Tuesday, May 09, 2023

Short Film: The Creep Hunters


Directed by David Lester Mooney and released in 2022, this film comes in at a scant 9:24 and yet manages to pack in a story narrative that is cohesive and makes sense.

The film follows a group of online vigilantes in Northern Ireland, I would hazard, who find online groomers, engage them and then go out and catch them on live stream.

As the short starts they are in a car, waiting for the latest creep, who has been online chatting with them but believes he has been chatting to a 12-year-old girl. They get a ping on a phone as he says he is here, here being a badly lit car park. When working out who the creep, named John, might be there is a consensus that it is the short fellow on his own.

the hunters

They go out and confront him, with large built Gary acting in an intimidating way. John seems softly spoken and keeps repeating, “Sorry”. Gary is perhaps rougher than he should be and they make a citizen’s arrest when another man comes over. He is called Steven and, though told to back off, he sticks awfully close, saying he is a fan of the stream. Eventually Steven manages to get a punch in. As they try to bind John’s hands, he cuts the female member of the crew and then Gary’s face with sharp nails and runs into an alley.

John is a...

They follow, and it isn’t much of a spoiler to say that they have bitten off more than they can chew. This time around they have found a groomer, certainly, but he is not after sexually abusing the correspondent so much as… well what would we call a man who nails sharpen to talons and teeth become sharp also… This was neatly put together and is definitely worth a watch, though there are some triggering themes.

The imdb page is here.

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