Thrill me!
Never before in a film have I heard these two words said so often. In fact, never in a film have I heard any phrase uttered so often. But such is the demented wont of Fred Dekker, writer and director, that this is all part of the proceedings. This film is the definition of tongue in cheek.
What is this? A homicide, or a bad B-movie?
The film opens with one of the strangest, and most hilarious (I'm still not sure if it's intentional or not), scenes I have ever seen. From there we are treated to a homage to a 1950's B horror movie, before the film turns into an actual 1980's B movie! The acting, throughout, is so over the top that it almost hurts, but at the same time you can't help but enjoy yourself. Especially with chunks of dialogue like this:
Detective Cameron: I got good news and bad news, girls. The good news is your dates are here.
Sorority Sister: What's the bad news?
Detective Cameron: They're dead.
Detective Cameron has a monopoly on the worst dialogue of anyone in this film, which is quite an achievement when you look at characters like Brad, Chris Romero (the ugliest leading man I have ever seen) and J C Hooper - the "comic relief". At one point Detective Cameron literally stops to smell the roses! Later he admits to Chris that he had committed a murder for no reason whatsoever. A secret that he had previously kept for over 30 years.
Zombies, exploding heads, creepy-crawlies... and a date for the formal. This is classic, Spanky
The film is still undeniably enjoyable. Fred Dekker clearly loves old horror movies and there are indefinite homages to previous horror films including Plan 9 From Outer Space on TV in one scene (maybe the greatest worst film ever made), Corman University is a reference to director Roger Corman and the last names of the main characters are based on famous horror and sci-fi directors: George A. Romero (Chris Romero), John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper (James Carpenter Hooper), David Cronenberg (Cynthia Cronenberg), James Cameron (Det. Ray Cameron), John Landis (Det. Landis), Sam Raimi (Sgt. Raimi) and Steve Miner (Mr. Miner - The Janitor).
Hee hee hee - like a banshee!
The film also offers up one of the greatest 80's horror breezies I have set my eyes on in recent memory, or at least since the last Friday the 13th, in the form of Jill Whitlow. Wowser.
Night of the Creeps is mindless enjoyable fun, and actually had a couple of decent scares. I can't imagine I will be watching this again, but I'm glad Fin brought it to the table in an attempt to "Thrill me".
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