Night of the Creeps (1986) Revisited – Horror Movie Review
In a decade full of absolute hits, it takes a lot to stand out. The 1980s was a decade that brought us some of the best remakes of all time with The Thing and The Fly, classic monsters like werewolves and vampires came back hard (I mean heck, 1981 had 3 werewolf movies alone) and was the decade of the slasher. When you get stuff that really stands out and really stands the test of time, we end up with the Re-Animators of the world, the Fade to Blacks of the world, and in terms of today’s discussion, Night of the Creeps. This movie was written in one week for a first-time screenplay, directed by a first timer in Fred Dekker, was almost entirely in black and white, and gave us the definitive performance of one Tom Atkins who has made a career of great horror with almost 100 roles to his name. Today we will revisit one half of the late 80s double Dekker universe with the sensational Night of the Creeps. Thrill me.
Fred Dekker wasn’t completely unknown and untested by the mid-1980s as he had directed a couple shorts and been credited with story contributions on the comedy horror hit House from Sean S. Cunningham. That movie leans pretty heavily into the sensibilities of Creeps with its emphasis on horror, comedy, and great special effects. This movie shouldn’t work as well as it does. The script was written in only a week, and Dekker put every cliché he could think of into the plot from aliens to zombies to frat houses. He even names a ton of his characters after luminaries of the genre which admittedly ends up cringy usually but here it’s charming. Romero, Hooper, Carpenter, Raimi, and more are characters that constantly remind you that they are here to say nothing of Corman University. What could have felt like a film store employee making a fan fic script end up charming and that’s what one of the biggest reasons this movie stands out and has stood the test of time. Charm.
The movie follows Chris and James who are new at this college stuff and looking for ladies. Chris falls madly in love at first sight with Cynthia so they try to pledge a frat and are tasked with pranking a sorority. They unwittingly unleash an alien slug army that can take over a living body or bring one back from the dead. Wait wait wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. The movie actually opens with a black and white opening that calls back to urban legends and escaped mental patients. The whole movie was pitched as black and white but the studio felt that would be a death sentence in 1986 so we are left with the opening scene and a call back later on. This black and white opening not only sets the stage for the character of Ray Cameron played by the ever-imitable Tom Atkins, but it also gives you a red herring and sets up a story beat that it pays off in spades later. While I’m glad the entire movie didn’t end up without color, the movie just wouldn’t be the same without that scene and that set up.
Anyway, the kids let loose these slug creatures who slowly infect students, cats, and janitors alike. They eventually sabotage an entire bus worth of chads, in some cases literally, who were on their way to pick up their sorority dates and it’s up to Ray, Chris, and Cynthia to stop them to save not only the school but probably the world. While that may not sound like it recreates the wheel, but the overall story isn’t the most important part of the picture here. In fact, I’d argue that it’s pretty basic all things considered but the script, along with the movie itself, are elevated by a few very specific things. The special effects, the script, and the performances.
The first one of these, and maybe the most important, are the performances of our 4 leads. Jason Lively and Steve Marshall play the best of friends as Chris and J.C. and that really shows up in the film. The best part of that is this is really their claim to fame. Steve Marshall really didn’t have much at all before or after this and while Lively would play Rusty Griswold in what I consider the lesser of the Vacation movies, that’s pretty much it and this movie has much more of a cult following. They would do anything for each other like JC trying to get Chris in touch with who he see’s as the love of his life or even at the end leaving him a voice note on a tape recorder explaining that not only is he dying with the worms inside of him but also just how they can ultimately be defeated.
Why is he the only person we have seen get infected who still has any of their own personality left? It doesn’t matter! The sadness that creeps (pun intended) across Chris’ face as he knows he will never see his friend again is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking because it’s earned. Its always mentioned about the easter egg in the bathroom stall about the fact that the Monster Squad, in fact, rules, but far less is made of their relationship or the fact that JC is crippled for literally no reason. Fred Dekker even said it was just because. That’s it. No functional or plot related reason whatsoever. Watching them be buddies, laughing together, getting into a fight and make up, and then one of them die really pulls the emotional strings that a movie like this needs.
