“Thrill me.”
In 1959, an alien on a space ship ejects a canister into space. The canister lands on Earth. At the same time a homicidal mental patient escapes from an institute and is running around the woods with an axe. Teenagers Pam and Johnny are parked at a local lover’s point when the canister flies overhead and crashes to the ground. Johnny drives to where the canister came down to see what it was. Pam is not happy about it. Johnny grabs a flashlight and goes looking for whatever came down. He never comes back. Pam is sitting in the car by herself when a maniac with the axe walks up behind her.
In 1986 Chris Romero (Jason Lively), and his disabled friend, James Carpenter “J.C.” Cooper (Steve Marshall) are on campus discussing being in college when Chris sees the girl of his dreams, Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow). J. C. does his best to embarrass his friend. Chris thinks that in order to meet and get to know Cindy he needs to pledge to a fraternity. They approach the Betas looking to join. The Betas send the boys off on a task to prove they are Beta material. The Betas tell Chris and J. C. that to join they need to get a cadaver from the medical lab and put it outside the fraternity house of their rival.
The boys sneak into the Medical School Laboratory and find a cryogenically frozen man. The man happens to be Johnny. They thaw him out, panic and run. Johnny comes back to life and begins walking around campus. When his head blows up sperm-like slugs come shooting out turning people into zombies.
Detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) is a cop who has a past that haunts him. Twenty-seven years ago his girlfriend Pam threw him over for the rich college boy Johnny. When she was axed to death by the escaped homicidal maniac Ray killed him and buried him in a vacant lot that is now the place of the house mother’s cottage. Johnny’s body was found in the woods and is now the former cryogenically frozen man.
“Night of the Creeps” was released in 1986 and was written and directed by Fred Dekker. This comedy is a combination zombie and alien invasion movie with a little bit of slasher tossed in. The film pays homage to the “B” movie and incorporates every “B” movie trope Dekker could remember. The beginning is shot in black and white and changes to color when the timeline switches to 1986. The main characters’ last names are a tribute to horror movie directors. The name of the university is “Corman University” a tribute to Roger Corman.
Tom Atkins is one of the coolest actors ever to grace a horror movie. His acting is superb and he can pull off crotchety patronizing loner better than anyone else. He can be both good cop and bad cop all by himself and he does so in this little gem.
It wouldn’t surprise me if “Night of the Creeps” was the inspiration for “Slither”. They both use the Freudian symbolic sperm shaped creature that invades people’s mouths. Nothing latent there.
The film did not do well at the box office, but it has gained a fervent cult following since then. I’m one of them.