Night of the Creeps Movie Review

Posted by:

This is one of my all-time favorite "B" movies. Every time it's on, I drop whatever I'm doing and watch it. Not much point in giving another description of the plot, since it's available on this site. Tom Atkins is outstanding in his role as Ray Cameron, the hard-boiled detective who still carries a torch for his lost love, who was axed to death by a space-leech-infected maniac when Atkins/Cameron was a rookie cop who is called to the murder scene and finds his girlfriend "in the car... and on the road... and in the woods."

Atkins dives into his role with great relish, and he has the best lines throughout. When he answers the phone, he doesn't say "Hello?" he says "Thrill me!." He is unquestionably the best part of this film. The 2 college roommate/buddies, Lively and Marshall, are OK (just) in their roles. The girl who plays Cindy/Cynthia (Whitlow) makes me wanna hurl, though - she switches back and forth from her regular voice to a little-girl whisper, makes big eyes at the guys, and goes into fake shock after the frat brother zombies "crash" her sorority house while the girls are getting ready for a big dance. However, Atkins delivers one of his best lines at that point: "Girls, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, your dates are here." "What's the bad news?" one of the soroity babes says. "They're dead," Atkins replies.

Cindy stands on the front lawn of the sorority house in a catatonic state (though it's hard to tell the difference between catatonia and her usual acting style) but then suddenly is able to use a flamethrower like a pro. If that's acting, I'm the Queen of England. But, hey, it's a B movie. Another hilarious moment is during Atkins's interrogation of "Spanky and Alfalfa" (Lively & Marshall), not too far into the film, after the Japanese janitor sees them fleeing from the basement of the med school building after they inadvertently release the cryogenically preserved corpse "screaming like bahnshees." A few moments later, we see the janitor walking down the hall in the same basement, shaking his head and smiling about the 2 crazy college students, and just as he says "Screaming like banshees, heh, heh, heh," he's attacked by one of the zombies.

This movie is a sleeper. If you haven't seen it, then get down to the video store and rent it, borrow it from a friend, or steal it - you've gotta see it. If you can keep yourself from losing your lunch during the scenes with the frat brothers and sorority sisters (especially Whitlow) in them, you'll find it's well worth your time, if for no other reason than Atkins's performance. In the inimitable style of Joe Bob Briggs: Six breasts. Sorority girls in shower scene. Four gallons blood. About a dozen heads splitting open. Dozens of zombies, and they ain't pretty. Space leech fu. Corpse fu. Axe fu (twice). Lawnmower fu. Flamethrower fu. Twelve-gauge shotgun fu. Police revolver fu. Charter bus fu. Zombie dog fu. Zombie cat fu. Legs roll. Heads roll. Arms roll. Eyeballs roll. Spam in a sorority house. Three stars. Judy says check it out.

Review by Judy, you can check out more about Night of the Creeps