(contains spoilers)
'80s Horror Movies – you've seen them, you're an expert even. You've seen them again and again. A few of you may even remember when many first came out, or when you first rented them on video when you were in junior hell school. I'm sure a few of you even lived through your own personal '80s horror film: (Topsiders w/ no socks, flat-tops, Vuarnet, Kajagoogoo cassettes, etc.) And how many times did you watch Evil Dead II, The Lost Boys, Fright Night, Return of the Living Dead, The Howling, Re-Animator? Or what about all that (yeah, I'm saying it) over-rated crap from Carpenter and Landis? Well, I bet there's one '80s horror film a few of you may not have seen; back in the day, it slipped right in between Fright Night and Evil Dead II. Its name is Night of the Creeps, and no joke, it's the best of its kind.
The complete brainchild of one Fred Dekker, (someone give this man millions to make more movies please!) Night of the Creeps creates a perfect balance between the pseudo- escapist, xenophobic scare-fare of the 1950s (i.e. The Blob, It Came From Outer Space, It! The Terror From Beyond Space, etc.) and the in-your-face splatter-gore of the 1980s. Hence the film itself begins in the '50s
1959 to be exact, and something mysterious has crashed down to our peaceful Earth. Investigated by a hearty frat member, he pays a nasty price for his snooping, becoming impregnated/infected by something long, black and slithery hot! Oh yeah – subplot – his girlfriend, who was left in the car, gets hacked to bits by an asylum escapee. Forced cryogenic entrapment helps secure the pristine Eisenhower-world from alien apocalypse. Fast-forward to 1986, and two frat-wannabe geeks, quite homely I might add, are trying to impress the hot girl on campus. They find themselves agreeing to steal a corpse in order to get into her boyfriend's fraternity, thereby impressing the young lovely. Of course, said corpse ends up not being a corpse at all, but the iced-stiff jock from the prologue, which comes back alive and begins to infect the whole campus. You see, that "something long, black and slithery" was in fact a parasitic brain-eating slug that turns its host into a killer zombie. Once the slugs are done feeding and gestating, the zombie head will explode sending forth scores of more newborn slugs, that all have one purpose – find a mouth. Hmmm sounds like a few dates I've been on.
No one in Night of the Creeps gives a half-assed performance either. I tip my hat to the delightful Jill Whitlow, who plays the girl-to-impress, Cynthia Cronenberg. Cynthia's the kind of girl we all want to have at our side when we're fighting aliens, not afraid to get a little dirty, which I imagine is the kind of girl a lot us want for other reasons as well. Also impressive is Tom Atkins as Detective "thrill me" Cameron (hubba-hubba), who has a personal score to settle connected to the aliens (see 'subplot' above). The script is one of the smartest of its genre, giving respectful nods to all its influences (pay attention to everyone's last names), and creating some genuinely wonderful and original dialogue in its own right. The editing is as tight as can be, allowing this film to be just as enjoyable after the thirtieth viewing as it is during the first. And the special effects are still excellent, proving that the passing of time is no lazy, fallback excuse for more recent films whose own CG-effects now look bland or campy.
Few carnage-ridden films are as fun and stylish as this, and in every frame you can tell that Fred Dekker truly loves what he does. So sell all your copies of Carpenter and Landis movies, and send the money to Mr. Dekker. Then get yourself a copy of Night of the Creeps and celebrate the gruesome deaths of many-a-jock, and be witness to perhaps the last, great unheralded horror film of the 1980s.
'80s Horror Movies – you've seen them, you're an expert even. You've seen them again and again. A few of you may even remember when many first came out, or when you first rented them on video when you were in junior hell school. I'm sure a few of you even lived through your own personal '80s horror film: (Topsiders w/ no socks, flat-tops, Vuarnet, Kajagoogoo cassettes, etc.) And how many times did you watch Evil Dead II, The Lost Boys, Fright Night, Return of the Living Dead, The Howling, Re-Animator? Or what about all that (yeah, I'm saying it) over-rated crap from Carpenter and Landis? Well, I bet there's one '80s horror film a few of you may not have seen; back in the day, it slipped right in between Fright Night and Evil Dead II. Its name is Night of the Creeps, and no joke, it's the best of its kind.
The complete brainchild of one Fred Dekker, (someone give this man millions to make more movies please!) Night of the Creeps creates a perfect balance between the pseudo- escapist, xenophobic scare-fare of the 1950s (i.e. The Blob, It Came From Outer Space, It! The Terror From Beyond Space, etc.) and the in-your-face splatter-gore of the 1980s. Hence the film itself begins in the '50s
1959 to be exact, and something mysterious has crashed down to our peaceful Earth. Investigated by a hearty frat member, he pays a nasty price for his snooping, becoming impregnated/infected by something long, black and slithery hot! Oh yeah – subplot – his girlfriend, who was left in the car, gets hacked to bits by an asylum escapee. Forced cryogenic entrapment helps secure the pristine Eisenhower-world from alien apocalypse. Fast-forward to 1986, and two frat-wannabe geeks, quite homely I might add, are trying to impress the hot girl on campus. They find themselves agreeing to steal a corpse in order to get into her boyfriend's fraternity, thereby impressing the young lovely. Of course, said corpse ends up not being a corpse at all, but the iced-stiff jock from the prologue, which comes back alive and begins to infect the whole campus. You see, that "something long, black and slithery" was in fact a parasitic brain-eating slug that turns its host into a killer zombie. Once the slugs are done feeding and gestating, the zombie head will explode sending forth scores of more newborn slugs, that all have one purpose – find a mouth. Hmmm sounds like a few dates I've been on.
No one in Night of the Creeps gives a half-assed performance either. I tip my hat to the delightful Jill Whitlow, who plays the girl-to-impress, Cynthia Cronenberg. Cynthia's the kind of girl we all want to have at our side when we're fighting aliens, not afraid to get a little dirty, which I imagine is the kind of girl a lot us want for other reasons as well. Also impressive is Tom Atkins as Detective "thrill me" Cameron (hubba-hubba), who has a personal score to settle connected to the aliens (see 'subplot' above). The script is one of the smartest of its genre, giving respectful nods to all its influences (pay attention to everyone's last names), and creating some genuinely wonderful and original dialogue in its own right. The editing is as tight as can be, allowing this film to be just as enjoyable after the thirtieth viewing as it is during the first. And the special effects are still excellent, proving that the passing of time is no lazy, fallback excuse for more recent films whose own CG-effects now look bland or campy.
Few carnage-ridden films are as fun and stylish as this, and in every frame you can tell that Fred Dekker truly loves what he does. So sell all your copies of Carpenter and Landis movies, and send the money to Mr. Dekker. Then get yourself a copy of Night of the Creeps and celebrate the gruesome deaths of many-a-jock, and be witness to perhaps the last, great unheralded horror film of the 1980s.