There aren't many zombie-alien-invasion-undead-slug-detective-thrillers out there nowadays... come to think of it, I've never even heard of one. Besides this movie, that is. This one wasn't made by Roger Corman, nor hammers studios, but dammit, it has one thing going for it. It was made in the 80's, and by Thor's hammer, they knew how to make movies back then. I may sound like your grandpa right now, but I was alive way back in the 80's, and dammit, I know what I'm talking about!
Night of the Creeps starts in 1959. 1959 was not a very good year. In 1959, Officer Cameron joined the police force. In 1959, his girlfriend dumped him for a frat boy, whom shall henceforth be known in this blog as "Deadmeat." In 1959, a mental patient escaped from the local psycho ward. In 1959, a meteor crashed to the earth, and frat boy Deadmeat and officer Cameron's ex-girlfriend went to investigate. Deadmeat finds the "meteor," a crystalline cylinder filled with writhing black space-worms. One of them breaks out of the cylinder and launches itself into deadmeat's mouth, and that's the last we see of Deadmeat, at least for a while. And finally, that year, Officer Cameron killed said escaped lunatic, after that psycho axe-killer hacked Officer Cameron's ex-girlfriend to death with an axe.
Flash forward 27 years. It's now 1986, and Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins) is called to the local college on a case. Two fraternity pledges, whom Detective cameron refers to as "Spanky and Alfalfa," try to join a frat to impress a girl (Jill Whitlow). Unfortunately, the prank they are supposed to pull involves thawing a cadaver out of a cryogenics experiment at the local science lab. A cadaver who has been on ice since 1959. A cadaver who, while his name may have been something else while he was alive, is known to you and I by another name. We affectionately call him... Deadmeat.
I'm not going to say another word. This movie's awesome. There's aliens. There's zombies. There's escaped lunatic axe murderers. There's detective work. There's nudity. There's even an old japanese janitor that keeps repeating the phrase "screaming rike banshees." Now I ask you. What other movie do you know of that has an old japanese janitor that walks around saying "screaming rike banshees" and cackling hysterically? Yea, I thought the list might be a bit short. This movie even has Dick Miller in it!
I really love watching this movie. I love the atmosphere. I love the humor. I love the characters. I love the aliens. I especially love Jill Whitlow. Oh yes. She may be one of the hottest damsels in distress I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. When I saw this movie, I immediately identified with "Spanky," otherwise known as Jason Lively, the actor who plays him. I'm not sure if he's related to Robin Lively, the actress? They both have red hair, and I think there's a resemblance.
Anyway, I identified with him because he saw Jill Whitlow and wanted to marry her. Much of the humor in this movie, and even though it's not a comedy, there is a lot of it. Spanky says he wants to marry her, and Alfalfa says "I'm sorry, this may come as a shock to you, but you have to talk to her first." And there's even the line on the DVD case... Detective Cameron is at the sorority and the busload of frat boys arrives. Detective Cameron says "Good news and bad news, ladies. Good news is, your dates are here." And a sorority girl asks "What's the bad news?" Detective Cameron replies "They're dead."
Fun movie, and definitely passes the rewatchability test. Check it out! Got it on DVD from amazon. Only one night left! Join me tomorrow for a review of Trick R Treat, starring Anna Paquin! :-D
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