Julien Neaves, Editor
Plot: Slug-like alien parasites released from a defrosted cadaver transform residents of a university campus into zombie-like creatures.
Review: I have seen 1986 sci fi horror comedy Night of the Creeps mentioned in a few posts in horror movie groups and decided to finally check it out for myself. And you guys have been holding out on me, because this movie is awesome! With a mind-controlling SPOILER ALERT let’s dive in.
Writer/director Fred Dekker wanted the film to be an homage to B horror movies (most of the main characters are named after horror directors like George A. Romero, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, et cetera) and the film both accomplishes that and stands on its own as well. But let me get the stuff that didn’t work for me out of the way first.
The beginning is always a good way to start, so let’s chat about the opening aboard an alien spaceship. The diminutive aliens are some of the worst rubber costumes I have ever seen. I’m not sure if they were intended to be comical, but they just looked ugly. And the plot point of a teenager infected by the slug-like alien in 1959 being kept in a cryogenics lab on a university campus makes no sense whatsoever. If they knew he was infected by alien parasite, why not keep him in a more secure facility? And if not, then why would they freeze his body for study? And finally, if the slugs’ purpose for infecting people was to get hosts to reproduce, then why does a resurrected criminally insane mental patient resume killing people?
Ugly alien costumes and plot holes aside, I had a blast with Night of the Creeps. Tom Atkins, who I previously enjoyed in horror flicks like The Fog, Creepshow and Halloween III: Season of the Witch, is ridiculously entertaining as the alcoholic, chain-smoking, haunted, one-liner dropping, rule-breaking Detective Ray Cameron. He lit up every scene he was in and cracked me up multiple times. I loved his catchphrase of “thrill me” and his famous line exchange with a sorority girl, “The good news is your dates are here” (Cameron). “What’s the bad news?” (Sorority Girl). “They’re dead.” Classic! Atkins seems to be having so much fun with the role and I was right along there with him.
I also enjoyed fast-talking disabled university student James Carpenter “JC” Hooper (Steve Marshall). I found him funny and insightful, and was actually saddened by his offscreen death, which is quite rare for me in these types of films. Jason Lively is decent enough as his friend and protagonist Chris Romero and I appreciated that the lovely Jill Whitlow was not your usual damsel-in-distress as Chris’ love interest Cynthia Cronenberg. Or is it “Cindy” Cronenberg, because she is called both in the film. Never mind. And Allan Kayser is pitch perfect as 80s frat boy douche bag and Cynthia/Cindy’s boyfriend/ex-boyfriend Brad. I did not mind seeing him turn slug-zombie at all.
And speaking of slug-zombies, Dekker clearly wanted to stuff in every B horror movie cliche that he could in this one movie. You have mind-controlling aliens, zombies, a slasher villain, creepy undead animals and gratuitous nudity. That is enough for at least four movies, but he was able to balance them all relatively well. There are genuine moments of tension and terror as well as gut-busting dark comedy, which I dug. I must also the praise the wonderfully gory practical effects and the action sequences. Watching the slug-zombies getting their heads blown off by a shotgun or roasted by a flamethrower in the final act was so very satisfying.
By the film’s end I wanted more, and I’m kind of sad there was no Night of the Creeps 2 especially when other, less entertaining horror flicks have gotten multiple sequels. But at least we’ll always have this cult classic to thrill us.
Editor Jules’ Score: 8 out of 10
Are you a fan of Night of the Creeps? And you can check more classic horror content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an award-winning author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.