Night of the Creeps

(good cover art)

I pretty much fell in love with Night of the Creeps in the first 10 minutes.  The film starts on a spaceship, with "Troll" like creatures chasing each other (at first I was worried, having just watched Troll 2 and completely unprepared for more latex monstrosities, but to my relief, they are onscreen only briefly).  One is trying to release something out the escape hatch, something that turns out to be an experiment gone horribly wrong.  Of course this experiment lands on earth and soon begins to wreak havoc.  Before the film is through we are treated to Zombies, Serial Killers, Alien Invasions, Slugs, Gore, Head Explosions, Cat and Dog Trauma, Boobies, and Tom Atkins.  It is pretty much a perfect film.

(bad cover art)

Directed by Fred Dekker, he of The Monster Squad fame, Night of the Creeps was intended to be a "homage" to B-horror films.  Even the characters names, such as Cronenberg, Carpenter, and Romero, pay homage to the horror film.  Tom Atkins is great as the grizzled Detective mourning his high school sweetheart and holding on to a deep dark secret. 

If you rent this, be sure to watch the special features for a Tom Atkins retrospective, which is really nothing more than him telling stories of the various sets he has been on and the people he has worked with.   I could watch that all day because Atkins is super-cool. 

Night of the Creeps isn't scary (unless Slugs really bug you out--check out James Gunn's Slither, which must have been influenced by this film.)  It is funny and gory, and well worth a viewing.  Check it out!