Night of the Creeps (1986) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

2.1K

It’s October again. Thrill me!

31 Days of Horror: 2022 kicks off with this horror/sci-fi mash-up that is a love letter to a number of classic horror and science-fiction films. It’s got some scares but is lighthearted enough to give audiences a chuckle or two as well.

First Impressions

This horror sci-fi film has some alien slugs that come to Earth and take over a bunch of boys on their way to a prom. The sheriff, or whomever Tom Atkins plays, has his shotgun, his cigarette, and some great quips. He lets the girls know their dates are here, but it’s too bad they’re dead. Let’s see what kind of Creeps this mid-80s alien monster movie has got going for it.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

Onboard an alien ship, two diminutive aliens chase a third zombified alien carrying a canister. The canister is jettisoned and turns into a flaming meteorite above Crestridge, California in 1959. The opening scenes take place in black and white. Pam (Alice Cadogan) and Johnny (Ken Heron) are at Lover’s Lane and witness the crashing canister. They are told by Officer Ray Cameron (Dave Alan Johnson) to head home due to an escaped lunatic with an axe being on the loose. Johnny finds the canister which ruptures, and a slug-like creature jumps into his mouth. Back at his car, Pam is killed by the axe-wielding maniac.

Twenty-seven years later (now in color) in 1986 at Corman University, college student Chris Romero (Jason Lively) wants to get to know Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow), so his roommate James Carpenter “JC” Hooper (Steve Marshall) arranges an awkward meeting. Chris believes the only way she’ll go out with him is if they pledge the Beta Epsilon fraternity. The brothers ask them to steal a corpse from the school lab and place it on another Frat’s front porch. At the lab, they discover a cryogenic canister, which contains the frozen body of Johnny–well preserved. They accidentally release it and run off when it appears to come back to life.

The adult Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins), now a Detective, is brought in to work the case. The lab technician (David Paymer) is dead, but the other body is now missing. Johnny’s zombified body heads to the Sorority House where it taps on Cindy’s window before its head splits open and more slugs pour out. Detective Cameron brings in Chris and JC, who were identified as being in the lab by Mr. Miner (Robert Kino) the janitor. They swear they didn’t move the body. Ray is still traumatized by Pam’s death and continues to review her case in the evenings.

Cindy breaks up with her Frat boyfriend Brad (Allan Kayser), after he kicks JC’s crutches out from under him. Later she comes to talk to Chris about the weird slug-things she saw. JC excuses himself from this awkward trio and heads to a nearby bathroom, where he is trapped in a stall as slugs surround him. Cindy invites Chris to the formal the next night. JC leaves a tape recorded note for Chris that he is infected and believes heat can kill the slugs. Chris finds his body in the boiler room, dead, and goes to let Detective Cameron know.

Cameron confesses to Chris that he found the axe-murderer 27 years ago and killed him, burying the body behind the Sorority House, under what is now the House Mother’s room. Slugs bring the killer back to life and infect Brad and the bus load of Frat Boys, who all descend on the Sorority House. Cameron and Chris get a flamethrower and start shooting and burning infected zombie Frat Boys. Chris and Cindy get trapped in a tool shed, but Chris makes use of the lawnmower to decapitate a zombie.

The slugs have all congregated in the basement of the Sorority House due to a student storing some brains there over the weekend. Cameron sloshes gasoline around, giving Chris and Cindy 20 seconds to get out before he blows up the house, burning hundreds of slug creatures. Chris and Cindy kiss out front, safe from harm. A charred Detective Cameron shuffles down the street before collapsing in front of the cemetery. A bunch of slugs exit his body and enter into the graveyard. Suddenly a spotlight hits the tombstones from the alien ship, coming back to collect the missing “experiment” they lost decades ago.

