Zombies, aliens and a love triangle

This time I’ll talk about another horror movie from the ’80s, which seems to be a parody of the genre itself: Night of the Creeps.

The film is from 1986. Its director was Fred Dekker. In the cast, we find Allan Kayser, David Paymer and Jason Lively.

That same year, HBO Video/Cannon released a version on VHS and Laserdisc. On October 27, 2009, Sony Pictures released a DVD and Blu-Ray version.

In Chile it was prohibited, but it was classified for people over 18 years of age, only in Valparaíso.

Before we continue, spoiler alert: If you’re thinking about watching the movie, you should stop reading now.

The plot

We begin in the year 1959, seeing an alien with white eyes (as if dead) carrying an artifact while running through the corridors of a spaceship. Two other aliens chase after him. The fugitive manages to expel that object into space.

This object falls to earth. Very close to the impact site, a college student has a date in a parking lot. Meanwhile, the radio news announces the escape of a dangerous criminal, from a mental institution. A policeman, who happens to be the girl’s ex-boyfriend, warns them of the danger and suggests they go home. Seeing the object fall, the boy decides to go investigate, leaving his date alone.

Upon reaching the impact site, a slug comes out of the artifact and into the boy’s mouth. Meanwhile, the maniac is massacring the girl with an axe.

Back to the Present

Now we are in the year 1986, at Corman University (named after film director Roger Corman). There, a boy named Chris Romero (again a reference to film director George Romero) and his disabled friend JC tour the campus. Chris sees a girl and falls in love with her. But since he doesn’t dare to speak to her, his friend JC approaches her to ask her name.

She’s called Cyntia Cronenberg (another reference to film director David Cronenberg) but she’s dating the typical cocky blonde, leader of the most exclusive fraternity: Beta Epsilon.

To get Cyntia’s attention, Chris decides to enter Beta Epsilon with his friend. But it is not easy. Cyntia’s boyfriend asks them to steal a corpse from the university’s medical center and leave it on the doorstep of a rival fraternity.

Playing with the dead

The boys break into the medical center and find a dead body, which turns out to be the boy from the ’50s. They try to steal it, but the corpse comes to life and they get scared. They flee, but the student who worked there is not so lucky: The zombie kills him and infects him with one of those slugs. He then heads to a frat house and releases more slugs there, popping his head. The next day, the Beta Epsilon boys accuse Chris and JC of leaving the body at the wrong frat house, to top it all off, at a girls frat, scaring their girlfriends.

Later we see the 1950s cop, now Detective Roy Cameron (a reference to James Cameron), having a nightmare about that night from the 50s. When he wakes up, he answers a call where he is summoned to the university medical center.

There he discovers that the body has disappeared and, checking the security cameras and thanks to the testimony of the janitor who saw them leave, he finds the two boys. So he calls them in for questioning. They confess to being at the scene, but explain that the body moved and they fled.

That night, the medical student resurrects and infects the janitor.

Revelations

Cyntia survives an attack by one of the zombies and tries to convince Chris and JC. The boys think she’s gone crazy, but since that doesn’t matter much to a man in love, they just pretend to agree with her. JC leaves the couple alone and goes to the bathroom, where he is attacked by some of the slugs.

Later, Detective Cameron has a conversation with Chris. The detective confesses that that night, in the ’50s, he saw the maniac murder the woman he loved, he searched for him, killed him and buried him in a field, which today is the house of the mother of the fraternity. At the same time, we see the slugs get under the floor of that house. Then a zombie comes out of the floor and kills the mother of the fraternity.

Just as Chris begins to think he’s being given information he shouldn’t know, the detective gets a call and they tell him that the same maniac was prowling the streets. The police chase him into a corner, and Detective Cameron blows his head off for the second time, releasing more slugs.

The Big Dance

The next night, boys and girls prepare for a dance. Chris finds a recorded message from JC, where he says that there is a slug lodged in his brain, but he has discovered that they are vulnerable to heat.

Chris meets with the detective, just as he is trying to kill himself, to join forces with him and fight the slugs and the zombies they created. Thus, the detective gets a flamethrower from the police armory.

Meanwhile, an infected dog causes a bus, full of the boys who are going to the dance, to crash and the slugs infect them all.

Thus, Cyntia’s ex-boyfriend, Brad, arrives at the girls fraternity and the girls, for some reason, do not realize that he is a zombie and call Cyntia. The girl, since she doesn’t dare to look him in the face, doesn’t notice either. She takes him by the hand and leads him to the stairs to try to break up with him in a more polite way. The girl talks for a long time before realizing that her ex is a zombie.

The final battle

After discovering and killing him, the other boys arrive, already turned into zombies. Cyntia, Chris and the detective fight to defend the other girls. But just when they think it’s all over, Chris sees more slugs running into the basement. Then Cyntia remembers that a biology student had left brains in the basement.

In the basement they find a wall full of slugs. The detective covers his mouth with tape and sprays the slugs with gasoline. He then turns on the gas, pulls out his lighter, and begins a countdown. Chris understands what he’s going to do and gets Cyntia out of there, while doing his own countdown, trying to sync up with the detective.

Will the heroes manage to escape from there before the whole place blows up? You’ll have to watch it to find out.