Creepypasta (2023) is Poorly Made Anthology Sludge that Fails to Capitalize on its Inspiration

Title: Creepypasta

First Non-Festival Release: May 21, 2023 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)

Director: Carlos Cobos Aroca, Berkley Brady, Mikel Cravatta

Writer: David Bond, Gregory S. Burkart, Vincent Vena Cava

Runtime: 80 Minutes

Starring: Joie Bauer, Fernando Boza, Silvia Casanova

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

Creepypastas are internet horror stories that are meant to be copy-and-pasted into chat rooms, writing sites, and social medias. They are created by the same users that consume them and aim for a sense of familiarity, edginess, and nihilism while hoping for virality. 

In Creepypasta, a young girl is declared missing over a news broadcast with attention paid to her internet writing. She is an infamous writer in the genre, and her disappearance is notable for this fact. All the while, a man enters a broken-down home and is quickly trapped. There, he is forced to watch a series of videos in order to discover the reason for his capture.

Dull, cheap, and shallow, Creepypasta is an insipid take on what makes viral internet stories special and haunting. 

A failed experiment in cashing in on the popularity of internet horror stories, Creepypasta fails to lean into its source material while also struggling to innovate. What is most disappointing with this film is how it misses the point of its inspiration so badly. Forgoing the nihilism, inevitability, and twisted nostalgia presented in most of these internet stories, Creepypasta decides to invent some of the most generic and uninspired tales to showcase the internet phenomenon. Most of the tales fall into three categories: fearsome beasts, ghosts and spirits, or supernatural killers, which makes the film feel repetitive quickly. Without much variance, there is little to enjoy and leaves much potential wasted.

Not one single short rises to the occasion. Each is bogged down either by amateur writing, comically bad acting, or most commonly, both. The closest the film gets is with ‘Do Not’ which is a mildly amusing cautionary tale with a nice twist and the serviceable invisible cryptid short, ‘El Cuco is Hungry.’ Most entries feel roughly inspired by better stories and aren’t fleshed out enough to truly pack any meaningful punch. The bite-sized fragments have some potential, but nearly every ounce of mystery and suspense implodes in the first thirty seconds from hokey introductory dialogue or comic line delivery.  

Its lack of cohesion bleeds from its wraparound segment and into every single iteration of horror within the film. The audience is introduced to a nameless man finding himself trapped in a dilapidated house by an unknown force, which demands he find the video that explains why he is there. This causes him to sift through these bargain bin stories before he understands what is happening. As each story plays, he gets progressively bloodier and sicker, which isn’t expounded upon, it just appears to add some level of dynamics to the film. This idea would be fine if quite literally any action happened in between the stories he uncovers. The consistent pans of this man staring dumbfounded at the screen, with more and more blood dripping down his face, between each short provide a more comical impact than terrifying. Thanks to the shortness and the volume of the stories, this provides a confoundingly choppy experience that adds little to the overall arc of the character or film.

Beyond its storytelling, there’s a certain level of flatness imbued into every aspect of this project. Low production values shine through in each moment, whether it is the dull set design, amateur cinematography, or hammy performances. Every scare is telegraphed in the most obvious way while copying its more impactful moments from bigger and better films before it. Even at 80 minutes long, the watch feels excruciating thanks to its poor understanding of pacing and development.

While few efforts have been successful at converting the notoriety of creepypastas, this film is easily one of the worst attempts so far. Its lifeless approach to storytelling and inability to capture even the tiniest aspect of why these stories are so popular is its worst offense. Terrible production, performances, and writing hamper the beleaguered project into oblivion. For every ‘Russian Sleep Experiment’ and ‘Penpal’, there are thousands of poorly crafted shots in the dark posted across the internet desperately reaching for their chance to bask in the limelight. Perhaps Creepypasta hopes to imitate the latter instead of the former.

Overall Score? 2/10