Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (Pulse, The Cure) new movie Creepy is aptly named.  It is a slow-burning film that is seemingly about two totally unrelated storylines that build and grow stranger as they go on, only to snap together with quiet, deadly precision. It might start out as a weird suspense story, but it ends up being a horrific tale, well-told.

Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a college professor who used to be a police officer, but retired after a hostage situation went very very badly. He now lectures on crime and serial killers. He and his wife Yasuko (Yûko Takeuchi ) move to a house in a new neighborhood, where the neighbors are aloof, acerbic, and not interested in being friendly. The oddest of them is Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa) who at first is gruff and dismissive, but soon turns oddly apologetic and reassuring, and then turns on a dime again to be insinuating and accusing. His daughter Mio claims he’s not really her father, and the wife is nowhere to be seen.  Kagawa’s performance is weird, wonderful, and kept me off balance and constantly made me question his motives–what is Nishino up to?

The dual storyline is complemented by a six-year-old missing family case, in which the teenaged daughter was left behind but doesn’t remember anything about that fateful day and just wants to be left alone.  Takakura gets asked to unofficially consult on this case by a friend who is still on the force, and, as they work through this disappearance, Takakura begins to talk to his friend about his neighbor problems. The way these two investigations intersect with and weave around each other is masterful and grows a sense of unease throughout its two hour running time. I was completely enthralled.

Even though there’s no gore or big scares, I would still call this a horror movie simply because of the weirdness it stirs up and the depraved depths Kurosawa is willing to take us to.  When I realized what Nishino had done (and was willing to go even further) I genuinely got creeped (heh) out.  It might not be the most original ending–it’s no Oldboy or Audition, that’s for sure–but Kurosawa pulls it off with a flat dispassionate eye that somehow underlines the madness and enhances it.

It’s not perfect.  Characters make bad choices and go along with bad suggestions and they don’t run or fight back when they should.  There are a few situations that strained credulity a wee bit (Mio goes off to school each day and doesn’t mention her…uh…”circumstances” to anyone?) and those instances do bring it down a notch or two in my estimation, but it’s mostly a good, solid, unsettling piece of work that, if nothing else, will give you some ideas about how a vacuum and a plastic bag can be used for sinister purposes. Uncle Mike sez check it out. The trailer is below!