Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Jill Whitlow
Director: Fred Dekker
Sorry, it has been a crazy few weeks but I am back…
1986 was an embarrassment of riches for this horror fan and this film just may be one of the best and most underrated of the bunch.
Brief synopsis:
A space ship is taken over by slug-like creatures that get into the brain and take control of the victims minds and bodies. One of these possessed victims shoots off a canister containing the remaining slugs who crash land on Earth in 1959. A canoodling college couple, Johnny and Pam, are having a quiet date night in their car and, after a brief interruption from her cop ex-boyfriend Ray, they see the canister land in a nearby woods. Johnny decides to go after it, leaving pretty Pam alone to deal with the insane axe murderer who just escaped from the insane asylum. Neither encounters goes well. Pam ends up the last victim of the serial killer while Johnny gets a slug in his mouth.
Flash forward to 1986 at the same college, Corman University…
Spoilers below (you have been warned):
Chris Romero and his friend, John Capenter Hooper aka JC, are hanging out at a college party. JC is playing wingman for his buddy as he believes his being permanently disabled and using crutches takes him out of the running with college girls. Chris has a crush on cute sorority girl Cynthia Cronenberg but she is dating douchey frat guy Brad. Attempting to get into the frat, the friends are tasked by the jerks to put a dead body from the science lab at the doorsteps of a rival frat. The two get into the surprisingly low security lab and find a frozen Johnny, who they accidentally unfreeze. Johnny is a zombie now and the boys run away, screaming like banshees.
Johnny heads to Pam’s sorority house, where Cynthia now resides. He scares her first and then ends up dead on the ground with slugs escaping from his split open noggin. Brad accuses Chris and JC of dropping the body at the wrong place but the boys both admit that they chickened out of the prank. Cynthia gets to see Brad’s true nature when he trips JC and realizes she can do a lot better. Meanwhile, Chris and JC are brought into the police station and interviewed by Pam’s former love who is now Detective Ray Cameron. They admit to releasing the body from cryofreeze but insist they left it at the lab. The janitor verifies that he did not see the boys with the body so they are let go.
Cynthia shows up at their dorm room and the three go for a walk. JC, realizing he is the third wheel, takes himself to the bathroom while Chris and Cynthia talk. Cynthia tells Chris that the body that was left at her sorority was a zombie. Chris kind of blows it off however is quick to say yes when Cynthia invites him to the Spring Formal the next night. Meanwhile, the janitor is infected by the slugs and ends in the bathroom with JC. His head splits open and poor JC is the next victim. Detective Cameron is eavesdropping on Chris and Cynthia and, after she says good night and heads home, he takes Chris to his apartment. There he reveals that he found Pam’s body the night she was killed. Cameron says he eventually tracked the killer down in his off-time and murdered the man, burying him in an empty lot. That empty lot is now the house mother’s cottage for Cynthia’s sorority.
Cynthia arrives home and allows a med student to store a box of preserved brains in their basement for the weekend. As the girls are settling in for the night, the slugs find the axe murderer and reanimate him. He breaks through the floor and murders the house mother. Cameron and the police department track down the mummified man and kill him again, releasing more slugs.
The next night, Chris is getting ready for his date and finds a tape recorder that contains a tape JC recorded before he died. JC explains that he has been infected, what he thinks the slugs are, and that they can be killed with fire. Chris finds JC’s body in the furnace room before heading to Cameron’s house and asking for help. Brad’s frat is getting ready for the dance but Brad is out drinking, pissed that Cynthia has dumped him. He finds a slugged dog who quickly infects him. A now zombified Brad heads to the sorority for Cynthia. The dog then gets himself a nice kill count by taking out the bus of frat boys and infecting all of them too. They also head to the sorority house. Cynthia, being a little too oblivious for her own good, steps outside with the zombie Brad and carefully breaks up with him again. Chris and Cameron, fully weaponized following a stop at the police station, kill Brad and then gear up for the onslaught. Cameron goes inside the house to warn the girls with this all-time classic exchange:
Cameron: I got good news and bad news, girls. The good news is your dates are here.
