Night of the Creeps (1986)

Homecoming Night

Cast:

Jason Lively is Christopher 'Chris' Romero
Steve Marshall is James Carpenter 'J.C.' Hooper
Jill Whitlow is Cynthia 'Cindy' Cronenberg
Tom "Yes, I was in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, the non Michael Meyers one.." Atkins is Det. Ray Cameron
Wally Taylor is Det. Landis

What the IMDB says:

In 1959, an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a fraternity accidentally thaw the corpse, which proceeds to infect the campus with parasites that transform their hosts into killer zombies.

Plot:

In space, an alien has swiped a canister and ejects it into space.

1959, Pam leaves her sorority house on a date with Johnny.

The race is over Dead Man's Hill... They hear about an asylum escapee. At the make-out point, they see a falling meteor. Police officer tells her she needs to leave. However, Johnny and Pam head off to find the fallen meteor. Johnny heads off to the woods and finds the canister when suddenly some space leeches fly into his mouth. Pam stays in the car and is getting nervous but is unaware when the axe-murderer axes her.

In 1986, JC and Chris are wandering around the campus. Chris spots to him the most beautiful woman, Cynthia Cronenberg. The guys are dismayed when she sees her going into the Beta fraternity party.

You think Lambda-Lambda-Lambda will take us? JC tries to introduce Chris to Cynthia. However, Chris gets the idea his best chance to win the girl is join a frat.

The Beta frat, Brad, the president, requires Chris and JC to steal a corpse and leave it on the door of one of their rival frats. Unaware to our heroes, the Betas aren’t going to let them join even if they do it.

JC and Chris manage to sneak into the college morgue. They find a lab with a refrigerated corpse. Opening the tube, they start to haul away the body when it grabs one of them. That freaks them out enough to run and leave the body. The lab assistant finds the corpse and is killed.

Back at the dorm, JC gets sick of Chris’s whining and chews him out.

A man in a white panama suit is dreaming of the beach when 1959’s Pam emerges from the ocean. The phone call awakens Detective Cameron.

Hard-drinking police detective on the edge, check... Heading to the lab, he assistant’s body is there but the corpse’s body is gone.

The cryogenic body shuffles off.

Brad lets Cynthia out at her sorority house. The cryogenic body shuffles around the house. Cynthia spots the body in the yard. The leeches leave the body. Later, the police arrive.

Next day, the Betas surround JC and Chris. Brad trips the crutches wielding JC. That action convinces Cynthia to drop Brad.

Later, Detective Cameron questions Chris and JC who confess they were going to steal the corpse but chickened out when the body moved.

Back at the morgue, the lab assistant’s body walks off and kills the janitor.

They're coming to get you, Barbara...Sorry, wrong movie

Leeches are going all over the campus.

Cameron is examining old crime scene photos.

Cynthia pays a visit on out heroes. She’s disturbed about the body, etc...JC excuses himself so Cynthia and Chris can be alone.

Stall fu, JC hears some noise and sees some leeches running around the floor. He grabs some matches is able to roast one of the leeches but another leech gets him.

Steve walks Cynthia to the sorority house. She asks him to go to the dance. He agrees and leaves.

Detective Cameron finds Chris. At Cameron’s house, he explains what happened to his old girlfriend. She and her date were axe-murdered. He was able to track the killer down and introduce him to a 12 gauge shotgun salute. Burying the body in the field behind the sorority house. Now the house mother house’s is over the body.

At the cottage, the re-animated axe-murderer bursts from the floor and kills the house mother.

Zombie Toonces the Cat is truly terrifying...

Cameron gets another call about the house mother cottage. Some cops find the killer. Cameron grabs with a shotgun. They all open fire. Blows the head, leeches bursts from the body.

The leeches are all over the campus as the montage of the sorority sisters ensues.

Chris hasn’t been able to find JC. Eventually, he finds a tape recorded message from JC about the leech getting into him and how he no longer has a pulse or heartbeat. JC reveals that fire can kill the creatures. He’s gone down to the furnace room. Chris finds his friend’s body.

The Betas are ready and board the bus.

A drunken Brad is outside the sorority house is where he gets leeched.

Cameron is getting plastered when Chris tells him what is happening about the leeches.

Back on the bus, the driver crashes the bus.

Cameron checks with Walter the head of the police armory. Cameron demands a flamethrower.

Back at the crashed bus, the leeches start to possess the frat guys. The frat guys stagger up and head to the sorority house.

Gratitious violence against zombiefied frat guys is upcoming...You have been warned..

Cynthia talks to Brad. She is totally unaware to the leeched frat guy is more than just drunk. Chris arrives with a flame-thrower on his back. He promptly BBQs the Bradster.

Cynthia gets the flamethrower and starts BBQing the approaching frat guys. Chris is just wielding a shotgun. Cameron heads inside to secure the house from the approaching zombie frat guys.

Cynthia and Chris have to hide in garden shed. Suddenly, Chris has to use the lawn mower to save Cynthia.

The leeches are heading to the basement.

Cynthia and Chris get the girls out and find Cameron in the basement pouring gasoline all over to set afire all the leeches. The intrepid duo escape before Cameron ignites the house.

A crowd gathers outside. As Cynthia and Chris embrace and kiss, a dog approaches and shoots its leech at Cynthia. The end.

