In Night of the Creeps, the aliens have already landed and we were never meant to know. The one infected human, a frat boy, is cryogenically frozen in 1959 for study. However, a fraternity initiation prank in the 1980s goes horribly wrong when the two pledges assigned with snagging a dead body stumble upon the alien host in a lab. The slug-like parasites begin to multiply, entering hosts through the mouth and turning them into flesh-hungry zombies. Now only the two former pledges can fight against the alien invasion stalled decades before. Writer/director Fred Dekker, best known for The Monster Squad, presents a funny and gory horror/sci-fi film. The murders are as disgusting as the jokes are hilarious. It is, at its core, a genre film about wise-cracking nerds just trying to get some action in college.
The most interesting aspect of the film is the comic relief character among the three leads. J.C. is smart, funny, and extremely charming. He also has a physical disability. He cannot walk without the aid of two crutches. The crutches impact the plot in a believable way, creating the opportunity for the potential love interest to leave her boyfriend (a frat boy intentionally trips J.C. by ripping away one of the crutches) and forcing J.C. to strategize in a different way against the fast moving alien invaders. Visibility is important and it is very rare for disabilities to be featured in such an honest and positive way in genre films, especially horror.
Fred Dekker's screenplay and direction are just very clever. The opening sequence, set in 1959, is filmed, written, scored, and edited in typical 1950s B-movie style. Then, it dives head first into the fashion of the 1980s just to make your head spin. Everything jumps forward decades to make the parallels between the horny college students even more obvious. Fashion, music, even film stock changes, but young people remain the same.
There are more layers to it than just the visuals. Each of the major story elements is named after famous horror and sci-fi directors. The school is Corman University. J.C.'s full name is James Carpenter Hooper. His best friend is Chris Romero. The girl they both fall for is Cynthia Cronenberg. All the major investigators and even the janitor continue the trend. It's a level of detail that proves Dekker's knowledge and reverance for the genres he's playing with.
For a low-budget B-movie, Night of the Creeps still looks great. The effects are believable and the creature design is simple but effective. The whole thing is creepy, clever, and a lot of fun.
