A clever debut movie from horror fan Fred Dekker, Night of the Creeps opens in 1959 with a young Corman University student couple parked in Lover’s Lane spotting a canister plunging to Earth like a meteorite.
The curious boy, Johnny (Ken Heron) opens the canister and a slimy slug jumps into his mouth, while his girlfriend Pam (Alice Cadogan) is attacked with an axe by an escaped maniac from the Crestridge Institution for the Criminally Insane. Talk about timing!
Flashing forward to Pledge Week 1986 at Corman University, we meet nerdy freshmen Chris Romero (Jason Lively) and JC Hooper (Steve Marshall) who agree to steal a cadaver from the campus cryogenics lab as part of a frat initiation.
The pair sneak into the building and uncover the frozen body of Johnny, who swallowed the space slug in 1959. They start to thaw the corpse but are disturbed and chicken out, leaving the body to defrost naturally and return to life as an alien zombie.
The creature’s head splits open to let loose dozens of slimy space-slugs moving as fast as cockroaches.
They enter humans through their mouth and lay eggs in their brain, transforming their hosts into zombies, which soon overrun the campus.
The funniest scene involves a busload of undead football players that head for the sorority house on the night of the formal dance. Detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) – who has been guarding the girls at the sorority – looks out the window and sees the approaching horde.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he says. “The good news is, your dates are here.”
“What’s the bad news?” asks one of the sorority sisters. “They’re dead,” Cameron replies.
Written and directed by Fred Dekker, who was only twenty-seven years old at the time, this is a sci-fi horror spoof that works, featuring numerous gross special effects, including a gory but humorous death by lawnmower rampage.
Chris Romero
Jason Lively JC (James Carpenter) Hooper
Steve Marshall Cynthia
Jill Whitlow Detective Ray Cameron
Tom Atkins Detective Landis
Wally Taylor Sgt. Raimi
Bruce Solomon Coroner
Vic Polizos Brad
Allan Kayser Johnny
Ken Heron Pam
Alice Cadogan Karen
June Harris Steve
David Oliver House Mother
Evelyne Smith Psycho Zombie
Ivan E. Roth Alien Zombie
Daniel Frishman Young Ray Cameron
Dave Alan Johnson Lisa
Suzanne Snyder Judy
Jay Wakeman Kathy
Elizabeth Cox Jennifer
Emily Fiola Biff
Russell Moss Dick
Richard DeHaven Todd
John J. York Chet
Jim Townsend Mr Miner
Robert Kino Walt
Dick Miller
Director
Fred Dekker
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The curious boy, Johnny (Ken Heron) opens the canister and a slimy slug jumps into his mouth, while his girlfriend Pam (Alice Cadogan) is attacked with an axe by an escaped maniac from the Crestridge Institution for the Criminally Insane. Talk about timing!
They enter humans through their mouth and lay eggs in their brain, transforming their hosts into zombies, which soon overrun the campus.
