A fun scifi/body horror movie that I really enjoyed a lot. What it does, it does really well, and it's not without its charms. I especially liked Kyle McLachlan, but then again, I've been a fan of his forever, so I'm more than a little biased.

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Rating: 6.5/10 (ENJOYED IT)

Watched: August 8, 2026

For me, Horror + Comedy is one of the hardest things to pull off, mostly because I really LOVE horror and find straight comedies extremely difficult to get into. Unless we're talking stuff from the 70s to the mid-90s, but anyways.

James Gunn claims he never saw Night of The Creeps, and James Gunn is an absolute liar. I can't imagine a world where Slither isn't an homage to Night of The Creeps because the very central plot, alien slugs turning people into weird shit, is about as close as you can imagine. One has zombies, one has whatever the hell Grant Grant turned into.

On the horror side of things, Creeps is remarkably tame until the last half hour or so when it turns into a slug roast, which is fine by me because Tom Atkins as Detective Ray "Thrill Me" Cameron does a boatload of heavy lifting for the laughs.

He's jaded, he's bitter, he's an alcoholic, there isn't a trashy pulp detective magazine he hasn't read and he's got a quip and a nickname for every damn person he meets. Not only that, he's got some backstory with what's going on, so there's that.

Beyond that, we've got a cop named Raimi, a sorority girl named Cynthia Cronenberg, and two nerds, one of whom is Jason Lively from National Lampoon's European Vacation and is so desperate to "get with" Cynthia, he'll do anything up to and including corpse theft to make it happen. The other nerd is JC, played by Steve Marshall, who I haven't seen in anything else, ever.

Most of the flick is pretty cheesy, lots of college trope-y stuff which isn't too too bad. Nowhere near Revenge of the Nerds levels which, depending on your view, is either good or bad, but I'm not here to discuss film ethics.

The special effects aren't very special, though the heads cracking open only to have slugs come barfing out is a lot of fun. VERY low budget, but they make it work.

The beginning and end sequences are the weirdest parts, and if you don't believe me, the clip in the review card is the opening sequence. Yes, that's right. Random chubby naked hairless alien steals a thing with a slug in it, and they're being shot at by two other RCNHAs.

I imagine a lot of the budget went into those two scenes, and if they hadn't spent all that coin there, we might've had even better zombie effects.

Ah well. Night of the Creeps is solid fun, but it doesn't re-invent anything or set the bar anywhere other than it already is. If you like horror comedies and haven't seen this zombie flick, it'll do you some good to laugh.

I haven't seen the 1951 original, but the 1982 version is exactly what I needed. This is a purely male film — a group of men living in brutal conditions, and once the monster shows up, they have to survive together. No pathos, no glamour, no eternally dissatisfied women, no romantic drama.

Back then, computer technology and CGI weren't nearly as developed. Just look at how much effort the creators put into the costumes and practical effects for this masterpiece. Even though the film is essentially set in one location, without any grand scale, it clearly wasn't done on a small budget.

My favorite scene is when Kurt Russell's character tries to figure out which member of his team is the imitation. Anyone who's seen this film — just imagine: you're tied to a chair, and right next to you your teammate turns into a monster, and you can't run because you're restrained. The filmmakers and actors did an amazing job with this scene.

Last but not least, Kurt Russell's look — the pale face and the frozen, ice-crusted beard — fits the film's atmosphere perfectly. In my opinion, this is one of his best performances.