Jesiolowski), the annoying gabber, Emily (Melissa Rhoades), my personal favorite character in the film,  the over-actor, Calvin (Dave Foster), the blonde bitchy chic, Elise (Nancy Soulliard), and of course, the mechanic, Jesse. The entire group gather around a fire and try to decide just what the best course of action is, but tempers begin to flare. Jesse and Calvin begin to have it out in one of the amusing moments of the film. The overacting by Foster is hilarious and Soulliard does well in return.
Other conflicts arise and arguments ensue concerning past problems within the group, including the debate: Who did Billy love the most. Some of the dialogue in this movie, which is totally dialogue driven…something I like and want to see more of, is uneven and it drags a bit, but there’s some very decent writing as well and it remains interesting.
 As they try to discover just what ghost Billy wants, the group begins to get slaughtered, and you have to assume that it’s that damn ghost, or this is a whodunit. (Spoiler) Whodunit…I love whodunits. They all get stranded there when the cars are messed with and the blame game begins as the group points fingers at each other with Calvin being the best bet. He is hated for the most part because he is obnoxious and arrogant…and hilarious. When he is on the screen, he steals the show. I found Foster’s portrayal very amusing.
I thought that Kathryn Merry has a lot of potential, but her performance was uneven. Her emotions were somewhat robotic. Brian Jesiolowski nailed the part as Coop as the nice guy. Foster gave the most memorable performance. I guess I can say that overall, the acting was above average for a movie of this budget, but there is a lot of potential in this cast and I think that the next time around, they’ll improve.
THE CREEK is what low budget horror is all about: heart and drive. Erik Soulliard paints a vivid picture and puts it across the best that he can with the restrictions that he had. In a recent article, I covered many of the future faces in the horror world and Soulliard is ready to throw his name into the hat and I was impressed by his first effort. If you like films like SLAUGHTER HIGH, then you will enjoy this one. I recommend it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10. A decent low budget whodunit.
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