Paula Hammond - Features EditorThose who know and love classic horror will probably already be aware of Fred Dekker’s Night Of The Creeps.
Dekker is perhaps better known for the superlative Monster Squad. Both movies did little in the way of box-office business back in the day, but have since gained a huge cult following. Both have also proved to be extremely hard to source on DVD. So the fact that Eureka! are adding Decker’s affectionate homage to the 1950s horror B-movies to their deluxe, duel-format range will have fans punching the air in glee.
When an alien craft crashes in 1959, a young college student is infected with an extraterrestrial virus. Twenty-seven years later, his cryogenically frozen body is thawed out during a frat pledge gone wrong and the campus is quickly overrun by alien-zombies.
Night Of The Creeps is geek-fest of nostalgic film tropes, throwback chills, and early SFX. However Creeps was Dekker’s first film—as both writer and director—and while Monster Squad managed to get the balance between chills and the tongue-in-cheek action just right, Creeps is a less successful outing. There are some great set sequences and Steve Marshall, as the hero’s disabled wing-man James Carpenter ‘J.C.’ Hooper, steals every scene. But the pacing is off, Tom Atkin’s hard-boiled detective seems to belong in a completely different movie and—while we all love a bit of cheeze— it’s a fine balance, and Dekker doesn’t always know when to pull back.
That said, Night Of The Creeps still arguably deserves a place in every horror fans collection. It’s fun, it’s unashamedly silly, and eminently quotable. Eureka!’s new edition also includes the original Director’s Cut, deleted scenes, Fred Dekker audio commentary and new interviews with cast and crew. The first print-run also includes a limited edition o-card slip case and booklet.
