Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yūko Takeuchi and Teruyuki Kagawa in this Japanese thriller where a former detective looks into a cold case… meanwhile his wife becomes obsessed with their strange new neighbour.

An impressive slow burn mystery. I enjoyed it more than Kurosawa’s lauded Cure as it kept the same unsettling and foreboding air without derailing off into fantasy. Strange shit goes down in Creepy but it all stays just within the realms of believability and logic… Just! Kagawa’s discombobulating turn as the dodgy neighbour is the equal of Masato Hagiwara’s hypnotic enigma in Cure. Here the potential antagonist is a slippery, unctuous presence. He scuttles around like a crab and bursts into jovial friendliness like it is glitch in his programming. As Kurosawa calmly reveals what is going on next door you become enthralled with every fatal twist and teasing clue. A gleefully sure-handed thriller that would make a good double bill with Parasite.

9

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