“I personally would rather have my brains invaded by creatures from space than pledge a fraternity.” – JC Hooper

History in the Making

Welcome to the first night of 31 Days of Horror, which also happens to coincide with Sci-Fi Saturdays. Each day there will be an article about a different horror film, but Saturdays are still reserved for all things science-fiction. They just happen to be a little more creepy this month. And what better way to kick off this month of chills than with 1986s The Night of the Creeps. The film was the directorial debut for Fred Dekker, a writer whose previous work included an uncredited story credit on The Return of Godzilla as well as the story for House. His follow up to this film is the comedic film The Monster Squad which pits a bunch of kids against the classic Universal monsters, and is best known for the quote, “Wolfman’s got nards.”

Dekker also wrote Night of the Creeps which is designed as a love letter to classic horror and sci-fi films. Along with Return of the Living Dead from the previous year, it was the first of a new breed of comical, self-aware, horror films that paid homage to classic films loved by the filmmakers and audiences alike. This comical twist turned what could have been a low-budget B-movie, into something more endearing. Its mix of science-fiction along with the comedic horror also provides a unique tone that sets it apart from the average zombie film of the time (or even today).

Interestingly, the young leads all went on to do at least one more, lower budget horror within the last decade. Jason Lively, who might be best known for his role as Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, appeared in 2017s The Possessed. Jill Whitlow, who had small parts in both the original Porky’s and Weird Science, starred in the provocatively titled Naked Cannibal Campers (2020). And Allan Kayser, known for playing Bubba, the grandson in the comedic television series Mama’s Family, starred in ​​House of the Witchdoctor (2013). However, Tom Atkins may have been the best known actor in the piece. He was known for the horror films The Fog and Halloween III: Season of the Witch, as well as Maniac Cop and the remake of My Bloody Valentine. Dekker even managed to sneak a brief cameo by Dick Miller, a venerable actor from Roger Corman B-movies, and an actor that made a huge comeback in the 80s thanks to directors like Dekker and Joe Dante.

Genre-fication

Viewers of this film might be a bit surprised with the science-fiction opening. Marketed as more of a horror film, the spaceship and alien intro seems out of place. But these sci-fi elements are not misplaced, since Night of the Creeps pays homage to some classic sci-fi horror movies of the past. The first film referenced is 1958s The Blob. In both films, two teenagers witness a meteorite streaking overhead while at Lover’s Lane. Johnny’s discovery of the slug-filled canister echoes the old man finding the blob-laden rock, with both being attacked by the contents within. The other major influence that Creeps touches on is John Carpenter’s The Thing. Along with The Blob, The Thing is also about an alien menace, but one that lies dormant, frozen on Earth until accidentally unlocked. The slug-infected Johnny is (somehow) cryogenically preserved, shortly after the 1959 incident, and then thawed out 27 years later. Carpenter’s monster film is also referenced with the use of flamethrowers by the main characters, which they use to kill the slugs that escape the zombified Frat Boys.

But Night of the Creeps is more of a horror film than sci-fi one, and as such invokes many elements from horror films. Primarily it references Night of the Living Dead, both thematically and with JC mentioning the title in reference to the re-animated Sorority House cat. The shuffling dead/not-dead creatures are the typical zombie character, except when they die and their head splits open releasing more brain-eating slugs. There’s also reference to other 80s slasher films, such as House on Sorority Row (the location of this film) and the Halloween or Friday the 13th series, and others, with the presumed dead killer returning to life.

But perhaps the biggest shout out for fans of horror films, is the last names of all the characters, which are based on the greats of the genre. Night of the Creeps is not the only film to reference other filmmakers in this way, but it may have been the first. Most of these seem relatively obvious, but it’s pretty cool seeing the sheer amount of directors that Dekker tags in the film. Among them are James Cameron (Aliens), John Carpenter (The Thing) and Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), George Romero (Night of the Living Dead), and David Cronenberg (Shivers) who all are the last names of the main characters. Director Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2) is referenced in the last name of the Janitor. And finally pretty much every police officer has a last name referencing horror legends, including Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Mario Bava (Planet of the Vampires), Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III), Lewis Teague (Cujo), Joe Dante (Piranha), and Brian DePalma (Carrie). The name of the college is even a reference to one of the most prolific horror directors and producers of all time, Roger Corman (The Little Shop of Horrors).

