The film starts with Kate, played by the lovely Franka Potente, on her way to catch a train to meet and possibly shag George Clooney. Upon arriving at the train station, she falls asleep waiting for the last train. When she wakes, everyone else is gone. Kate boards a train and is attacked by fellow co-worker Guy, who is coked up and ready to rape her. Something unseen grabs guy and Kate flees into the tunnels. That's the basic premise without giving anything away.
Along Kate's journey we are introduced to several supporting players including a trapped sewer worker, a dickish security guard, Guy the rapist, and an easily likable homeless couple. In addition, there's the Creep. The Creep is the tunnel dwelling antagonist in this film and a creepy one at that.
Jimmy and Mandy are the homeless couple who attempt to help Kate. Instead of making Jimmy the typical hobo often portrayed in this type of film, we get a caring protector who is a good person despite his circumstances. We also get some back story on most of the supporting cast, which makes the viewer actually grow attached and care about their fate.
The Creep is a pretty interesting villain. We never get a confirmation on his back story, but we don't always need to know what makes the "bad guy" tick. We can infer where his evil comes from and that suffices, as it adds an air of mystery. Effects wise, he looks pretty damn good. It would have been easy to use a poorly created CGI creature but the director smartly opts to use an actor with some pretty terrific prosthetics. In addition, the gore is well done as well, with out going overboard into "torture porn" territory.
The performances are all pretty solid. The Creep is sufficiently creepy, Kate is strong yet likable, Jimmy is easily identifiable and Guy is easy to despise. There are also some pretty creepy scenes, one of which builds a good amount of suspense and is quite heartbreaking.
The film does have flaws though. One of which is the fact that Kate had numerous opportunities to kill the Creep, but instead left him wounded and pissed. Another is the ridiculous actions of the security guard, demanding to see the body of an injured person before sending help! However, these flaws are easy to overlook when one considers the achievements the film reaches, especially on a modest budget. I recommend checking this one out. It's not perfect, but it delivers. It's effectively creepy, theres some character development and quality effects. Creep is certainly better than alot of the mainstream crap being force fed to us under the label of horror. I'm looking at you The Roommate.
Highlight Scene: George the sewer worker desperately trying to distract the Creep while Kate tries to swim to safety is quite suspenseful. In addition, the "abortion scene" is particularly horrific despite the fact that there is almost no gore shown. Here, what is implied is much more terrifying than what we're shown.
Highlight Quote: Creep- (mimicking Mandy) "Please don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you want. If you let me go, I won't tell anybody. Jimmy....?"
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