By Forris Day Jr.
I remember buying my first car, well, pickup truck. It was a retro 1969 Ford F-150 all decked out in a fashion that would make any redneck proud. It had oversized tires, a dump-body, 3 speed Hurst shifter on the floor and no power steering. It was the coolest truck any 17 year old could dream off, and it only cost me 500 bucks. That was some big ching back in the early eighties. Not having a vehicle is tough, and finding the right one can be even tougher, which leads us to our discussion of the movie “Creep Van”.
Campbell Jackson (Brian Kolodziej) is out of work and out of luck. He gets a bottom of the barrel job at a car wash but soon realizes it’s hard getting to work everyday on the bus and even more impossible to get a date with no transportation of his own. He starts looking for some wheels and stumbles across an old rusted Ford Econoline van with a for sale sign in the window. This van is the poster child for all bad guy vans. It is white, rusty, dented and just looks like lots of bad things have happened inside its metal walls. He decides this is the machine for him and proceeds to call the number on the sign. This turns out to be a bad idea. He is soon terrorized by the unseen driver of “The Creep Van”. Can he escape the clutches of this heartless killer? Campbell’s new found love interest and co-worker Amy (Amy Wehrell) is now the target of the demented serial killer., but can he protect her from the atrocities that others have succumbed too at the hands…I mean….WHEELS of the Creep Van?
A well written movie full of great action and awesome special effects. The Creep Van is a virtual playground of booby traps designed to kill anyone foolish enough to enter its heinous cabin. There are some really impressive kill scenes and cool booby traps that will make you nervous to ever ride in a strangers car again. I really enjoyed the feel of Creep Van. It wasn’t scary as much as it was suspenseful but it certainly has a great story. I have to say I got pushed out of the story with the weird subplot of the couple that always had funky sex. I believe it was meant to be humorous but in the end it only distracted me from the main storyline. Overall, I recommend checking this one out if you like what we now call “Old School Horror”.
Don’t skip over the bonus features on the disc, especially “Anatomy of a Killer Van Smash”, particularly if you are an indie filmmaker. There is some good information to be gleaned on creating believable special effects hidden inside this gem of an extra.
Rating: 7.5/10 – “This aint’ Herbie the Luvbug”