Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass Go Behind the Lens of The Creep Tapes Season 2 (Interview)

Earlier this fall at Fantastic Fest 2025, I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down for a quick chat with the team behind the found footage phenomena franchise Creep, director and writer Patrick Brice and star Mark Duplass about the upcoming sophomore season of the films spinoff series The Creep Tapes premiering later this month.

Me:

Thank you guys so much for being here today and thank you for having me.

Patrick:

Thanks for having us.

Me:

Of course, I'm super thrilled. I love Creep Tapes season one and I love Creep 1 and 2, so it's an honor for me to be here chatting with you guys. So to start, what's something that both of you learned from making season one that you brought to season two?

Patrick:

Great question. I mean, I feel like the process of making creep in, in general is a learning process for us. Like, I think we're constantly learning how to do this better and figuring out new ways to sort of spice things up and make it different, and so that's something that was definitely on our mind, I think. Also, the first season was kind of made in a vacuum. You know, we made it independently and so we were kind of following our own whims at the idea of like what This could be and what people could want. And so it's nice to have the first season come out, get folks' reactions to that, and then try to come up with ideas for the second season that maybe zigged where we normally zagged or find ways to surprise people, basically.

Mark:

Yeah, it's like the question is, what is the appropriate balance of control and chaos in order to achieve the sort of recklessness, fun, gonzo weirdness that comes out in the show and we're constantly figuring out the best way to do that, but I think we, we also wanted to push the envelope and not just make every episode You know, in a house, with the one camera, so we're using different formats this year. We're incorporating different cameras, you're gonna see the, the boundaries pushed a little bit about what we felt comfortable doing because everybody accepted that. And then we're like, OK, so let's, let's, let's break through those walls again a little bit. So we're always nervous taking it out because, you know, Who knows what people are gonna think,

Patrick:

but this show is our version of if you give a mouse a cookie, and I feel like having a positive reaction to maybe some of the more left field ideas in the first season made us want to double down on that.

Me:

Well, that makes me super excited because again, like I even like Creep tape season one, like meeting some of Joseph's family and expanding more on that character, I thought was, you know, breaking the new ground because I mean he takes on a variety of roles throughout even Creep one and two and then the show, you mentioned about pushing the envelope and doing new things with season two, which brings me to a question for Patrick about directing. you know, as you know, the, the tapes and the movies that feel very natural and realistic. So I'm curious on your process for, for directing something that relies so heavily on flowing like a natural moment.

Patrick:

Sure, I mean, I think both of us kind of stumbled into the found footage genre and have been pleasantly surprised by how it's given us, you know, a lot of leeway to play, I think. Not only, you know, for, for Mark as an actor, but also for me as a, as a, as a filmmaker and visual storyteller, you know, I think like there's a very unique set of rules that are associated with this, you know, thinking about this footage as footage that has been captured by one of the characters in the show And so, for me, from like a literal standpoint and from like, for like my OCD filmmaker mind, it's like, I, I get to, I get to have these sort of like rules and constraints that I go back to and use as, as, you know, like sort of weaponize them when it comes to our filmmaking. that's something that's like really exciting to me. So when we came up with the idea, for example, in one of our episodes to incorporate, body cameras from, other characters that that are in the episode, just from a filmmaking standpoint that just like opened up our world in a really beautiful way. So that's been, that's, that was, that was, that was sort of one of the unexpected surprises of this season.

Me:

I like that. For Mark, you take on a variety of roles as Joseph, he's always putting on masks and becoming new people. So I was wondering if you had a specific process for taking all of that on as an actor.

Mark:

Well, I am unfortunately the kind of person who knows how to shape shift in this world, much to the success of my career and the detriment of my spirit at times and when I say shape shift, I mean it In a very small way, I think if you're listening to this or reading this, I want you to try to understand that moment when you step into a party or a business meeting and everybody feels different than you thought they would and different than you and you have to make a decision. Am I gonna be in the corner and just be exactly who I am or am I gonna push my personality to be a little bit louder or a little bit more this way or that so I can fit in here? It's something that I learned how to do at a young age and I took that thing and exploded it for this character as someone who does it in an extreme way. I think that what's so fun about Mr. Peach Fuzz himself is that he doesn't have to be defined by being one person. His ultimate goal is to be in deep true connection with the human beings he meets. That's everything he wants. That's all that he wants and he will shape shift, change, and enjoy himself doing that, even though he may not be aware he's doing it.

Me:

I like that because I've always wondered what makes him such a unique and charming horror antagonist. He's kind of taken on like a modern icon type of role.

Mark:

He's a lover, you know? I think that's really the core of it.

Patrick:

Well, I think this like code switching that you're talking about is something that we all do, whether we're conscious of it or not, and I think the fact that we've tapped into that being like the primary trait of a serial killer is something that's been like endlessly exciting for us and something that I think people identify with whether they know it or not, you know?

Me:

I mean, one of my favorite scenes in the Creep tapes season one, I believe it's on the first episode where he's talking to the guy who's like, oh, the ax is fake, otherwise I would totally cut my hand, and then you see the other hand is totally busted up and just Like that, that misdirection, the smile you had the whole time-

Patrick:

That! I always go back to that as being one of the most incredible pieces of acting I've ever seen Mark do because that is an unbroken seven minute take in which Mark is having to go from genial, happy guy to pure serial killer.