What I say:

If anyone asks you about some of the great 1980s B-movies, I'm sure you know most of the truly ninjaliscious B-Movies fans would mention Evil Dead 2, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, or Return of the Living Dead. I'm sure you can think of more of them. For those of us alive in the 1980s and remember renting movies from the video store. However, there is one of those great B-movies of the 1980s that just seems to get more legendary as it becomes harder and harder to find. Most B-movie fans want Night of the Creeps in a special edition DVD with 2 discs of greatness including the infamous alternate ending (I'll discuss it later..)

I've been waiting to get around to reviewing this movie. Finally, I brought out my VHS copy I taped off of Cinemax back from the pre-history. How old? The tape also had a few episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess from the late 1990s. Back to the movie in hand, I've seen Night of the Creeps from the long ago days and remember catching the it on cable with the alternate ending (which I'll actually discuss later...)

We see what happens when aliens don't have good enough security from Critters. At least those aliens had the sense to hire some bounty hunters. This time we see what happens when one cannister gets jettisoned to Earth. There is never any reason what the aliens were using the cannister for other than the "experiment." Well, some aliens didn't want it to be taken from the ship. Alien leeches that possess people into walking incubators that eventually explode for more leeches to run around and possess more people.

I have to admit it's been so long since I watched it I had forgotten the lawn mower scene. Granted, it's nowhere like Lionel wielding the mower in Dead Alive. That was true splatterstick. Night of the Creeps doesn't have the maniac or manic energy of the end of Dead Alive that is practically where Lionel is a live-action cartoon battling zombies. Though, I've never seen a sorority girl in formal dress wield a flame-thrower so proficiently.

A lot of movies have a hard time allowing the audience to relate to the main characters. Think it would be safe to say most fans who love this movie were on the geeky or awkard side. When a movie has a gaggle of brain dead-frat guys doing the zombie shuffle towards a sorority house, that gets attention, especially when a sorority has to attack them to survive....

I'm not sure you could back any more horror movie director in-jokes in a movie. We have Detective Cameron (Jim), Sgt Raimi (Sam), Det Landis(John), Cynthia Cronenberg (David), Chris Romero(George), James Carpenter 'J.C.' Hooper(John, Tobe) all on the set of the lovely Corman(Roger) University. However, that's not enough, we get the almost obligatory Dick Miller cameo. OK, I admit I was thinking he'd be Walter Paisley like in Bucket of Blood. Though the end credits list him as Walter Wolf(since he cameoed in Howling directed by Joe Dante(one of the few guys not mentioned in this movie)).

Night of the Creeps did the in-jokes before Scream opened the floodgates which allowed every bad horror movie to be self-referential as they wanted to be as an excuse to defend its craptacularity like Urban Legends. They would say they knew they were making a bad movie so it was OK.

Tom Atkins is known for popping up in the strangest places from B-movies like Creepshow, Maniac Cop to even blockbusters as Lethal Weapon. However, this is the high point. Can anyone think of a better world-weary cop excluding Tim Thomerson?Though by the end, when he just tells the story about 12-gauge shotgun saluting the escaped inmate and burying his body, you could tell he wasn't quite right in the head. Well, the dream with his dead girlfriend rising from the ocean isn't exactly a mark of stable sanity. The playing with a lighter with the gas stove open isn't quite up on the firmly planted in sanity land, either. He just chews out the officers and demands to get answers.

Fred Dekker is known for directing this movie and the other 1980s kid-monster classic Monster Squad. Those 2 movies are pretty impressive. However, we don't want to hold any blame for Robocop 3. He seems to have disappered afterwards. The past couple of years have seen the Monster Squad released on DVD, hopefully this will be soon.

Guess, I better mention the alternate ending before my Ten of fans get irate. The alternate ending has a zombified Detective Cameron shuffling off and collapsing when his leeches burst from his head and head towards the nearby cemetary. Though have no fear, a spaceship arrives to vaporize the leeches. That's a better ending than the zombie dog cut away shot which is just a very cheap scare ending..

Yes, they technically aren't zombies because they don't want to eat flesh. However, they shuffle around like Romero zombies. Characters even refer to them as zombies. And frankly, ghouls just don't carry the same name recognition as zombie does. Alien brain leeches doesn't quite have the right monster ring to it, either.

I don't think that the sociolgical environment of a college isn't quite expressed correctly. Sorry, have to try to sound like I'm working on a B-movie dissertation. Teh standard joke is "Frats are proof that money can buy friends." OK, the frat in this movie makes the one that was hassling the Nerds from Revenge of the Nerds as being gentle. Sorry my brothers and sisterns have been persecuted...Free the Nerdal-Americans!!!

Quotable Dialogue
"Come on, Muffy, the guy's a cop."
"Did you see Plan 9 From Outer Space?"
"The man has one continuous eyebrow."
"Freeze dried corpse. Corpsicle!!"
"Thrill me."
"Is this a homicide or a bad B-movie?"
"That was not too cool, boss."
"I think it was a zombie and its head exploded."
"The good news is your date is here. The bad news is… he’s dead."
Morals of the Story
Aliens are fetal midget nudists.
Aliens speak in subtitles.
College areas are surrounded with easy-escapable asylums for the criminally insane.
Fraternities love pranks involving corpses.
Human brains are left in sorority house basements.
Most police stations have flame-throwers.
Holding shotguns can heal grief.