Third seasons can be a tricky beast to tame for even the most critically acclaimed television shows. For many, the initial hype has died down, and if the sophomore slump has been avoided, the pressure is higher than ever to deliver something that is both pleasing to longtime fans and enticing to newcomers who may be looking to join in on the fun.
Thankfully, fun remains the name of the game for the third season of Shudder’s cult found-footage freakfest The Creep Tapes, in which Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass have stayed true to the proven formula while continuing to expand on the always bizarre, oftentimes brutal lore behind the wolf-masked weirdo we have all come to know, love, and fear.
Along for the ride this year is another cast of standout guest stars, including Nicholas Hamilton, Elliott Fullam, Ora Duplass, James Earl, and Rekha Shankar, with the highlight being Kate Siegel, whose episode opens the season with a (literal) bang, delivers on the psychosexual derangement we’ve come to expect from the world’s most awkward serial killer, before culminating in one of the darkest endings we’ve seen across the series so far.
Scream queen Siegel adds another incredible performance to her canon as the titular ‘Crystal,’ a woman whose wide-eyed terror at Peachfuzz’s emotional irregularity reminds us that, while he may be cute and charming when he wants to be, we are still dealing with a creep through and through.
As always with The Creep Tapes, Season 3 is a mixed — although overall incredibly enjoyable — bag, with some of the anthology segments standing out more than others. Episode 2, ‘Mo,’ takes us to New York City, where Duplass and crew wreak havoc through the city with a frenetic chaos akin to the guerrilla madness of Shozin Fukui’s 964 Pinocchio (except with far less vomit), and provides a refreshing expansion of the formula which usually sees the lunacy unfold in closer, more private quarters.
In ‘Greg’, Peachfuzz meets his match, not in another killer, but in a screen-addicted Zoomer far more interested in doomscrolling than paying our creep the attention he so craves. The minimalist Episode 4, titled ‘Nobody’, gives us our most introspective Peachfuzz yet, leaning into the high strangeness we’ve seen hinted at across the franchise. Duplass’ natural charm and effortless ability to carry an episode alone turn what could be an easy skip in the hands of a lesser team into a moving meditation on men’s mental health – a subject close to Duplass’ own heart.
Duplass, who has been forthcoming in revealing some of his own similarities to Peachfuzz (aside from, y’know, the obvious), remains dedicated to blurring the lines between fiction and reality, adding an extra layer of reflexivity to a series already deep in metatextual self-reference. The sincerity with which Duplass embodies Peachfuzz, and the trust that Brice continues to put in his leading man, makes his continued evolution truly fascinating to watch. It’s not often you get to be privy to the real-time character development of a slasher icon, after all.
Compared to the previous two, Season 3 of The Creep Tapes often takes a more understated approach to Peachfuzz’s shenanigans, feeling much more in step with the mumblegore vibes of the first movie. While previous final episodes escalated into explosive, hysterical romps centered on incest and adult breastfeeding, Season 3’s finale ‘Jody + Brie’ is a much more low-key – yet no less disturbing – exploration of Peachfuzz’s backstory, and because of this, it is sure to be one of the more divisive episodes of the franchise.
While there’s not a huge amount of deviation from the deviancy we’ve come to expect from The Creep Tapes, Season 3 is the embodiment of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Hilarious, terrifying, oddly comforting, and with a refreshing refusal to give ever-more entitled audiences any easy or quick answers, it is clear that this is a tub that Duplass and Brice could easily splash around in forever. Pass the rubber ducky, fellas, and keep ‘em coming.
The two-episode premiere of The Creep Tapes Season 3 is now playing on Shudder and AMC+.
