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Night of the Creeps (1986)

Night of the Creeps (1986): Reviewed by Bryan Schuessler

Night of the Creeps (1986), directed by Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad (1987)), was entertaining for me at most, but generally a “zombie-like” film that could have packed a larger whallop than it did. It definitely has quite a bit of cult appeal, if nothing else. I was beginning to think it was a total dud until they introduced the slug-like creatures that infect all the humans and turn them into living dead monsters. Then the film started to pick up and really gain my interest.

The film had some hilarious lines of dialogue and some very memorable scenes of gore and interesting scenes of inventive murder. The elements of horror and comedy kept my interest piqued, especially the interaction between Christopher “Chris” Romero (Jason Lively) and James Carpenter “J.C.” Hooper (Steve Marshall). Fred Dekker also wrote the film and one has him to thank for his very humorous lines of dialogue, most importantly Det. Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) who was my favorite character in the whole film. Some of his lines made absolutely no sense and had me scratching my head wondering what the hell it all meant, and then I just thought, TO HELL WITH IT! The film just was fun to watch. I wish they followed through on more of their gore scenes and didn’t cut the camera off when it got good, but that may be to secure an R-rating or because the effects may have just been too technical, expensive or difficult to accomplish. The parasitic brain slugs were cool to watch slithering around the ground. A head explostion always fares well in my book, too!

The reason this film has so much cult appeal is that if you watch closely, there are so many little bits of homage paid to the big names in the horror genre. Here are the following tributes:

Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger play Zombie extras.

“Corman University” is a reference to director/producer Roger Corman.

Grafitti on the wall of the men’s room where J.C. is trying to escape a number of slugs reads, “Go Monster Squad!”. The Monster Squad (1987) was also directed by Fred Dekker. Also of note, STRYPER RULES is written as well. If you don’t know who STRYPER is, you have been blessed.

The movie the house mother is watching on TV is Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).

A very young unknown actor by the name of George Clooney has a walk-on role as a janitor. So many big actors and actresses get their start in horror films.

All the last names of the main characters are based on famous horror and sci-fi directors: George A. Romero (Chris Romero), John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper (James Carpenter Hooper), David Cronenberg (Cynthia Cronenberg), James Cameron (Det. Ray Cameron), John Landis (Det. Landis) and Sam Raimi (Sgt. Raimi).

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