Creep Box (2023) is a must see

When you see CREEP BOX be ready  for a slow burn thriller. The filmmakers want to create a slow burn sense of unease that over time gets under your skin and creeps you out. There are no big jump scares or over the top frightening moments. I am saying this right at the top because this is a special film that needs to be seen on its own terms with no expectations.  And while there is no big scares there are numerous moments that are going to make you gasp.

That’s a rave.

The film is about a company that has developed a machine that can simulates a person before they died. Using it one an converse with the deceased. As long as they don’t mention certain subjects. The company is looking for funding to continue research as well as a government contract from the Department of Justice who think this could be helpful in criminal cases. Heading the project is a moody scientist who is suffering from grief, the result of the death of his wife a year earlier.

Get some popcorn and a drink of choice then sit back, belt in and go with CREEP BOX to the end. This is a supernatural tinged science fiction thriller set in place just like our own. The whole film is set in offices and homes we know and as a result we can’t distance ourselves from the weird stuff. Sure there is a couple of scientific work spaces, but they are not the main locations. We are in the  places where many of us work and live so we accept what we are seeing even more.

What makes this film so great is that while we are watching the characters try to make their machine  work the film is also quietly forcing us to ponder the nature of grief. How do we process it? How do we live it? Can we ever get over it? The film quietly keeps these questions out of the forefront until the end. As we begin the run to the end we are finally clued into what the film is actually about. Gloriously, and unlike the vast majority of films that try to so something like this, CREEP BOX blends the themes with narrative so that we don’t see the larger questions if we don’t want to. Additionally it’s so well blended that when we reach the end we want to go again right away so that we can see how the themes tied everything together.

And before you walk away know this is a great thriller beyond the themes. Watching the little box work is really uncomfortable. I say that because it made me never want to use the box were it real. I mean it made my skin crawl.

That’s a rave.

If you can go with a low key thriller with a big, but quiet, emotional punch at the end then CREEP BOX is one you’ll want to see.

Creep Box next screens at April's Philip K. Dick Film Festival, which takes place at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. For more information and tickets go here.