Sorority Sister: What’s the bad news?
Cameron: They’re dead.
Eventually, Chris and Cynthia manage to kill most of the zombies and figure out that the slugs have gone to the basement to eat the stored brains. Cameron is there already and has thrown a bunch of gasoline on the slugs and himself. He waits until the young couple are safe and then blows himself and the slugs up. It seems like a happy ending until we see a completely burned Cameron walking down the street. He collapses to the ground and slugs explode from his head, heading straight to a cemetery while the spaceship from the beginning of the movie begins to search for them.
OR
Alternate ending: Cynthia and Chris are holding each other when the dog comes up to them. Cynthia picks up the dog and becomes its final victim.
My thoughts (with spoilers):
There are certain films that I think should be more well known in general and this is definitely one of them. A fun and extremely referential film, this is just a great time. As you may have noticed from the character names in the film, Fred Dekker uses the last names of many famous horror film directors and the college is named after famed producer and director Roget Corman. Side note: I had the joy of meeting Corman at a horror film convention before his death. He was a lighthearted and talked joyfully about his films and the people he worked with. I even asked him working with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre on The Raven and Comedy of Terrors. We will talk about his answer on the podcast that I will be starting soon.
This script is fun and you can see it’s influence on future filmmakers like James Gunn and Peter Jackson. Indeed, Gunn’s later Slither is a more grown up and vulgar version of this film while the use of the lawn mower to fight zombies will be used in Jackson’s Braindead. It could be coincidence but I cannot believe that these two filmmakers, with their love of films in general, have not seen this film and placed homages to this film in their works. Yes, it gets a little too self-referential at times (KING Radio, really?), but for a horror film lover like myself, it is fun to find these references and make the connections to the films and directors. The story itself flows nicely and you really get to love the main trio of Cynthia, JC, and Chris. The dialogue flows smoothly and the actors have a ball spitting out every line, especially Tom Atkins as Detective Cameron.
The actors understand the film they are making and are up for the task. Our three young leads would never become superstars but they have a lot of fun with the material and create some great scenes. Allan Kayser, who I immediately recognized as dim-witted Bubba from the sitcom Mama’s Family, is chewing the scenery as the frat jerk Brad. But the real star of this show is Tom Atkins as Detective Cameron. He is given the best lines in the film and plays each one perfectly. This is a man who never got over the death of his first love and is still haunted by her memory. He is worn out, unhappy with the absolute idiots he works with at the station, and nothing surprises him it seems. This final case will change that but it will cost him his life.
Dekker opens the film interestingly and almost gives the audience whiplash. We start off in the dark, muted colors of space and then switch to a black and white 1950’s Earth. The black and white scenes evoke an old school feel, like we are watching It Came From Outer Space or any of a dozen sci-fi flicks from that era. After Pam and Johnny’s deaths, we flash forward to 1986. Keep in mind, this all happens with the first ten minutes of the film. It is a risky move but it pays off. We get the feel that this is not to be taken seriously but rather a chance to have some fun with the genre.
Night of the Creeps deserved better than it got upon release. A nice mix of horror and comedy with a smart script and fun performances, you should definitely check this one out.
More films from 1986 to check out:
Link – Elisabeth Shue finds herself alone with a killer ape in this tense thriller. A precursor to the better Primate from earlier this year.
Slaughter High – Revenge thriller in the same vein as Terror Train from 1980. Nerd gets injured in a prank gone wrong and gets revenge years later. Some fun kills and good for a watch.
The Wraith – High Plains Drifter ripoff starring Charlie Sheen. Murdered Jamie comes back as Jake to get revenge on his killers and claim his girl, Sherilynn Fenn. Great soundtrack and some amazing racing scenes.