Night of the Creeps (1986)

   

Written & Directed by: Fred Dekker

Starring:

Jason Lively .... Chris Romero
Steve Marshall .... J.C. Hooper
Jill Whitlow .... Cynthia Cronenberg
Tom Atkins .... Det. Ray Cameron
Wally Taylor .... Det. Landis
Bruce Soloman .... Sgt. Raimi
Vic Polizos .... Coroner
Allan Kayser .... Brad
Ken Heron ... Johnny

Release Date: Theatrical: August 22, 1986

 

 

Rating:

 

A renegade alien is on the loose in an alien spacecraft. It lets loose a container of deadly type slugs and unfortunately lands on Earth in 1958 as the screen is black & white during this year.
A couple stops their convertible as one of them spots something in a ditch which is the container with those slugs which lands in a guys mouth and kills him.
Meanwhile an axe murderer that a main police officer is after slaughters the guys girlfriend.

Then it is present day and the screen is in color. A fraternity pledge named Chris (Jason Lively) wants to date the most beautiful popular girl in the fraternity named Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow) so he tries to get his physically handicapped friend named J.C. (Steve Marshall) to help him as he is a pledge too but in order to join they must go to the cyrogenic lab.
While they are there they awaken the guy from 1958 as he spits the slug types into the corners mouth and the coroner turns into a zombie himself.
Then the corpse walks to the college and sets the types of slugs there.
Suddenly, most of the students turn into zombies including the corpse of the axe murderer that Det. Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) buried there after he shot him which that present day he is still disturbed by.

 

