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Night of the Creeps - Director's Cut
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment - 2009

Written & Directed by Fred Dekker

Starring
Jason Lively
Steve Marshall
Jill Whitlow
Tom Atkins



"Thrill Me!"  I couldn't use two better words to describe this entertaining film.  The movie is a cool mixture of Sci-Fi/horror and comedy.  It isn't often that we see those elements done right but Fred Dekker hit's the bull's-eye with NIGHT OF THE CREEPS.

When an alien experiment goes wrong, it crashes to Earth in 1959 and infects a young college student.  Twenty-seven years later, his cryogenically frozen body is thawed by a fraternity prank and the campus is quickly overrun by alien slugs, whose victims come back as zombies.  If that doesn't sound like fun, I don't now what is.

Fred Dekker has obvious passion for all the subject matter this film covers.  Whether it be the space ships and aliens in the beginning or the dry, burned out detective who is still haunted by what happened over a quarter century ago.  Dekker makes sure the aliens are creepy, the scurrying slugs later in the film certainly accomplish that.  As a writer Dekker kind of does a role reversal by making the clean cut good looking guy, shy and introverted (Jason Lively character) while choosing to make the handicapped character outgoing and super confident (Steve Marshall in a scene stealing performance).  I like the way the film opens and Dekker does a good job incorporating some of his favorite directors as character names such as Carpenter, Cameron, Cronenberg, etc.

The cast brings the distinct character traits that give this film life; Jason Lively's nerdish innocence, Steve Marshall's funny but heart warming quirkiness, Jill Whitlow's cute/perky demeanor work wonderfully. Tom Atkins pulls off what is probably his best role of his underrated career.

There's a time capsule score by Barry DeVorzon.  Excellent FX by David Miller & guys from KNB (before they were KNB) and I just love the way it all comes together.

Sony Pictures does an outstanding job by releasing this Director's Cut edition of the film. It's packed with extra supplements.  The Commentary by Fred Dekker is fun, informative and worth your time.  By listening to this, you'll learn a lot more about the film's production and history.  The Featurettes are broken down into; Birth of the Creeps, Cast of the Creeps, Creating the Creeps, Escape of the Creeps, Legend of the Creeps, Tom Atkins: Man of Action.  There's even a Trivia Track and of course the Original Theatrical Trailer.  I loved all of these segments and it proves that time and time again movies that are older provide a better opportunity for those involved to talk about the film with objectivity rather than the boring repetitive love fests found in today's just released movies.

Go "Thrill" yourself by picking up this minor classic.

www.SonyPictures.com