The Creep Tapes: Season 3 debuts September 15 on Shudder and AMC+ with the first two episodes of the 6-episode season.
It’s no easy feat keeping a series interesting once it hits its middle years, especially those with a formula or structure crucial to its core. Thankfully for Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass, the third season of their television brainchild, The Creep Tapes, shows no signs of slowing down on that front, much like high-concept cousins 24 and Lost in their time. While it’s far from the same kind of show in story and plot, the Shudder horror series is like-minded in its dedication to encouraging its concept to go as far as it needs to go. That mindset is crucial in making these kinds of shows work, and The Creep Tapes continues to prove what a winning concept centering the show on a serial killer known as Peachfuzz (or Josef, or…) and his world has been from day one.
As the show has proven in its desire to explore and play within the found footage structure — and, as a result, to push it to places we haven’t seen it go before — since the first season, that continuing desire has become a necessary foundation in keeping the audience invested in Peachfuzz’s twisted story. In Season 3, that spirited sense of experimentation still permeates the entire project in a way that feels fresh and inspired.
The found footage conundrum, where filmmakers sometimes struggle to build stories that don’t feel laden with overdone tropes of the subgenre, is almost nowhere to be found in the show’s latest batch of tapes. Sure, the series still sometimes relies on the basic premise that got it here in the first place, and employs classic found footage tropes that are staples of the medium — even rendering the episodes a tad slow here and there — but it almost always ups the ante in the next moment. In fact, this season reaches some serious heights with a top-notch episode that takes place on a private plane… and that’s all I’m giving you, because I refuse to spoil an excellent episode that you should see for yourself. It’s once again clear that Brice and Duplass aren’t messing around when it comes to crafting killer compact narratives that service the greater story.
Speaking of story, the films that started the Creep Tapes saga — 2014’s Creep, starring Duplass and Brice; and 2017’s Creep 2, with Duplass and the smart and fierce Desiree Akhavan — laid pretty basic but wonderful groundwork for a tale that could’ve stayed simple. The movies packed a punch with the basic premise, but then The Creep Tapes went back over previously tread ground and tilled the soil again, allowing its audience to discover what was buried beneath. Season 3 is no exception, and though we’re still discovering pieces to the puzzle, it feels very satisfying to see new bread crumbs being laid in the wonderful cosmic trenches that are Peachfuzz’s secretive origins and upbringing.
Another element of the series that continues to keep us hungry for more Creep is Duplass himself. He’s been playing this character for over a decade now, and it so easily could’ve lost its spark for him somewhere along the way, especially with the found footage conceit, which can be limiting to those unwilling or unable to think outside the box. Instead, Peachfuzz has only become more intriguing and enticing to the man who embodies him, and boy does it show in the work. Duplass is just as smug, beguiling, unsettling, and downright insane as ever in Season 3, and he reminds the audience once again that this character is one that deserves a permanent spot in the horror hall of fame.
As always, Duplass and his monumental character would be incomplete, and far less interesting to watch, without a cast of victims as well crafted as he is. All of Peachfuzz’s prey thus far bring a sense of sobering humanity (and various degrees of hilarity) to the terrifying, unfortunate, and almost absurd situation of being stuck in the same place as our central antagonist. It’s both a writing and a performance thing, and this season’s crop of guest stars is as good as ever. They each elicit the sledgehammer smack and subsequent ache of tragic irony needed for their demise — and this concept as a whole — to be effective.
Though every victim brings something to the table, the standouts this season are particularly bright lights within the darkness of this story. Kate Siegel presents something of a match for Peachfuzz and feels similar to Duplass’ wife Katie Aselton in her surprising and smart Season 2 episode and Akhavan before her in Creep 2. She’s raucous and wild — which he taps into with verve and spunk as he pretends to be an aging rockstar throughout the episode — and almost as unpredictable as he is. It’s always fun to watch a character try to step up to Peachfuzz before succumbing to his mind tricks and swift killing hands, and Siegel scratches that itch beautifully.
Meanwhile, in the aforementioned private plane episode, Rekha Shankar shines as an eager journalist chasing a story by any means necessary, even if said means involve an apparently swanky plane ride. She embodies the crucial qualities of a good journalist — studious, curious, kind, unflinching — and does a brilliant job of crumbling realistically when the insanity hits the fan. One of my favorite alternative comedians and actors, Jeffrey Self, also brings his strong comedic chops to the episode as the flight attendant on board, and when he and Peachfuzz go head-to-head in a personality clash, it reminds the audience how funny this show can really be. Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention Ora Duplass, who gives a smart and naturalistic performance in the season finale opposite a pitch-perfect nice guy turn from Elliott Fullam of the Terrifier films.
All of this is to ask one thing about The Creep Tapes as it gives us a third season: Do we want more at this point? It’s a question that has been asked a few times now about this franchise, with a premise and character that could feel like overkill fast without the right treatment. The answer has been yes thus far, and Duplass and Brice have met that sentiment with an inventiveness that taps into true terror at every turn time and time again. Based on what the pair cooked up for us this time around, the answer thankfully continues to be yes.
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