Creek (2007) by Lola Wallace

Director: Lola Wallace

Year: 2007

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: The Unfortunate

Genre: Ghosts

Plot:

Traveling through the desert to Las Vegas, a group of friends decide to stop off at a tourist spot in the area and decide to go exploring for gold which allows for the group to begin acting weird alerting them to the possibility that the stories involving the ghosts haunting the area might be true.

Review:

Overall, this is a decent enough genre effort. One of the better elements here is the rather fun setup that brings everyone together into the environment and encounters the various beings. Starting nicely with the initial setup of the group traveling through the desert on their way to a convention stopping to talk at the tourist pit which introduces them to the idea of the ghosts haunting the specific area where they’re sent to prospect for gold for fun, this all provides a fine way to get everyone together in the middle of nowhere as they are. As we get enough of their tastes and backstories along the way which provides the kind of fine intermingling setups involving the group being led astray and forced into trying to scour the local woods to find a way out but find themselves increasingly coming into the influence of the area, this early setup here is quite enjoyable and provides quite a lot to like.

With this setup established, the fantastic series of hauntings focused on the ghosts trying to torment and play with the group provides some more suspenseful sequences than expected. The first half featuring the slew of strange occurrences around the woods and the groups’ unnatural behavior toward each other are fine examples of the way this one changes the way the beings interact with others since it’s all psychological building up to their physical manifestations in the second half. These later scenes are far more creepy and chilling than expected, offering the kind of showcase setpieces where the ghosts’ completely chilling appearance starts making more of an impact as things start to turn into possession-style hauntings where the victims are taken over and forced to experience visions from the ghosts. This combination allows for some fun times here and gives the film a lot to like that holds it up.

There are some issues to bring this one down. Among its few problems is a convoluted and somewhat confusing finale that has a lot going on that doesn’t make much sense. While the action presented in most of this one manages to be enjoyable enough for what’s going on, the fact that so much of the action here tends to come about due to the film skipping around between keeping the action in the present and the ghosts’ human forms in the past acting out the activity that got them killed in the first place. It’s all jumbled together in a way that gives everything such a chaotic mindset that didn’t need to occur since the rest of the film had been pretty obvious about what was going on. In addition to this, the low-budget origins of the film are somewhat obvious and can be a really big factor against this one where it looks and feels pretty flimsy as a result, holding this one down overall.

Overview: ***.5/5

A far better-than-expected genre effort, there’s a lot to like here in terms of a fun setup and some solid hauntings to hold itself up over its few minor drawbacks that bring this one down. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of the style or are curious about this one but most others out there who aren’t into these factors should heed caution.