“Creep” (1995)

Studio: Twisted Illusions
Starring: Joel D. Wynkoop, Kathy Willets, Patricia Paul, Tom Karr, Asbestos Felt
Directed by: Tim Ritter
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 91 min.

Synopsis: A crazy brother sister team go on a killing rampage as they are tracked down by police.

REVIEW

The acting/directing team of Joel D. Wynkoop and Tim Ritter brought us a twisted disturbing film when they released their straight to video horror flick, Creep. The 90’s didn’t produce that many good horror movies, especially the ones major studios put out. So, you had to check out underground and independent horror films to get a good horror fix. Creep is one of the better films to come out of the 90’s independent horror scene and has become a cult classic.

The movie is about an escaped convict, Angus Lynch (Joel D. Wynkoop) who is raising havoc all over the state of Florida killing innocent people while he searches for his sister, Kascha (Kathy Willets). Their mother and her boyfriend sexually abused both Angus and Kascha when they were children. Angus was even forced to dress up like a girl and perform sex acts with his sister as their mother filmed it. This caused Angus to go crazy and he became a notorious serial killer. Angus finds Kascha, stripping at a sleazing strip club and she brings her brother home to meet her husband. Kascha’s husband treats her like shit, so Angus takes matters into his own hands and stabs him to death. Kascha joins in and starts to stomp on her bleeding husband for all the years of abuse towards her. Kascha joins up with her brother and the two go on a killing spree.

Meanwhile, a police officer, Jackie Ketchum (Patricia Paul) is trying to get all the scum off the streets and is using any means necessary. She is suspended by the chief of police who happens to be her father, David Ketchum (Tom Karr) for going to far when she catches a suspect trying to put poison in baby food and instead of just taking them in Jackie makes them eat the baby food that they poisoned. Jackie is also having nightmares of when her mother got murdered many years ago when she was just a little girl. Also, Jackie and her father’s life might in danger because David is the one that sent Angus to prison. Now Angus and his sister may be coming after both of them.

Tim Ritter makes a really good disturbing horror film with Creep. The whole tone of the film has a creepy atmosphere and all the characters are very twisted no matter if they are Angus Lynch or even the chief of police. Everyone in the film is either a creep, sick and twisted, angry as hell, or just demented. It shows that not only Angus and Kascha are messed up in the head, everyone is. This is true in characters like the person poisoning the baby food, Kascha’s abusive husband, a rapist who tries to attack Jackie in the park while she is jogging, even some of Angus’ victims are also twisted in the head, and both Jackie and her father David have their demons that they have to deal with. That is the world Ritter portrays in his film.

One major stand out in the film is the performance from Joel Wynkoop playing the crazed Angus Lynch. Wynkoop does an excellent job playing this creepy disgusting maniac and portrays this villain as a demented vicious killer, but also shows a sadness to the character and shows insight to Angus’s past and how he became the monster that he is in the film. Wynkoop received an award for best actor in 1995 at The Italian Film Festival for his role as Angus Lynch.

There are plenty of memorable moments throughout this film and most are very disturbing. The opening is a great scene where Angus escapes from a burning police car and then is chased by a police officer who becomes Angus’ first victim in the film. The scene where Kascha gives her husband toilet water to drink when he asks for a beer stands out. One of the disturbing scenes is when Angus is dressed in a woman’s wig and dress and he and his sister are making a photographer take their picture while they dance with a woman who they later murder. Another part that is disturbing is the cemetery scene where Angus and Kascha dig up their mother’s grave and pull out her rotting corpse. Angus and Kascha start to have sex with each other right in the grave with their mother’s corpse still lying in it.

When the film was released in 1995 it got some notoriety for having Kathy Willets in the film. Willets made headlines in Florida and around the country in the early 90’s for being a call girl with a husband who was a sheriff’s deputy officer that videotaped her having sex with high profile people in the community including some county officials. The husband would videotape the sex acts while he watched in the closet and the clients were unaware of this. Willets said that she was a nymphomaniac and needed sex all the time. Willets made a career off of this posing in magazines, performing in strip clubs and in adult films. She later wanted to do more with her career, so her and her husband contacted Ritter and asked if she could star in his next film. Creep even got some exposure before it was released when A Current Affair did a story on Willets starring in the movie and came on set when they were filming the graveyard scene.

Some interesting facts about the film, which are that Tom Karr who played Jackie’s father was a producer on the 1974 Ed Gein inspired film Deranged directed by Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen. Karr still had old props from Deranged that Tom Savini made of dead corpses. They used a head of one the corpses Savini made for Angus and Kascha’s mother. Karr was also an associated producer on Creep and originally wanted Creep to be called Deranged 2, but Ritter wanted his film to be on its own and not be connected to another movie.

There are a few things in Creep that connect to Ritter’s other films. There is a gravestone of Mike Strauber who is the killer in Truth or Dare and the same mental institution from Truth or Dare is mentioned, which is Sunnyvale. Also the lead character from Ritter’s film Killing Spree is featured in the film. Asbestos Felt reprises his role as Tom Russo in one scene where Angus takes refuge in a church after escaping and finds Russo hanging out in there.

As I mentioned before Creep is a twisted disturbing film and one of better independent low budget films to come out of the 90’s. It has a good story, great characters, some cool gore effects, and there is no shortage of T&A in the film. Creep is a must see for any Ritter or Wynkoop fan or if you just love cheap-o horror films that are good, then this is the one for you.