Night of the Creeps – So much better than the title suggests

I’m guessing that if you like ‘B-movies’ then the title will tip you off towards everything you really need to know about this film.  It’s cheesy as hell... but great fun (if you like that sort of thing).

For what is effectively a teenage zombie black comedy horror, it starts off squarely in the ‘science fiction’ territory as some revolting aliens (with unreadable subtitles!) eject a pod of – er something – out into space, which then ends up in a small American town.  Guess what... this intergalactic goo doesn’t go down too well with us humans and, before long, the town is infested with alien zombies and mutant brain-slugs.

So, if you’ve seen one horror B-movie then you probably have a rough idea of what to expect here.  The acting isn’t that great.  The plot is daft and the gore is plentiful.  So, if you like that sort of thing, you’ll have a blast here.

Especially as the characters are actually pretty good fun.  You often get cardboard cut-outs who you have to force yourself to follow through the story, just so you can get to the next special effects-laden splatterfest, but here they’re well-written and rather humourous.  Tom Atkins is about the most famous name on the cast – he plays the cop in charge of investigating the weird sightings/murders on campus, but the younger cast-members are all very watchable, too.

Because this was made in the eighties, all of us who like ‘practical’ effects, rather the computer-generated ones will have a blast at the fact that the brain slugs are beautifully animated and the aliens (for their albeit too small on-screen appearance) are up there with anything featured in ‘Star Wars.’  It’s also quite a ‘knowing’ kind of film.  Like ‘Scream’ did in the nineties, it – lovingly – mocks the genre it sits in and often nods towards the clichés you’d normally expect from film of this nature.

If you like films full of ridiculous, cheesy black comedy horror, then definitely check this one out.  I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered it in 2020 (at least something good has come out of this year!).

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one