The Creek 2007 Directed by: Erik Soulliard Cast: Chris Basselgia, Janna Basselgia, Nicolas A. Becker, Dave Foster

Written by: Ricardo Baberini February 22, 2008

Erik Soulliard is an independent film maker who has taken the gargantuan task of making a full length feature film without the benefit of a big Hollywood budget behind him.

The Story is about a group of seven "friends" who go on a camping trip into the middle of wilderness.  Billy, the popular leader of the group is mysteriously killed, late at night, near a creek. 

The police rule the killing an accident and the remaining members of the group go about their business and generally lose contact with each other.

Fast forward five years later and a few days before anniversary of the accident.  Billy’s ghost suddenly appears to the surviving six mates.  They are all shaken from these encounter with the apparition, and in the best tradition of horror movies, decide to visit the same campground and the cabin at night on the actual anniversary night of his murder. 

Once there, old rivalries and hatreds flare up and some of the members decide to leave.  Alas, the cars have been disabled by an unknown party and they are doomed to stay the night together.  Instead of staying in the cabin, where they would be safer and protected from the elements, they decide to stay in the open and make a fire to gather around and reminisce about old times and wonder who or what is trying to scare them.  But, that should be the last of their worries.  First one of girls goes bravely for a walk in the pitch dark woods and is gutted by the unknown assailant.  Then another one is killed until there are only three of them left.  The survivors are Jesse (Erik Soulliard) who was Billy’s closest friend, Angel (Kathryn Merry), the girl everyone wanted to sleep with but she had eyes only for Billy.  Coop (Brian Jesiolowski.) another long time friend of Billy is the third living member of the original six.  

Again, instead of staying in the cabin and barricading themselves in, the survivors try to take the four hour walk back to civilization.  They are gone only a few miles when one of the disabled cars which has apparently been repaired attacks them, runs the two men over and kidnaps the girl.  The good news is that the guys even though they are left for dead survive and follow the evil character back to the cabin where he is holding Angel hostage.  This is where we find the true identity of the mystery murderer and also his motives. 

The movie is rather too long.  We believe the producer/director Erik Soulliard may have lengthened the dialog unnecessarily to bring his movie to feature length category.  Certainly, the dialog could have been shortened without impacting the flow of the story.  In fact, too much talk made some scenes rather boring.

This script would actually make a good two act play.  It is more theatrical than motion picture oriented.  It does not have the dynamism of a movie.  There are long dialogue scenes where actors are just sitting around the fire talking about Billy.  But, then again, the great master, Alfred Hitchcock made several movies which were more theatrical than motion picture like.  Rear Window is a good example. 

We did not enjoy the cinematography and the lighting in this movie.  There were many dark scenes.  Apparently, the movie was shot entirely on location with minimal lighting.  To be fair, we watched the movie on a wide-screen TV set.  It might be totally different in a movie house.

On the positive side, the mere fact that a young independent director could produce a full length movie with very limited budget speaks volumes about Erik’s talents and motivation.   We would also like to congratulate the composer Tim Jesiolowski  for the theme music.  The opening and closing title music were strong and enjoyable and definitely added value to the movie.  There was an oomph to the music that we did not expect.  Also, there was just a subtle background of melody throughout most of the movie.  The music added a great value to this movie and Tim Jesiolowski ought to be congratulated for his talent and professionalism.

We give this mainly for the tremendous effort that must have gone into producing this movie.  We think Erik and Tim have a bright future in their respective industries.