Night of the Creeps

(1986) ***1/2

An experimental batch of alien slugs gets jettisoned from a spaceship and finds its way to Earth in 1959. Much like their Slither counterparts, these slugs climb into your head through your mouth and take over.

There are two differences though. Here, instead of enslaving you, they just turn you into a slow-zombie. Also, while you're stumbling around looking for brains to snack on, they're multiplying in your skull, and waiting for a chance to escape and look for new hosts. They don't wind up posing much of a threat when they first land because their first carrier winds up getting stuck in cryo for study. He stays that way until a fraternity pledge prank sets him free in 1986.


Other than the changes in fashion and the modern updates you'd expect, the fact that the story jumps over two decades is almost irrelevant. There's a nostalgia for 50's sci-fi movies that permeates even the part of the story that takes place in the 80's. A lot of this is because it takes place entirely at a college in a small town -- small towns being the first line of defense in the war between Earth and Space in just about every vintage sci-fi movie you could name. Bigger cities were hinted at, but always with the suggestion that if whatever invading force made its way out of Smallsville into Metro City, it'd be too late to do anything about it.

Come to think of it, none of the characters ever mentions Space as the origin of the slugs. The slug/zombie problem is so pressing that nothing else really matters -- not Space and not the cities beyond. It's myopic. It's cute.


There's 50's sentiment in the characterizations too. One of our protagonists, on seeing the original carrier in his cryo chamber says, "Oh my god," half a dozen times in a row and then stops to ask whether saying "Oh my god" so many times in a row counts as taking the Lord's name in vain.

Even the frat guy baddie plotline is old-fashioned. Sure he's vain, superior, and pompously blonde -- and yeah, he does trip a guy on crutches at one point, and I guess breaking into a morgue and stealing a cadaver was his idea. But remember this is right around the time that Less Than Zero came out. Superior people could be way bigger jerks.

Not that much bigger
Night of the Creeps is made with enthusiasm and glee. Everyone does a good job of selling their archetype (and everyone's an archetype, from Jaded Cop, to Earnest Young Hero, to Janitor Who's Still Laughing at the Same Not Very Funny Joke Five Hours Later). It's not as funny as Slither but it believes in itself a heck of a lot more, and that makes it a lot more fun to watch. Also, no giant gross blimp-lady.