There's a good opening with a black background showing the glowing theme title which will impress any horror fan who likes 80's flick. Also we spot an evil renegade alien running away carrying a device with others chasing after him in which the costumes for these aliens look very cartoonish but it fits the picture making it look campy and fun to watch. Especially showing the object flying away in outerspace out of the ship.
Then we spot an era taking place in the late 50's as the makers were clever to make the scene look black and white as well as the people and their dates sitting in their vehicle making out at the lookout which was very common back then. Plus there's a good shot on a cadillac with a woman sitting in the passenger seat along with a cheesy but creepy shot on a back of a killer holding an axe creeping up to her. This was a nice drawing card to the story without a doubt.
Then we go to present day and another nice moment is when we spot a geeky teen named Chris Romero having eyes for the prettiest girl at the fraternity Cynthia Cronenberg where a school dance is taking place in which we spot some comedic moments on him acting too shy to talk to her as well as acting clumsy which showed nice timing here.
Another perfect twist is when we spot Detective Ray Cameron sitting in a beach wearing his dress clothes sipping a drink which looks quite strange and then rising up a beautiful lusty woman from the water. Suddenly he goes into a nightmare which really psychs you out wondering on what the hell happened here with him slowly approaching the back of the axe murderer from the prologue slaughtering someone in a cadillac which of course looks genuinely terrifying, brutal and dark too. What even looks more shocking is when you catch a glimpse of what this killer looks like which shows off another perfect horror touch for fans who love to be scared.
Nice effective scenery when Chris and his friend J.C. Hooper are in cyrogenic lab and unfreezing a corpse which shows a nice sci-fi surrounding through all of this. It certainly gives you a spooky feel to what will become of this corpse too.
There's even a moment with the coroner trying to lift this corpse to put it back in and a good jumping moment when we spot this corpse grabbing his arm.
Nice timing and one liner with Ray discussing a missing situation on a corpse just not walking away and then we have great spooky dark shots on the corpse's feet slowly walking across a street as well as going near the fraternity which for sure leaves a chill down your spine.
There's a moment when one of the campus girls goes to a window which makes you truly scared since things are too still making you think that the walking corpse will leap up but instead we spot her cat leaping at her to come in but this is a good jumping moment regardless and will tease you for sure that being scared isn't over yet as it's just too soon yet.
Then we have Cynthia going to a window in her room as we spot a breeze blowing in one of them spotting a curtain flapping as this of course looked truly spooky as well as her slowly going to the window and slowly opening the curtains to see what is outside as for anyone who does like to get scared will want to close their eyes while spotting this in which this was terrifically well done.
There's also neat shots on the slug like objects speeding towards the campus as this gives you the odd chuckle here and there.
There's also moments with the head campus boys ganging up on both Chris and J.C. in which this situation was supposed to make you feel intimidated being pitted against a bunch of bullies but this seemed a bit too cheesily done. However it wasn't bad at all.
There's a moment when Ray shares a drink with Chris questioning him in a creepy fashion adding a nice psychotic feel to this scene as the writing on this was pretty impressive here.
Another still situation is when J.C. is in the can and he hears strange sounds as he puts his hand below and a slug type objects zooms past him which is a perfect jumping moment to spot all of this indeed. Plus there's a good shocking moment when he opens the door and what he spots with alot of suspenseful and struggling situations that surrounds him.
There's another routine of the cat jumping through the window to come in but then we spot that this feline isn't the same anymore which looked pretty darn creepy.
There's a moment with an old lady falling asleep watching TV which is an old fashioned outerspace movie adding a nice flavor here as well as things are still and quiet until we hear loud banging sounds which is defientely firghtening plus great shots on a floor crashing by an axe with a corpse rising up. This for sure was pretty scary to spot all of this.
A nice action sequence with Ray coming up towards this axed killer in an alleyway and turning around to see what he looks like which delivers more frights and action on what will happen here.
There's even a moment when a dog seems to be a zombie but we could tell that it is obivously fake looking like one of those mechanical dog toys we all remember having during our childhood past. But that's a b-film for ya. We spot this animal standing in the middle of the orad and a bus carrying the frat students for an exciting trip driving by and swerving to get out of the way with the vehicle turning over which looks totally tragic and fast paced. Plus we spot the results which doesn't look pretty either along with a shot on this dog entering the smashed up bus as well as great shots on the people in the bus climbing out and walking along the road like zombie's which looked extremely impressive to spot all of this which will please horror fans for sure.
We have a nice witty moment with the head frat student Brad now as a zombie being with Cynthia when she tries to tell him she's breaking up with him and not noticing that he is not human anymore which can offer some laughs here.
Things look great and heroic when Chris tries to come in to save the day by blowing away these zombies as well as Ray entering the campus area to snuff out these parasites.
Bottom line is when I was a kid I loved sciernce fiction but my dad and I were skimming through the TV Guide of what was on that night and it said this was. It was categorised as a horror film and I was terrified of horror flicks at the time except for the Alien and Jaws films.
We decided to tune into it but I got too scared. I found the film at a flea market that if you buy 20 VHS movies they only cost a dollar each and I bought this one. Suddenly I remember the plot when I watched a bit of it on TV and was recently thinking of the film but couldn't remember the name of it since I wanted to check it out. I was excited and had no regrets of owning it.
The film was a total cheesy 80's horror/comedy zombie film and I'm a nut when it comes to cheesy 80's horror. You could consider it a Return of the Living Dead ripoff but not in a bad way and a little creepier too. Check it out.

