Bounding Into Halloween Night 12: ‘Night Of The Creeps’ & ‘The Deadly Spawn’
Well, I certainly hope that everyone liked that little taste of B-movie flavor from last night’s closing feature. Because in tonight’s lineup are two massive chugs of it, and without any chaser to cool the cheesy burn! We’re back to alien creatures that attack our world. One that takes over your body, and another that just eats it. Get ready, folks! Because this is classic Spanky.
Night of the Creeps (1986)
This first 80s throwback is a most excellent throwback to the creature features from the 1950s. When studios were doing revamps of movies from this decade with modern effects, director Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad, and… don’t ask) went a different route with his 1986 Sci-Fi horror comedy, Night of the Creeps. Instead of a remake, this is a homage to those long-forgotten B romps, but also with the more updated effects. It is a 50s cover with an 80s kick behind it, and some pretty classic lines to go with it.
The ”Creeps” are a race of parasitic slugs that take possession of a body by entering its host through their mouths, and reproducing until it has full control. This failed alien experiment breaks loose from confinement by possessing one of the crew members, and getting shot out into space. The look of the extraterrestrials might seem humorously ridiculous to any newcomers, and they would be correct, but that’s the point.
Their next stop is Earth, and the year is 1959. A young college couple, Pam and Johnny (Alice Cadogan and Ken Heron), sees a falling star land close by. Pam’s rookie cop ex-boyfriend, Ray Cameron (Dave Alan Johnson), pulls up to tell them that a maniac is killing people in that area with an axe. Instead of heeding this warning, Johnny goes to investigate the falling star, leaving Pam by herself in the car. While she is being ‘axed’ a few questions by a surprise newcomer, frat boy catches a slug to the mouth (point-blank!).
The year is now 1987, and Chris Romero (Jason Lively) enters pledge week at Corman University with his disabled best friend, James Carpenter “J.C.” Hooper (Steve Marshall). While going through that ordeal, he meets Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow), and immediately falls head-over-heels, but there’s still her asshat boyfriend Brad (Allan Kayser) to navigate. In a bold move, they pledge to Brad’s fraternity.
They’re tasked with stealing a corpse from the med school lab and having to leave it at the doorstep of another frat. The two accept this extremely illegal mission, and find the frozen body of our old star-gazing friend, Johnny, in a cryogenic chamber. They drag the corpse out of the chamber, but then the dummies chicken out, and drop him on the ground before running out of the place. Johnny thaws out, gets back up on his own, and shows himself the door without further assistance.
A re-animated Johnny hits the town ready to spread some “slug love”, and turn everyone he meets into a Creep-filled zombie. As expected, this quickly gains the attention of local authorities, and put in charge of the case is the incredibly haunted Detective Ray Cameron (the great Tom Atkins). He ends up overhearing Chris talking about what happened at the med school lab with Cynthia while walking her back to the sorority and waits for him to drop her off before dragging Chris back to his place for storytime.
Let’s just say that it relates to that night from 1959, but it’s better to be heard from the detective himself. The two team up to stop the Creeps before they take over the entire student body, and then eventually the world.
This movie is a must-watch for any horror fan who has a quirky streak to their dark souls. It’s silly, and campy as all hell, but it’s still hilarious. The dated effects carry a charm with them that CGI will never attain, and despite the absurd premise, the actors play their roles so deadpan that you might think it’s starting to turn into a David Lynch film. It’s hard to ignore that the last names of many of the characters are an homage to a movie director.
Then there’s good ‘ol Tom Atkins (The Ninth Configuration, The Fog, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Maniac Cop) who delivers the best lines in the movie, and reaches action hero levels by the end, catchphrases and all. Before Bruce Campbell was getting groovy with the Deadites in the Evil Dead movies, Tom was horror’s leading badass. A team-up movie with the two gentlemen would’ve been epic at all levels, but now that time has passed. Although, it probably would’ve ended with Atkins beating the crap out of Ash for drinking the last beer.
“Thrill me!” And check out Night of the Creeps over on TUBI. Or just watch the trailer instead.
The Deadly Spawn (1983)
It’s more difficult to find great horror movies than it is to find terrible ones, but it’s a lot easier to find the ones that fall right in the middle of the two. Douglas McKeown’s labor of love, The Deadly Spawn, is an example of one that perfectly walks the line between the great and the terrible.
Shot on a 16mm camera, and with a $25,000 budget, this overlooked gem littered the horror sections of random video stores throughout the decades, and it always stood as a testament that the people running the place truly deserved to be there (not all heroes wear capes). This one doesn’t require much explanation, and anything else to be said would spoil all of the good parts.
A meteor crashes down to Earth (hopefully you folks haven’t grown weary of that premise) in an undisclosed location somewhere in the United States, and nearby campers run off to investigate it. When they reach the crash site, alien worms crawl out of the rock and eat both campers before heading towards civilization.
These worms crawl their way to the home of Sam and Barb (James L. Brewster and Elissa Neil) and sneak into their basement. As the couple set out for a trip, their two sons are left home to hold down the fort. That’s college student, Pete (Tom DeFranco), and his horror buff younger brother, Charles (Charles George Hildebrant).
Heavy rain comes in to delay their departure, and Sam goes to check for flooding in the basement. She gets down there and is greeted by giant worm teeth that send her on permanent vacation. They devour her and start picking off the family members one by one before going to visit the neighbors. It is up to the two young boys to stop these creatures from spreading.
Can Pete and Charles end this carnivorous rampage, or will they become another meal for… THE DEADLY SPAWN?!?!?
There is such a likable charm to this backyard production that’s hard to deny, and the effects are cheap – but still awesome. The creatures themselves look like they came straight from the Planet of the Symbiotes, but this movie came out before Marvel Comics would introduce Venom, and way before they came up with that world.
The Deadly Spawn is an underground classic that lives forever in the hearts of horror nerds who were lucky enough to track down a decent quality VHS version of it back in the day, and is still hard to fund, but a good one is available on Shudder right now.
Here’s the trailer.
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