What are two fun to root for heroes without their love interest and their mentor/protector character. Chris love interest is Cynthia, played by Jill Whitlow. Much like her male costars, she didn’t have a huge career, but she was in Porky’s, Weird Science, and eventually an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. While she starts as a bit of a trope, she gives nerds like us hope everywhere when she ends up not only being intelligent and kind, but also dumping her absolute Chad, or in this case, Brad of a boyfriend and eventually having feelings for our guy Chris. She also happens to break a couple of rules for female leads in horror films let alone final girls. She is seen topless at some point even when the camera makes it look like its going to pan away and this is usually a death sentence for any poor woman who smokes or has sex in a horror film. The other one, the bigger one, is that she isn’t just fighting for her life in self defense but takes an active role in torching the zombies. She could have just as easily used the shotgun but no, she brandishes the mother freaking flamethrower. Be still my heart. Her arc and the way she bucks convention really stand out among most horror leading ladies of the decade.
The final piece to the character puzzle falls to Ray Cameron played by the legendary Tom Atkins. The man has graced our screens for Lethal Weapon, The Fog, Escape From New York, Halloween III, Maniac Cop… the list goes on but this is his best role and the actor’s personal favorite to boot. On the outside, Ray looks like just a burnt-out cop who doesn’t care anymore and has a haunted past but as the movie goes on, he ends up being a burnt-out cop who doesn’t care anymore and has a haunted past BUT gets redemption. He gets redemption in the way he kills the zombified remains of the asylum patient he already killed before, and he gets redemption because this time he saves people. He saves most of the girls in the sorority house and even saves a teen couple, something that gives him hope as he was unable to save a couple, including a girl he really cared about, in the 50s.
For Ray though it goes beyond just his redemption arc. Someone else besides Tom Atkins in the role and it loses something. It loses his sarcastic remarks as well as the line deliveries of “Thrill me” spoken with enough change that sometimes its anger, sometimes its annoyance, and sometimes its even interest. It’s these subtle additions that not only elevate the already fun script to an endlessly entertaining spectacle, but it also gives us one of the best characters of 80s horror. One final note on Ray is that he is so distraught at some point during the movie that he is ready to end things by taping up his house and letting the oven gas take him away. While he still effectively dies the same way, that is of an action from his own doing, it’s the final ultimate redemption… I mean until the ending shows him carrying the threat to safety. Either way the ending is dour, but I do prefer the director’s choice as it shows us a ship searching the graveyard for its pets rather than a jump scare involving a dog.
The script and performances work whether the movie is animated, live action, big budget or small but creating good special effects can make or break your movie. While it is spared of any CGI as 1986 is about a decade too soon for it, practical effects can still go horribly wrong. Thankfully for Dekker and the audience, what we got is almost perfect and stands the test of time. From the unique looking aliens in the beginning to slug zombie victims, it all looks solid. One of my favorite bits is at the end when Chris and Cynthia are taking the creatures out with the one two punch of Shotgun Flamethrower and we see all kinds of fun exploding heads. Dekker even asked for some more money to go back in and add some extra action after test audiences were underwhelmed in the final act. This is why we have the excellent flower garden stand off right near the ending. The wall of slugs that Ray blows up at the finale, the zombified asylum patient with amazing facial movement, and all of the dead guy makeup or killings have night of the creeps as a cut above.
Unfortunately, like many of our favorite films, the movie was a bust. It made back less than 600,000 at the box office but also like many of our favorites, it’s been rescued by fans and made into a cult classic. It’s been released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K enough that there are ample ways to experience it. The studio tried their hardest to interfere, including having an editor take a crack at it without Dekker’s involvement, but the director won out in the end. Was it exactly what he drew up in his mind when he wrote the script in just a week? No, but it’s been thrilling us for nearly 40 years and deserves all the love it gets. Night of the Creeps is a must watch for new fans and revisits alike.
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