Josef

"I love wolves. because they love deeply, but they don't know how to express it, and they're often very violent and, quite frankly, murder the things that they love, and inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart. And yeah it's misguided, and yeah occasionally it murders things. and this little wolf was so cute, it reminded me of you, honestly, You know, that moment I scared you in the woods. and it was - There was murder in your eyes, but it was like, it was baby murder, you're not ready to accept that yet, and I want to encourage you to embrace your inner wolf, so take the wolf and enjoy it, and more importantly, take the knife, and don't be afraid to murder it, because when you stick a knife in something, and you gut it and you really dig inside, I don't know man, there's all this beautiful stuff. and um... I got a little surprise for you in there. See ya soon, Buddy!"

- Josef's message to Aaron.

Josef is the main antagonist of the 2014 independent horror movie, Creep.

He is portrayed by Mark Duplass.

Story
Aaron is an optimistic videographer that decides to come work for Josef after answering his ad on Craigslist. All Aaron has to do is record Josef throughout the day and remain discreet about the entire setup. Josef tells Aaron that he will be recording a series of videos for his unborn son, as he is dying from a terminal illness and will never be able to see him grow up. Aaron first records Josef in a bath tub pretending to give his son a bath, and is then asked to come hiking with Josef. While getting a jacket, Aaron is startled by a wolf mask in the closet; Josef tells him that his father used to wear the mask and pretend to be a friendly wolf named "Peachfuzz". Aaron accompanies him with the video camera. Throughout their time together, Aaron is repeatedly scared by Josef, who claims he has a "weird sense of humor".

At a restaurant after their hiking trip, Josef admits to Aaron that he had taken photos of him before they met, as he wanted to get to know Aaron before meeting him; he apologizes profusely. He also says that Aaron has an "animal within", as he seemed ready to kill Josef when Josef scared him. As Aaron gets ready to leave that night, Josef asks him to stay for a drink of whiskey. He asks Aaron to turn off the camera; Aaron shuts off the video but leaves the sound on. Josef tells him he lied about Peachfuzz, and he wore the wolf mask in order to rape his wife and confirm his suspicions about her animal pornography habit. A now-unsettled Aaron drugs Josef's whiskey, lays him to sleep and takes his phone, which suddenly starts ringing. Aaron hides and answers it; it is Josef's "wife", who tells Aaron that she is really just his sister, and that he needs to get out of the house as soon as he can. Returning to where he left Josef, Aaron finds him gone; he searches for Josef, who scares him once again and tells him that he doesn't want to die before running off. Aaron attempts to leave through the front door, but Josef blocks it with the Peachfuzz mask on. Aaron charges at him, and the camera shuts off.

When the video resumes, Aaron reveals that he escaped the house and made it home, but he soon received a DVD in the mail from Josef of him burying some bags in the yard; Aaron thinks it is meant as a threat. He has also been having terrible nightmares about Josef. Josef sends him a large box with a knife and a stuffed wolf in it, as well as another DVD with a video of Josef apologizing for the last video and saying that he really cares about Aaron. Aaron rips open the stuffed wolf, finding a locket with Josef's and Aaron's pictures in it, which he throws away. After getting no help from the police, Aaron hears a trash can fall one night, and as he investigates his home, Josef appears at the front door. Days later, Josef takes the camera and films Aaron while he sleeps. Aaron finds another DVD labeled "My Last Video" in his house. Josef, in the video, apologizes again, reveals that he found the locket in Aaron's trash, and asks Aaron to come to the public lake by his house to "give them closure". Aaron films himself from his car as he goes to the lake. As he sits on a bench, Josef approaches him from behind, puts on the Peachfuzz mask, and axes Aaron in the skull.

Josef films himself saying good-bye to Aaron, and claims that he appreciated that Aaron trusted him enough not to turn around while sitting on the bench. He shuts off the camera after saying that he loves Aaron. Josef puts a DVD labeled "Aaron <3" in a cabinet full of videos and DVDs with different people's names on them, as he identifies himself as Bill over the phone while speaking to yet another person about hiring them for the same job for which he had hired Aaron.

Production of Character
Of the creative process for his character, Josef, Duplass explained "We were interested in the psychological profile of this very, very strange person. We were very interested in how you meet people and don’t quite understand what’s up, but you start to get signs. For us that was intense eye contact, lack of personal space, oversharing, maybe a little bit too much love here and there. But, for me, there’s something wrong with both of these guys. Deeply. This concept of, 'who is the creep in this scenario?'"