Review of Night of the Creeps (1986) by Timothy M — 10 Oct 2007

Well I finally saw Fred Dekker's other mid 80's horror "hit". Overall after all the hype and all the stuff I read about Night Of The Creeps I was slightly disappointed with the finished product. It seems they could have done more with the film but either the budget or the studio itself didn't allow for the film to be fully let loose.

The first part of this movie is pure gold, aliens are chasing after another renegade alien, who has an experiment they don't want the little guy to let loose. Unfortunately for earth, he does let it loose. We're in 1959 now and at this college campus. This couple go on a date at lovers lane, despite warnings from a young police officer of the raving lunatic wandering the streets. They don't listen. The kid finds this vial that contained the "experiment" the aliens sent down and this slug like creature attacks him.

Fast forward to 1986 where we see two geeky guys trying to score some chicks. It was starting to seem like your typical 80's flick, it pretty much is in alot of ways, but that was part of the fun of the film.

So the guys try to join a fraterinty, and have to go grab a corpse and put it on a rival frat lawn. The guys go, find a body but the body seems to be alive! Thus starting the cavalcade of murders in the area.

So these slug like creatures are zipping around the area, inserting themselves into people's mouths and turning them into ghoulish zombies. Perhaps you've heard of this plot already? 2006's "Slither" borrowed heavily from the same ideas as this film, although it's unknown if James Gunn did it on purpose or if he was simply inspired by many of the same things as Fred Dekker.

The thing though that disappoints me about this film is that it seems that this really just doesn't deliver as much as say "Slither" delivered on the same premise. What gory shots of zombies and all that are spread apart sparsely throughout the film. The end is the big seller, as we see the Prom Date Frat Guys turned into zombies and our protagonists fight off the horde. Then at the end we see our hero Tom "Turn It Off!" Atkins face off against a pile of slugs in the basement.

Overall this movie is fun! It definitely is worth the watch if you are just a fan of the outer space slugs that turn people into Zombies type idea. Just don't go into it like me, thinking it'll be a gore fest.