Night of the Creeps

Night of the Creeps

21/8/1986 1h 28m 6.7/10

Overview

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.

Director

Fred Dekker

Top Billed Cast

Tom Atkins

Tom Atkins

Det. Ray Cameron

Jason Lively

Jason Lively

Christopher 'Chris' Romero

Jill Whitlow

Jill Whitlow

Cynthia 'Cindy' Cronenberg

Wally Taylor

Wally Taylor

Detective Landis

Allan Kayser

Allan Kayser

Brad

Steve Marshall

Steve Marshall

James Carpenter 'J.C.' Hooper

Reviews

John Chard

10/21/2015

7/10

What is this? A homicide, or a bad B-movie? Not exactly what you would call an unknown horror comedy, but there is the distinct feeling that it should be better known. As its cult fan base will attest, this is blast of a movie, a homage to the "B" schlockers of lore. Directed by Fred Dekker, the premise sees some alien beings eject a flask of alien slugs down to earth, which lands at a fraternity campus, something which cause mayhem some years later when a frozen body is disturbed at the medical lab and the slugs are unleashed. Cue infestation that turns people into zombies! The pic plays up to the clichés of fraternity based movies, with nerds and nudity on tap, all smothered in a gooey horror comedy sauce. One-liners are ripe, the characterisations also, the latter of which fronted by a glorious Tom Atkins as a hard drinking hard - boiled detective with issues and quips ready to be poured out. It's not genius film making, but given the low budget it deserves its cult status, because it never pauses for breath and it's very aware of what it wants to be - and crucially who its target audience is. 7/10

Wuchak

9/21/2022

8/10

**_Entertaining sci-fi/horror “lost gem” from the mid-80s_** During a frat initiation, two buds at a SoCal university (Jason Lively and Steve Marshall) inadvertently unleash something creepy that results in the walking dead. Tom Atkins plays the detective on the case while Jill Whitlow draws the attention of one of the boys. “Night of the Creeps” (1986) is sci-fi/horror with a wink of amusement that features bits from previous movies, like “The Blob” and zombie flicks, to forge its own unique concoction. The writing is creative, the characters are fleshed-out and the director has a good eye for women in a few quick spots (not talking ’bout nudity or sleaze). The detective especially is an interesting character while Whitlow’s voice is to die for. This would obviously influence “Slither,” which came out two decades later, but “Creeps” is the superior film, by far (there’s something distasteful & ugly about “Slither,” but that’s just me). The movie runs 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot entirely in Los Angeles. GRADE: B+/A-

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