Creepy · reception & legacy
2016 · Kiyoshi Kurosawa
How Creepy has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Warmly received at its Berlinale 2016 premiere as Kurosawa's return to the psycho-thriller mode of Cure after years of quieter dramas, it initially read as 'minor Kurosawa' — but its stock has climbed steadily, and it now turns up regularly in best-horror-of-the-2010s conversations.
What's debated
The perennial fight is over the characters' behavior in the back half — is it maddening illogic, or exactly the trance-like dream logic Kurosawa has been perfecting since Cure?
Its footprint
Teruyuki Kagawa's neighbor Nishino has become shorthand among horror fans for the all-time creepiest movie neighbor — the 'I'm not sure about my own personality' unease of his performance is the thing everyone quotes reviews around.
Where it stands
A cult favourite in the Kurosawa deep cut tier — the standard 'watch this next after Cure and Pulse' recommendation, with Letterboxd reviews boosted retrospectively by Hidetoshi Nishijima's post-Drive My Car fame.