Throw 1950s B-movies, alien slug invasions, John Hughes, 80s zombie mayhem, and a dash of the slasher flick into a cinematic pot, and I guarantee that you will get the 1986 cult classic Night of the Creeps, directed by Fred Dekker!
Synopsis from IMDB: "In 1959, an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a fraternity accidentally thaw the corpse, which proceeds to infect the campus with parasites that transform their hosts into killer zombies."
Night of the Creeps is the kind of movie that any young horror movie fan would love to make. Fred Dekker is that fan. It's all homages to different sub-genres of horror and sci-fi, and it's all incredibly playful. The opening sequence sets things up perfectly by switching from a cheap 80s sci-fi movie in the first couple minutes, to a 1950s monster movie, that captures the "teens vs. space invader" genre perfectly. It goes so far as to making that sequence in black and white. It's really fun, and perfectly sets up the kind of movie-universe that the characters live in, where people in the 50s are characters from The Blob, and characters in the 80s are written by John Hughes.
BUT... the John Hughes style college comedy characters, dialogue, and the first few scenes that come after the great opening kind of fall flat. The film opens with such a bang (by smushing together a whole bunch of B-movies into one), that the following act, with all of the straight comedy, seems to stretch on for a lot longer than it should. The main character Chris, played by Jason Lively (European Vacation), is likable enough, but his best friend J.C. is incredibly annoying. A really bizarre aspect of the film, that I notice mostly in the dry spot, is that every character or place is very obviously named after horror movie directors. The lead girls name is Cynthia Cronenberg...
Named after Roger Corman...
"Get me Sgt. Raimi!!"
The movie begins to pick up again, once they introduce the hilarious Tom Atkins (Escape From New York, Halloween III: Season of the Witch) as Detective Cameron. He's the "cop who's seen some shit" stock character and SO MUCH MORE! He's troubled by his past, and constantly has ominous dreams. He's a smart ass who doesn't play by the rules, and he brings another pulpy element to the movie. Once he is introduced, Night of the Creeps continues with its fast-paced horror hijinks.
The monsters in the film are really fun. The films main creatures are slimy slugs that turn characters into Dead-Alive style zombies by jumping in your mouth. The special effects and the monsters look great! The slugs are done with animatronics and piles of stop motion, and they look creepier than what most CGI effects could create (although the recent and similar SLITHER did not do bad with the CGI slugs it did use). The living dead look great as well, especially when the effects team gives us the boney rotting corpses. The gore is inventive, especially by the climax, where we get some shotgun/flamethrower zombie/slug action! There's even a scene where Detective Cameron uses a cigarette and a hairspray bottle as a home-made flamethrower, thus blowing up many a ghoul!
The characters (even the annoying ones) grow on you over time, and there are some genuinely sad moments in the second half, involving characters I was excited to see killed off. It's very well shot, with an almost constant slow-pan, and a couple stylish film tricks. The horror-comedy onscreen, near the end, even begins to inch close to the Sam Raimi/Peter Jackson, holy grail of splat-stick, but it never reaches that level of dizzying camera-movements, breakneck pace and style, or that realm of ridiculous bodily dismemberment. Night of the Creeps never really aspires to, though. It's more interested in a slightly more innocent look at B-movies, 80s horror, and 50s sci-fi. The references become a lot more organic late in the film, with a fun Dick Miller cameo! It never feels like it's too good for the genre, or that its ironic. It's like a completely sincere and earnest B-movie, that is light in tone and is more interested in giving a good time than scaring you or ripping on the genre.
Fred Dekker directed this film, a fantastic "Goonies vs. universal monsters" movie called Monster Squad, and the disappointing Robocop 3. He is a very talented guy, and I think someone should give him some work, and get those gears ah-turnin. I thinks it's about time for Night of the Creeps II: The Quickening! C'mon Mr. Dekker! Thrill me!
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