Out of all the movies I have seen so far at the 2014 Fantasia Film Festival, I must say The Creep Behind the Camera has been the worst experience so far. But before I butt slam this high-production documentary about Art Nelson, aka, Vic Savage, a dishonest director known for his poor efforts on The Creeping Terror, I’ll at least point out a few positives.
I just stated that The Creep Behind the Camera is high-production, and it might not be, I don’t really know for sure because the budget isn’t listed. However, from what I saw during the screening, I can tell you straight off the bat the team behind this documentary put a lot of effort into telling the story of Vic Savage and the worst movie ever made, The Creeping Terror.
It was extremely well shot and very eye-catching; the director of photography should get an award for this documentary. Director Pete Schuermann also did a superb job in his effort to deviate from the traditional documentary that you typically see on A&E. That’s the most interesting aspect of The Creep Behind the Camera.
It’s filmed just like a movie with good actors and the story flows extremely well, scene after scene, with real interviews. I’ll point out that actress Jodi Lynn Thomas did a fantastic job portraying Vic Savage’s wife; she delivers all the tears in the story. Unfortunately, you feel bad for the real wife because the documentary is funny and absurd for the most part, but doesn’t do a great job at telling the serious parts of her relationship with Vic Savage. Who really is a lunatic around her because he cheats, treats her like crap, and even attempts to kill her at one point.
The part that made the experience frustrating during the North American premiere was the fact that the whole story of Vic Savage gets really boring, real quick, and it just drags by the time you reach the film’s end. It feels even forced at times. In the first half you get all the goodies like how Vic Savage met the producer who financed The Creeping Terror, how the monster came about, how he scammed actors to be in his so called epic movie at the time, and much more. But the nonsense just never seems to end.
