Friday, January 22, 2010

Night Of The Creeps - 4.5/5

"What I'm going to need is your standard flame thrower."

I finally got around to watching this cult classic of...well, a helluva lot of mixed genres, and I have to say that I'm glad I finally got a chance to catch this campy campus zombie alien infestation comedy film. Although one could argue that this isn't the greatest film to grace the screen, it's hard not to enjoy it immensely. With its off beat humor, pretty rad effects, and over the top script and story "Night Of The Creeps" just screams for its viewers to go away with a smile on their face. Which is something the doctor ordered today.

When two somewhat nerdy college guys decide to impress a girl, they accidentally un-thaw a man whose brain is infect with alien slugs. Of course, when un-thawed the zombie man carrying the alien slugs is able to spread the brain infected monsters across town. Things get out of hand when the young college kids decide to team up with smart ass cop to destroy the alien menace and their zombie hosts before it spreads too far.

What really makes "Night Of The Creeps" such an awesome film is that it truly embraces what it is. It's not trying to add social context to the story (ala "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers") and its not going to take itself all that seriously. So it works out insanely well, as a viewer just sort of hops on the ole Sci-Fi/Horror/Comedy band wagon and goes for a ride.

I was insanely impressed with its special effects (sans some of the opening sequence with the aliens - yeah, it goes there) and the gore/creep effects are pretty solid and for puppet slugs those things really haul ass. It goes well with its over the top character acting that seems serious on the surface. Detective Cameron's speech about how he handled the death of his old high school flame is a serious high point of hilarity and clever back story and its moments like this that make this bad boy pop.

Beware though if you take your Horror too much on the serious side. "Night Of The Creeps" is going to have you laughing as much as being scared. The suspense moments work when they need and it balances almost perfectly. A must see for fans of Raimi, Dante, or Landis (whose names are all referenced as character names in the film just for you fans out there). 


Written By Matt Reifschneider

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