Mark:

Sometimes it comes together and most of the times it doesn't, but that is the essence of the creep tapes is, to your previous question, how much is planned, how much is not. You wanna have it almost perfectly planned so that it could go well in the take, but if you rehearse it too much, it will feel stale in the take, and that does happen sometimes and we have to change things up, but that one moment you're talking about was, you know… it all kind of came together.

Me:

With season two dropping in November, part of me is wondering, and this might just be me here, I'm wondering if there's gonna be any sort of Thanksgiving episode. There's always a Halloween special for October.

Patrick:

I think what we can say is that, the Creep tapes does air during the holidays, and the holidays has a lot to do with, celebrating and also with family, so we will be addressing some, but it's also a time where people get down on themselves a lot too, it can be difficult. So we kind of do explore that in some way.

Me:

I love that. I love holiday horror, and I, I'm just imagining a Thanksgiving, dinner spread, but with Joseph just like by himself with a videographer beginning of the most awkward Thanksgiving dinner. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre dinner scene, but with Joseph playing three different people. Also, David Dastmalchian guest stars in this season, and I'm so excited for that because I feel like he's the only actor that could match Mark's  intense personality in the series. I'm wondering how they're going to face off against each other.

Mark:

Yeah, David is an icon at this point, and I think the way that Patrick and I like to talk about David is if we were starting the Creep franchise right now from scratch and we hadn't made the movies and hadn't made season one, we probably would have cast David or at least offered him the part, but since we didn't do that we had to find our way to work with him. So we designed an episode specifically for him, and it's something we've never been able to do creatively before because we've never been a part of a franchise. Now we've got 2 movies and 6 episodes. People know the lore, people know the history, so we were able to use all of that and build a story that really is for the fans.

Me:

I love that you mentioned franchise. It's insane to think this is a franchise. So, with Creep being a franchise now going all the way back to Creep 1 in 2014, even through all the evolutions and upgrades, what has been the one constant in the franchise, in your opinion?

Patrick:

Honestly, the constant has been our friendship and working relationship, and that includes Chris Donlin as well, who is the other producer and who edits every single piece of creep that has ever existed. I think, to be in a project like this that is 12 to 13 years at this point that we've been doing this from the time that we shot the first creep and being different people over those years and sort of growing up together and now growing old together. Like we all have gray hair now. We did not have gray hair when we start gray hair on any of us.

Mark

It really is. I think that the core of it all is that we have other projects that we work on. I get to go work on The Morning Show, which is just so big budgeted and wonderful, and Patrick gets to direct these big budget movies for Netflix, and there's this feeling of when we get together to make Creep or the Creep tapes. It's a return to feeling how we felt when we were like 13 and 14 years old with a handheld video camera and the dreams of what our creativity could be without very many resources, working within those limits, snickering behind the camera, looking at the playback on the little 3-inch screen. That to me is the essence of, of why this works. It's like almost no conflict amongst all of us because we're just so happy to have this playground.

Me:

Again, like you just said “playground”, it does feel like a break, like a vacation began to play in the world of creep after, like you said, Morning Show or directing big budget movies.

Patrick:

And to have that feeling during the process of making it and then that feeling extend to showing it to people too. And feeling that inclusiveness, it's like one of the most exciting residual aspects of this that we could have never predicted.

Mark:

Yeah, we're gonna make 50 seasons of this show.

Me:

Please do and please release all of them on Blu-ray. When we all announced the Blu-ray, I lost my mind on, on Twitter. I'm a big Blu-ray guy.

Mark:

When I'm dying, we're just gonna set up a camera for 2 weeks and my actual death is gonna be the last episode. So it's gonna be incredible.

Me:

As morbid as it is, I will be tuned in. I'm that big of a fan. I'm down with that. So to sort of end things off, what are some of your favorite found footage films?

Mark:

So Blair Witch got me in the theater. It knocked me out. There is a movie, and you're gonna have to look up the actual title for this. I have not been able to find it to this day. I think it's called They Shoot Movies, Don't They? It's a found footage movie that aired on IFC channel in the early 2000s. I've never been able to find a physical media copy but that is, essentially a mockumentary about a struggling filmmaker trying to get his movie made and the downward spiral he goes on, and that inspired me more than anything else to see like, daylight horror, the mental devolution of a man with a mission can be just as terrifying as the night stuff in Blair Witch.

Me:

I'll have to check that out. What about you, Patrick?

Patrick:

It's funny. It's like, I don't, I mean, like, in the same way that that could be classified as found footage, like I do consider documentary just because that's the world that I came from as when I was studying in college. And I, I keep going back to Windy City Heat. I mean, that counts as a found footage movie, right? That's Bobcat Goldthwait. It's a film, I think you can find it on YouTube, where he's basically antagonizing this friend of his who's a struggling comedian. And it is, it's horrifying, it's dark, but very funny, and there's a reason why I think it doesn't have distribution.

Me:

I love it. Well, thank you guys so much again for chatting with me today. It was a pleasure.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Creep Tapes season premieres weekly on Shudder starting November 14th.

If you enjoyed this interview you can find more here on JacobTheHarper.com, as well as film reviews and the latest updates on the Talking Terror horror podcast.