What if Jigsaw kidnapped someone terrible at solving his intricately designed puzzles? In the latest episode of The Creep Tapes, “Mark” finds himself in a very Saw-like situation, waking up in a dingy warehouse, shackled to the floor with a heavy chain around his ankle. But he’s not alone, Josef/“Peachfuzz” (The Creep Tapes co-creator Mark Duplass) is his fellow hostage. “Maybe somebody is trying to get revenge on us,’ Duplass' character suggests.
Their alleged captor, “The Wolf Slayer,” tasks the hostage duo with solving a “deeply intricate” set of puzzles, to be solved without fail, to escape the room alive. As his fellow hostage deviates from the mastermind’s plans, Duplass raises suspicion and becomes increasingly frustrated with Mark’s inability to grasp any of the clues, at one point growing so exasperated that he berates his fellow hostage with “you, my friend, are kind of a moron!”
“We kept toying with the idea that my character gets over-eager and a little cocky,” said Mark Duplass. “Maybe he planned something super intricate… and what would happen if it didn’t pan out the way he intended? It made us all laugh, then worry for whoever was across from him in this room. That tends to be the right recipe for us these days.”
With comedic nods to Saw, The Creep Tapes co-creator Patrick Brice explains the ultimate Easter egg in this episode jam-packed with Saw references, “During location scouting, our producer John Baker stumbled upon a room that fit the bill for this episode called ‘The Saw Room' at this studio down the street from my house. We first thought they called it this because it looked like the room in which SAW took place, but soon enough found out it was the actual shooting location of the first movie. We could not deny this gift that the universe had bestowed upon us.”
Shooting what is essentially a Saw spoof in the actual location where Saw was filmed is meta AF. This week’s guest star, Robert Longstreet says the set “was creepy, dry, dusty, and evocative in the extreme. The ankle chains hurt when you move, and we moved a lot. Mark [Duplass] was incredibly funny and terrifying, so it was all there. You just had to go with it and stay out of its way. It was a blast.”
Longstreet appreciated that the stripped down set allowed him to really focus on his performance, calling it a“beautiful rambunctious marathon to the end.” Longstreet adds, “It’s all about the work, and the environment is so free, collaborative, and encouraging. There’s you, Mark, Patrick, and maybe two other people at most. It’s distilled down to the essence of pure acting within the parameters of its found footage construct, incredibly fast paced, and completely unadorned. It’s yours to shine in, and it’s fucking exhilarating. It’s some of the most fun I have ever had on a set.”
Longstreet and Brice have worked together before, in an episode of Room 104 Brice wrote specifically for him. “Robert Longstreet is one of my favorite actors alive right now. I was so grateful to find another opportunity in this Creep Tapes episode for him. He is one of the most empathetic humans I know. He's an open wound when it comes to his performances. I find his work incredibly moving and hilarious. He's able to find an empathy in all of his characters, even incredibly dumb guys like ‘Mark' in this episode. I felt terrible for chaining his ankles together in a dank warehouse for three days. Robert was game for all of it though. Because we'd all worked together previously there was an instant shorthand between all of us that made it all feel light and fun despite our dark environs.”
“Patrick is easily one of my favorite directors I have ever worked with,” Longstreet shared. “I felt like we had a shorthand the first time we worked together on Room 104 and this second time out on Creep Tapes just picked up where we left off and they are two of my favorite comedic performances.”
When it comes to his co-star, Longstreet says, “Mark [Duplass] is a beast and can hit back any ball you slam in his direction. It’s thrilling to work with actors that nimble and powerful. They make you way better. They lift you a few inches off the floor.”
And for two guys who make some of the most twisted stuff in the biz, literally everyone speaks so highly of them because they are in fact, pretty great. Longstreet further cements that with “I love that two of the most gentle and empathetic men on the planet get together and make something so incredibly wicked-minded.”
Will “Mark” survive “The Wolf Slayer’s” wicked puzzle? It’s The Creep Tapes, so if you’re familiar with the franchise, you probably already know the answer. The Creep Tapes is now streaming on Shudder with new episodes every Thursday. Take a look at some more exclusive behind-the-scenes photos below.
