"Tim's mother has brain cancer, but his friends steal a sack unleashing the Aos Si Celtic spirit on Halloween night. They must survive the night or sacrifice their lives to the spirit. The spirit pursues them for their trespass." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

For the staggering number of horror movies set on Halloween, there is a surprisingly limited subset within that genre that spotlights the unadulterated joy of the holiday: trick-or-treating. Hey, free candy is indeed the treat, but there should be just as many tricks involved, too. After all, one never fully knows who is behind that dark door. And what exactly was placed into that Halloween goodie-bag?

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Horror writer-director-actor Matt Sempere explores this celebration, and tangentially its origins, in his full-length debut, Creeping Death, which features an evil Celtic spirit set on delivering more tricks than treats. Sempere’s movie tries to be sincere as a pumpkin patch, but its low-budget stylings are more detrimental than inviting. In short, Creeping Death needed more dastardly tricks. 

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Set on All Hallow’s Eve in rural upstate New York, Creeping Death plays out a number of cliches. Unrequited love, familial responsibilities, annoying friends, and, of course, unheeded curses, all turn up in their Don Post-costumed splendor. Tim (Matt Sempere) has to stay home to assist his dying mother (Monique Parent) while his goofball friends, and potential love interest Danielle (Delian Lincourt), head out for treats… and tricks. While trying to toilet paper (a tradition that was presumably retired in 1991) Old Man Brownstone’s place, the friends steal an offering placed for an Aos sí – a mythological Celtic creature. The creature, denied its ritual, wants the offering back. And what better way than through murder, mayhem, and rubber masks.

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Sempere loves Halloween and puts the full holiday on display. Attention is nicely given on jack o’lanterns and the harvest sky throughout. Unlike many Halloween horror tales, Sempere delves into the harvest festival of Samhain and builds on the ancient traditions of the Aos sí (pronounced aye-she) for his story. Ironically, it is the horror that falls away. The violence and gore and shocks all happen either offscreen or through sloppy edits. There are no true scares and any external tension is hollow. The result is a partially bloody mess that is more akin to a PG-13 amusement park ride. Sempere distractedly slips away from a Hitchcockian less-is-more motif and instead falls into a low-grade quagmire that even Roger Corman would not have greenlit, bad acting notwithstanding.

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Outside of the catchy opening scene, the Aos sí’s arrival, in line with the title, creeps along. Little explanations are given on its quest or even ultimate goal. Instead, Sempere quickly falls into plot convenience and a strong reliance on an inherently-ingrained suspension of disbelief. The concentration laid on Tim’s family, and his terribly annoying friends, unfortunately reduces the on-screen time for the Aos sí, preventing the creature from becoming an omnipresent threat to merely something that lumbers in the shadows.

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Although you could do worse on selecting a horror movie to stream on Halloween, be warned, Creeping Death is more trick than treat and definitely more like Milk Duds than Reese’s cups.