Societal Commentary

The depth that the film explores is not limited to the homages between its credits. The title, Night of the Creeps, can also be read in a number of ways. A number of characters mention that something (or a place) gives them “the creeps,” as in a scary feeling. But the term “creep” could also be used to define the Frat Boys themselves (even in their less monstrous form). Brad seems to typify the stereotypical rich, party boy, frat brother, and becomes a creep to Cindy well before he is infected by the slugs. Finally, the “creep” could be a term for the shambling dead. Sometimes called ghouls, or zombies, creeps would also fit well with their demeanor as shown here.

Some of the best horror films, much like the best sci-fi films, create a social commentary that serves to underscore the main plot and characters of the film. While Creeps doesn’t have a huge statement on the meaning of life or anything, it does create a tragic backstory for the character of Detective Cameron. The film depicts a man who is so broken up about the death of his former girlfriend, that he takes it upon himself to track down the axe-wielding maniac that killed her. He brings his own sense of justice, executing the man, and then burying him in an empty lot behind the Sorority House. The main storyline, with the reappearance of Johnny dredges up the guilt and remorse from his past. He admits his crime to Chris, and later–after he sees the reanimated killer walking again, decides to end his own life. This is an unexpected turn for this tough, authority character. Chris manages to convince him to help defeat the “creeps,” which momentarily pulls Ray out of his depression. But in the end, Ray sacrifices himself to destroy the nest of slugs. Partly out of respect for Chris and the loss of JC, but also as a penance for the crimes of his past.

The Science in The Fiction

Night of the Creeps also shows that experimentation with the unknown is not a specifically human trait. One of the two aliens chasing the zombie-alien in the opening moments mentions that the “experiment must not get off the ship,” obviously referring to the canister with the slugs. The backstory of what these aliens were up to, and why they created such an experiment are left for the audiences’ imagination. But it’s apparent that things did not go well in the ship, with at least one of their compatriots being infected. Certainly their experiment had issues that deviated from the plan, which led to the death of many innocent Earth-people. The only question is why did it take 27 years for them to return to start cleaning up their mess?

The film also depicts cryogenics (with the appropriate Walt Disney joke) as a method of flash-freezing a body with cold air, of some sort. Johnny’s body–which presumably has been preserved since 1959, is being monitored by a small lab at this small college. Maybe the body was on-loan from the military or some other government organization that stopped Johnny in 1959 before he could split open and release his payload. But how would they have known? As for the “freezing” of the body, the process is not the way that a body would be stored and brought back to life. But with a strange alien parasite inside the body there’s no telling how (or why) the body would behave the way that it does.

The Final Frontier

Like other horror movies of this era, there’s some gratuitous nudity inserted just for the sake of having a topless woman on screen for a few seconds. It was almost an exact part of the formula, regardless of how expensive or cheap the film was. While some horror films do have some nudity revolving around the teen sex rituals, this was fully voyeuristic and could be removed without missing a beat in the story.

Night of the Creeps is also one of the few horror films that features an alternate ending. The Director’s Cut ending is the one described above, with the aliens returning to look for their lost experiment. It’s a more hopeful ending than the original theatrical ending which depicts the zombie-dog, which caused the Frat Boys bus accident, coming up to Cindy. She bends down to pet the dog and a slug jumps from its mouth as the film cuts to black. Just another final jump scare that might also elicit a potential sequel.

The film is similar to another 1986 sci-fi/horror mash-up: Critters (which is next week’s Sci-Fi Saturdays film). Night of the Creeps actually was released four months after Critters, so the two films probably did not influence each other. But it did provide at least some inspiration (potentially) for James Gunn’s horror film Slither. That 2006 film had a singular space slug taking over the body of a man who was trying to infect the people in the town, as the sheriff and a couple others tried to stop it. It shared similar scenes, and a similar comedic tone.

Welcome again to the 5th Annual 31 Days of Horror here on Retrozap.com. Keep coming back every day this October for more spooky articles about some amazing horror films. Saturdays will continue to focus on sci-fi related films, but with a horror bent. So until next time, pleasant screams!

Coming Next