75
In terms of formal orchestration, Creepy is as sublime as any prior Kiyoshi Kurosawa film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
All of these ingredients should come together in a mouth-watering finale, but such is not the case; in fact, the film becomes more obvious and less psychological as it goes on.
83
The Film Stage by Giovanni Marchini Camia
Together with the camera’s constantly creeping pans and dollies — as well as the bilious green tinge that permeates each frame — the film thus generates a sense of unease that intensifies very gradually and unremittingly, reaching an extreme pitch by the time of its denouement.
83
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Perturbed and darkly funny.
90
Screen International by Jonathan Romney
When the film shifts into territory less Hitchcockian than Lynchian – with a touch of Park Chan-wook’s Asian Gothic – the quiet confidence of Kurosawa’s approach has paid off, allowing him to vault into this more intense register. It’s not all just ghoulish fun, though: there’s a serious subtext here involving everyday evil.
90
The film supplies a headlong rush of tension and cruelty all the way to a gratifying final payoff.
80
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Creepy certainly works — looks and feels — like a horror movie, but it also has the conundrums of a detective story, the emotional currents of a domestic drama and the quickening pulse of a psychological thriller, a combination that creates a kind of destabilization.
80
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
Creepy uses silence as a tool of terror, following its characters through long, tense scenes where everything’s a little too quiet, and where each creak sounds like a scream. The director has always excelled at making the ordinary seem unsettling.
60
Uneven, convoluted and laden with far too many twists and turns Creepy sadly struggles to balance both terror and suspense, with any intrigue dissipating long before the film's secrets are eventually unravelled.
90
What's the opposite of a jump scare? Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has mastered it in the superb Creepy, revealing the upsetting details with such slow-build subtlety that you don't notice your skin crawling until it's halfway out the door.
Not your average serial killer mystery. Kurosawa does a great job of keeping you guessing and making the twists and developments really surprising while maintaining a lot of tension and suspense throughout the film.