Horror Pick: Night Of The Creeps (1986)
Oh, the 80s. Gaudy music, obnoxious fashion designs, and more movies about splattered brains than your mommy and daddy can shake a stick at. During that “radical” decade, everyone and their mother tried their hand at making a practical-effects-driven horror movie about zombies or slashers, but not everyone could pull it off. Some offerings were overly goofy, removing any bits of horror, while others took themselves too seriously, missing the fun so many campy classics thrive on. So where does Night Of The Creeps rank on this scale? Well, there’s definitely more camp than tension, but so much horror love and ballsy ambition elevate this cult classic above the hordes of similar 80s titles.
Writer/Director Fred Dekker has only been behind the camera three times in his life, and Night Of The Creeps might be his least renown, but by referencing the likes of Roger Corman in the opening scenes, this tongue-in-cheek monster movie is nothing but head-exploding fun. Starting out on an alien spaceship inhabited by fleshy looking monsters, an extraterrestrial force is unleashed on an unsuspecting college town. With students and townsfolk now being controlled by sluggish buggers who crawl in your mouth, it’s up to a few students and a local officer to torch every last brainwashing creepy-crawly.
[zergpaid]For an 80s low-budget creature flick, Night Of The Creeps has some pretty hilarious practicality going on, doing very little to hide fake bodies with slugs exploding out of their craniums, but there’s a type of heroic ambition to Dekker’s embracing of whatever effects his team can pull off. No CGI, no Stan Winston budgets – just some cheap gags that at times appear as Macy’s window mannequins.
Whatever, judging by my obnoxious laughter during the alien spaceship scene, I’d say there’s a certain charm that Night Of The Creeps possesses, which is something a lot of these generic horror films of today lack – no matter how goofy Dekker’s screenplay may be.
Published: Aug 11, 2014 04:34 pm