The acting was very 80's cheese like. I enjoyed it though. Jason Lively (Chris Romero) is a fair natural as one of those geeky type and shy teenagers who doesn't belong as he studied this pretty well with whatever he does here. He does a nice job with his choked up words as well as acting clumsy with his blocking which looked good and natural too. He also does a nice job acting scared or anxious during certain situations showing great timing within all of this. Yet there's a scene when he is crying which seemed a little too forced out and unnatural. Yet he picks up the pace when he goes into action with his gun fighting against the zombie's which he brings a ton of might into this.
Steve Marshall (J.C. Hooper) really shows off alot of great spunk in his role as he shows a nice outgoing type of behavior into what he does and acts like a believeable clown with his hyped up attitude and speaking too. Plus he does a nice job with his charming personality too. His looks were a good bonus for his role so he brought in alot to prove himself a worthy character actor and a natural ham too. He also reacts well with his jumping behvior when he spots those parasites which looked good and nautral as well as him freaking out by certain situations that he spots too.
Jill Whitlow (Cynthia Cronenberg) who played the most popular fraternity girl has the right looks as she is stunningly beautiful for being in a horror flick but can she act? Well her performance is pretty average from what I see here as she is very soft spoken which works for what she does here but yet when she gets scared or screams she needed a bit of improvement by doing so. However she does a nice job acting upset or trying to be nice while reasoning with someone which makes her role believeably likeable.
Tom Atkins (Detective Ray Cameron) really shows off good timing with his humoress behavior even if he is trying to be serious about a situation. He also shows nice surprised reactions when something bizarre happens. Does a nice job while trying to act tough or stern during the terrors unveiled. He also does a nice job by acting creepy while having a discussion and having a drink and really getting into what he does here making him truly mysterious. He was terrific while pointing a gun calling to someone with a great shocked behavior doing all of this. Plus shows off a ton of great blocking and aggressions while trying to save the day just showing off alot of great adrenaline here. I always enjoyed his work with whatever he did in a film since he is a true talent.
Allan Kayser (Brad) seemed to breeze through nicely here as one of those stuck up jock boys in which he had the geeky clean cut masculine type of appeal as well as really acting like a typical jerk which shines off well in his performance. Plus he is believeable by acting like an idiot too. When he is a zombie he certainly does a great job with his expressionless type of behavior along with acting out of it. So I have to say that he is passable in his role but there's certain moments when he is a bit over the top with his aggressions or bullying type of attitude but not terrible.

Some women in the fraternity home are taking a shower and their breasts are revealed.
Jill Whitlow takes off her top and her breasts are briefly exposed as well.

Neat special effects.
In a dream sequenece there's a corpse of an axe murderer
A cyrogenic's head is split in half
A coroner is bloodied
A cat's face is mangled into a zombie
A guys head is splattered open in a public washroom
A women's face is cut in half with the corpse of the axe murderer but it is quick then his head is blown off in the next scene but it is not too gruesome but various zombies have their heads blown off which is quite gory too.

The music was composed by Bill Finnegan. His music for the opening was cheesy but creepy too especially during the opening credits making it sound deep and dark. There's some light synthesizer music for the peaceful moments which sounds nice and mellow. There's many spooky and ghoulish sounds with the synthesizer along with the deep violin synthesizer music too for when suspected terror is about to happen that sounds marvellous. Of course there's the odd heavy drumbeat which sounds powerful along with the odd prickling sounds too. Most of the music sounds quite smoothly done too which there's no complaints on that either. This guy certainly knows his stuff on how to do a horror zombie type of flick such as this one.

Many songtracks by oldie bands which works in well for the picture:

A nice mellow song during the lookout taking place in the prologue which is "Put You Head on my Shoulder" by Paul Anka which sounds perfectly smooth with a bluesy feel to the scene that is happening which makes the picture look like a perfect 1959 feel to it.
The song briefly used in the closing credits which is "The Stroll" by the Diamonds seems to be a perfect fitting since we spot a jumping moment before the screen goes black as we hear the singing like a toned out Elvis as well as some mean saxophone playing. Yes that suits it nicely if I do say so myself.

Detective Cameron: Is this a homicide, or a bad B-movie?

Detective Cameron: Corpses that have been dead for twenty-seven years do not get up and go for a walk by themselves!

Chris: Detective, other than confessing to a murder, is there a point to this conversation?

[answering phone]
Detective Cameron: Thrill me!
Sergeant Raimi: Detective Cameron?
Detective Cameron: No! Bozo the Clown!

[repeated line]
Detective Cameron: Thrill me.

Detective Cameron: I suppose Rip Van Winkle would be the other body; where is it?
Sergeant Raimi: The other body isn't here, sir.
Detective Cameron: What? Did he have a date? Whaddya mean it isn't here?

Detective Cameron: What's this?
Detective Landis: It was a grad student. He was scheduled to work here this evening.
Detective Cameron: Looks like he worked a little too hard, huh?

Detective Cameron: Well, girls, the good news is your dates are here.
Sorority Sister: What's the bad news?
Detective Cameron: They're dead.