Customer Reviews

Night of the Creeps [DVD] [1986] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two college losers attempt to get in a fraternity and win the girl, taking the chanllenge they break into the nearby labs to steal a corpse and unwittingly unleash alien parasites that create a zombie plague in town, now only they and a burned out cop (played to perfection by genre veteran Tom Atkins) can stop the creeps from destroying the world!
Fred dekker whose probably most famous for monster squad The Monster Squad [DVD] [1987] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] debued with this highly entertaining pastiche of 50's b movies and contemporary horror and is post modern before scream made it trendy (note: all the characters are named after famous horror directors). The characters are great, the dialouge while shakey at times is entertaining and the whole movie dashes along at such a quick pace its hard to get bored!
ow the disc, Blu ray enhances the directors cut print to such a degree you can see the grain on the print, the sound is phenomenal though and the whole disc is multi-region so will play on your ps3/player with no problems. Extras-wise there are about an hour of featuretes with a play all feature taking a nostalgic look back at the film, it's sad to see lots of those involved never went on to greater things including Fred dekker, who bemoans the fact he never made more films. Overall this is well worth a look as the film is a neglected gem.

Night of the Creeps is a must-see 1980s cult classic that almost seems to get better with age. With its unusually impressive blend of horror and comedy, this low-budget classic should serve as an inspiration to today's independent filmmakers. I've read that writer/director Fred Dekker wrote the screenplay in seven days, but it's as solid and witty a script as you're likely to find among films in the campy horror genre. The special effects are surprisingly good for the most part, and even the acting is solid all the way around. Dekker's love and appreciation for science fiction and horror is incorporated nicely into the dialogue, granting the film a special appeal to fans of those genres.

Way back in 1959, a pod carrying an alien experiment plummeted to the earth and - by infecting those exposed to it - caused the violent deaths of several young people before it was stopped. Things have been peaceful ever since - until a stupid fraternity prank by a young man desperate to impress a beautiful sorority girl. While Chris (Jason Lively) sort of draws the line at freeing human popsicles sealed up cryogenically for almost three decades, his gung ho buddy J.C. Steve Marshall) has no qualms about such an expulsion-deserving offense. They don't get far with the body, but they do more than enough to turn their bucolic college town into a veritable zombie killing ground. It's not long at all before zombies' heads start exploding across campus, releasing a myriad of alien worms eager to infect new hosts. As a few random murders escalate into the equivalent of a zombie invasion, only veteran Detective Landis (Wally Taylor) has any real insight into what is truly happening.

When they're not performing idiotic fraternity pledge pranks or running away ("screaming like banshees") from the undead, Chris - with plenty of help from J.C. - is trying to figure out how to separate Cynthia (Jill Whitlow) from her obnoxious boyfriend and (forgive the pun) worm his way into her life. I certainly can't blame the lad for that, as Cynthia is flat-out gorgeous. In fact, Jill Whitlow is a perfect example of why I and so many other fellows love the 1980s so much. It's just too bad that the only way for a normal guy to get such a babe is to take on a city full of monsters and somehow survive.

Night of the Creeps is a perfect candidate for multiple viewings. I must admit that Detective Landis' catch phrase and J.C.'s seemingly endless antics eventually got on my nerves, but there is plenty of memorable dialogue scattered throughout the entire film. The gore is satisfying enough to placate the slasher fan without scaring away those with a more delicate constitution, and the comedy and cultural references should appeal to just about everyone. Night of the Creeps is B-movie horror/comedy filmmaking at its best.

Night of the Creeps is part of a long line of horror, comedy, trash, cheap effects, and even feel good humour that came out in the mid 80's.
Creeps delivers as many of these type of movies had the uncanny ability to do. The acting is poor at times and the movie takes some time to get going, but the second half of the film is so 80's trash over the top- were talking zombie cat here that it more than makes up for it. Repeated viewings actually do the movie justice, there is a healthy plod of gore, and if your a child of the 80's you will instantly get the references.
Even good old Dick Miller has a standout cameo but the guy that steals this movie is the one and only super cool
Tom Atkins. If oscars were given out for being in 80's trash movies then Atkins would deserve his one for Creeps.
He probably has the best one liners in movie history all wrapped up in 90 mins or so.

In fact the only negative I can think of is the awful DVD cover, try and find the original 80's cover it's way better. Also they shot two endings to the movie, I prefer the unused one with Atkins and motherships.

Great film.

This is a must if you love old cheesy 80s classics!! A fantastic sci-fi/horror with a good story that mixes genres all up, great cast, brilliant effects too, lots of gore and violence all done with good old fashioned practical effect work, this is a gem of an 80s film and the new release is fantastic quality picture wise and there are plenty of great new extras!!

I won't repeat the story; already done well by previous reviewer. Suffice to say that this is a B movie with a lot going for it. Tom Atkins is never better and answers the phone in a way I wish I had the bottle to do.

Given the other trash that has been transferred to DVD, I cannot understand the delay in putting this minor classic out there, for a new generation of horror fans.

1986 was a good year for cult horrors and creepies; The Fly, Critters, Slaughter High. If you enjoyed movies such as Night of the Comet, Chopping Mall, Troll and any of the (now virtually unheard of) b-Movie actors of that time you will love Night of the Creeps. Be wary of the 'sequel' posted as Night of the Creeps 2 - Zombie Town. This movie has no affiliation with the original and is quite frankly rubbish - not in the good 80s B-Movie horror rubbish way. Just in the complete nonsense rubbish way. Hopefully those who are into their 70s/80s cult/B-Movie horror will understand the distinction.

Always loved this Classic and im glad to find it on blu ray, but im ot sure it will work on my DVD player.

Can you help me with regions?

Thank You

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear!
I absolutely love "The Monster Squad", a superb and brilliant homage to the classic Universal Monsters. I was interested to see that Fred Dekker's first movie had been released on DVD in the US and bought it. I really wish that I hadn't. While Monster Squad had a great script and some excellent child actors, Night had very poor actors trying to force awful attempts at unfunny jokes in a sci-fi horror pastiche. Even Dick Miller and David Paymer are woefully misused and the only light in this darkly deficient tale is Tom Atkins. I can see why this only got released in America. This is almost as bad as the unbelievably dire "Weird Science".
Fred, you are so much better than this. Please look to the classics of the horror genre to create your best work. Oh, and punters buy "The Monster Squad" if you want to be highly entertained!!!