クリーピー偽りの隣人 (Creepy – 2016)

written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Chihiro Ikeda

based on the novel Kurīpī by Yutaka Maekawa

directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

クリーピー偽りの隣人 (English title: Creepy) is a Japanese suspense thriller in which a former police detective (Hideyoshi Nishijima) moves with his wife (Yuko Takeuchi) to a new house and soon starts to suspect that his weird neighbor (Teruyuki Kagawa) may be, in fact, a killer. This is not a new idea for sure, and has worked in countless movies before, from Rear Window (1954) to Disturbia (2007). And for a while it also works here, as the ex-cop gets increasingly paranoid given his background in serial killer psychology. Could it all be in his imagination?

I wish, since that would’ve been more interesting. No, there are indeed dirty deeds being done (dirt cheap?), and the film plods along rather tediously to a convoluted climax filled with ridiculous character decisions. Because when you see a dark corridor leading to a giant metal door, you just go investigate, right? I don’t know, despite a deliciously bonkers performance by Kagawa as the homicidal maniac, I found Creepy unsatisfying and, well, not creepy enough.

Rating: **

Carlos I. Cuevas