Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11661 in VHS
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Running time: 89 minutes

Customer Reviews

No doubt a cult classic. Bring on the DVD already
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS

**** ½ Out of 5

Release Date- August 22nd, 1986

Running Time- 88-Minutes

Rating- R

Writer/Director- Fred Dekker

Starring- Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, Allan Kayser and Tom Atkins as Detective Cameron

Night of the Creeps is in my opinion one of the very best horror flicks out of the 80s and easily rates as one of the most fun viewing experiences; Night of the Creeps is one of those movies I can watch everyday and never get bored of it. As much as I love 80s horror I do think it did start a bit of a decline. I think some of the best horror flicks of all time came out of the 80s, but it seemed to focus more on gore F/X and character development pretty much took a backseat, but Night of the Creeps is one of the movies that features gore, but also features some of best characters in a horror flick.

Night of the Creeps marked the directorial debut for Fred Dekker and the one thing I can say is the genre truly is missing Fred Dekker. This rates as one of my favorite directorial debuts and by the time Night of the Creeps was released horror was still going strong, but we were seeing a slight decline in quality. What was working in the early part of the 80s wasn't working as well, which is partly the reason comedic horror flicks were being made more and more. But really by this time in the genre the slasher film was really all, but dead and even zombie movies were lacking, but with Night of the Creeps Fred Dekker made an excellent zombie flick that stands-out from the others that populated the horror genre at this time.

As much as I do enjoy comedy/horror a lot for me don't hold up as well over the years, but in many ways I think Night of the Creeps gets better and better as it gets older. Sometimes comedy and horror can work, but I don't know sometimes they seem to really fall flat; I think often the biggest problem is the comedy takes away from the horror and the horror takes away from the comedy, but Fred Dekker was able to mix both together and keep the pace moving and is able to mix horror and comedy successfully together in the same scenes and neither takes away from the other.

For a low budget horror movie the acting is actually fairly strong from the main cast. Normally movies like Night of the Creeps even if enjoyable have weak acting, but this movie actually has some solid acting. Tom Atkins as Detective Cameron is excellent like always. Seriously is there an actor cooler than Tom Atkins? Steve McQueen might be known as the king of cool, but Tom Atkins can seriously give him a run on that. Atkins has stated Night of the Creeps is his favorite of all the movies he's done and I'd happen to agree with that. Jason Lively as Christopher Romero and Steve Marshall as JC are both very good in their roles and Jill Whitlow is solid as Cynthia and is total hotness as well.

Fred Dekker actually writes a very good and creative screenplay; by the time of the release for Night of the Creeps there were still many great horror movies released and many great ones after Night of the Creeps, but at this point of the genre there was a slight decline, but Night of the Creeps is a great example of great horror. Many movies in the 80s focused more on the gore than the characters and Fred Dekker is able to do both. JC and Chris are two of my favorite characters of all time and they are both highly likeable and the bond between the two of them feels real and never comes across as sappy with the exception of maybe a scene or two. And the love story angle between Chris and Cynthia also really works well and adds a lot of depth to the characters and the movie. Like I said the comedy really works well and anything Tom Atkins says in the movie is so quotable. Night of the Creeps is one of those movies you can quote over and over again.

Directing wise Fred Dekker really delivers on his debut film; the pacing never once lags and is always moving forward. The comedy works well and it really is quite funny and there is some decent suspense. Fred Dekker is obviously a fan of the horror genre, which is really clear as he uses names such as Hooper, Carpenter, Romero, Cronenberg, Landis, Raimi and Cameron to name a few. Night of the Creeps is very much a homage to the horror genre from the 50s all the way up until the 80s, but with Night of the Creeps despite the homage's, Fred Dekker also puts his own twist on things, which by this point in the horror genre was rare. A lot of movies at this time were nothing more than cheap knockoffs even if they were enjoyable, but Dekker puts his own twist on things and possibly makes the coolest movies of the 80s or of any era for that matter.

Night of the Creeps is just a blast to watch and like I said seems to get better and better with each viewing and again the movie is so quotable. Night of the Creeps never fails to put a big smile on my face. We got a solid plot and some really awesome and likeable characters, which again by this time seemed rare.

Sadly this movie still isn't out on DVD and the longer it goes without I fear this movie will fade into oblivion. This one truly deserves a DVD. Hopefully it happens soon.

A Crazy Fun Horror/Comedy!
When a college town is invaded by parasitic alien slugs that turn their hosts into zombies, it's up to one offbeat student named Chris Romero (Jason Lively), with the help of cliché police detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins), to save the world and the girl of his dreams.

A year before the cult-favorite "The Monster Squad" took a devastating bite out of his directorial career (it's a great film though!), Fred Dekker came out with this cult-fave in 1986. "Night of the Creeps" is actually an excellent horror film and horror spoof at the same time. Full of one-liners and sci-fi and horror clichés, it manages to provide laughs a plenty without losing the thrill factor. There are some great performances from Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall as Chris's best-friend J.C., and cutie Jill Whitlow as Cindy Cronenberg. Mama's Family's Allan "Bubba" Kayser even takes part as the stereotypical frat-boy creep, Brad. Okay, I could probably do without the goofy aliens in the opening, and it's a shame that the higher-ups forced Dekker to alter his ending (check out the original ending somewhere, if you can), but it is still one heck of a great movie that is long overdue for the DVD treatment. When it does come out, let's hope it gets a great release like "The Monster Squad" got, preferably with both endings as a viewing option.

Zombie horror with a bit of humor
Pretty good horror movie, with a bit of humor in it as well, and I'm surprised this movie never made it out onto DVD. In this movie, the cause of the dead coming back to "life" is actually an alien experiment.

The first scene opens up on an alien ship with funny-looking naked aliens (yes, you heard it right, naked aliens!LOL) running around. A capsule containing their experiment gets jettisoned from the ship and guess which planet it decides to land on? Yah, it is our very own planet Earth. The capsule crashes into Earth during the year 1959, not far from a local university, in which a college student out on a date makes the mistake of stumbling open it and getting infected with what was inside the capsule.

Fast forward a few decades and it is now 1986 and the setting is the same university and area. Two nerdy friends, Chris and JC, decide to pledge a fraternity (as one of the friends has a huge crush on a girl who is in a sorority), and they are told to play a prank on another fraternity by stealing a corpse and dumping it on the front lawn of a rival frat house.

They sneak into a medical laboratory that contains the college student that was infected by the alien experiment back in 1959, who has been cryogenically preserved in the lab. They break open the tube he was encased in and all hell breaks loose.

Once the zombie gets free, it infects the first person (the lab assistant), which starts a chain reaction in which more and more people get infected and culminates in a fight scene where Chris and his girl take action against the zombies (which I found pretty funny, especially the girl wielding a flame thrower!). Lots of gory bits and alien slugs flying around every time a zombie got its head blown away.

There were some funny moments in the movie, taking amusing jabs at the zombie horror genre in general. For instance, in one scene when the two friends get questioned by the police, JC makes a joke saying something about aliens invading his brain from outer space (which is basically what happens in the movie to everyone.heh). Another scene is when the girl Chris is interested in tells him about the weird corpse she saw outside her bedroom window, JC makes another remark making fun of her saying, "Night of the Living Dead zombies!".

If you're able to get a hold of this movie, I'd recommend watching it. Good for some laughs poking fun at zombie horror movies, and also had some cringe worthy parts too (the alien slugs were pretty disgusting, and the last scene).