There’s a lot of talk about the way Creep is being distributed and how groundbreaking its distribution model is. Can you tell us more about that?
Mark Duplass: Sure. We made this movie and we didn’t know that anyone was ever going to see it, and since I made it I’ve developed a new partnership with Netflix. They are now in tons more countries than they were even two years ago, and when you’re making a small independent film in the English language, there’s not a lot of international value to it. So what where doing with this movie is we’ve premiered it on iTunes last week and it’s available exclusively on iTunes for three weeks, and that is based upon those people who know my movies and know Patrick from The Overnight and know Blumhouse and really want to come buy that movie, and they will come see it there.
But then there’s this whole other people who don’t even know who we are in all these other countries, and Netflix is using its prowess and its international muscle to premiere the movie day and date worldwide in every single platform it owns, so we gave them worldwide rights to do whatever they want with it. So in the next couple of weeks, it will hit Netflix all over the world day and date, and I’m really excited to open up what we do to new fans because I honestly don’t expect someone in Latin America to spend $12 to see a little POV film that we made by people who they don’t know. But they’ll click on it for free if it’s in their Netflix subscription, and they’re hearing about it from the Netflix marketing team. So it’s a really cool opportunity to just get more eyeballs on the movie.
Most people see my movies on Netflix and I’ve learned to embrace that, and I think it’s a wonderful way to have these smaller movies get seen. I don’t blame anyone for spending $12 to see Jurassic World instead of coming to see Creep. I get it. But come see us on iTunes and Netflix. That’s the right place. It makes sense to me.
And speaking of The Overnight, I did see that as well and enjoyed it. Both this and Creep deal with characters who you think you know, but as time goes on, the truths about them become unraveled. Is that something you like to explore as a writer and filmmaker?
Patrick Brice: Yeah. They’re both movies about being afraid of meeting new people, one resulting in a more sinister experience than the other. But I think there’s an optimism in both of them and, whether or not it works out in one more so than it does in the other, I see that as a running theme.
I liked both movies because they take turns you don’t see coming. It’s hard to find movies these days in any genre that are truly unpredictable.
Patrick Brice: We learned so much from making this movie (Creep) about plotting, especially about using these horror movie tropes of how much information do you dole out with each scene in each moment. It was really fun to be able to take what we learned in Creep and then apply that to The Overnight and apply it to a comedic setting.
Mark Duplass: Yeah. It’s unique for somebody’s first two films to be as successful as Patrick’s, and I think unique in that they’re good as they are. The truth is, there are thousands of filmmakers coming out of film school who probably know way more about form that he does and way more about structure, and there are thousands more that are more experienced and know more. But at the end of the day, and I keep saying this over and over when I go to film schools or talk at SXSW, Patrick has tapped into what he uniquely has to offer and you can see it running through both of these films; this true love of strange, odd behavior and unraveling the mystery of human beings and why they are behaving this way, and not doing it in a way that is super cynical but which has love to it.
That’s what I think makes these movies fresh. It just comes right out of him. If we’re trying to do anything as producers, we’re trying to find people who have that unique point of view and give them that chance to do their thing.
This concludes our interview with Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass, but we want to thank them both for taking the time to talk with us. Creep is now available to watch on iTunes, and it will be available to stream on Netflix starting on July 14th.
