Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps has long been a favorite of genre aficionados and until now, had never been on DVD. Thankfully, Sony also put it out on Blu-ray. The movie is that rarified genre crossover that works on every level, it just never became a mainstream hit. It's not really bloody or violent like the slasher movies of the day, which were all about the formula that modern-day torture porn evolved out of. There are sci-fi B-movie elements, zombie/horror bits, and a lot of memorable lines. NOTC was obviously very much an inspiration in the making of the brilliant Dance of the Dead. Creeps is self-effacing and smartly-written, with a great cast. It's wonderful that it's available at all, let alone with the pile of extras included here.
The centerpiece of the show is Tom Atkins as Detective Ray Cameron, a man who loses his first love to an escaped murderer, goes into emotional hibernation for 27 years, and comes fully to life when evil rears its head again. Jason Lively and Steve Marshall play Chris and J.C., a pair of nerdy college pals who unwittingly re-awaken "The Creeps". David Paymer, god love him, has a bit part as an unlucky lab tech. Jill Whitlow plays Cynthia, the unobtainable sorority girl who Chris is obsessed with. Unfortunately for Chris, Cynthia's dating Brad (Allan Kayser), an alpha male fratboy douchebag (not that all fratboys are douchebags) who has a license plate that reads "BRADSTER". Kayser plays the campy version of this archetype that existed before it was drilled deep into the center of the Earth over the last quarter century. A late in the film cameo by Dick Miller is icing on the cake.
Missing a recent reunion screening here in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse is the greatest regret I have in my filmgoing year. Video taken from the Q&A from that screening is excerpted in a doc on the disc.
Extras are the same on both editions, but I hate the cover art used on the DVD and frankly, the Blu-ray cover doesn't..."thrill me" either. I have no idea why they didn't use something like the above poster art. One of the two commentary tracks features the principal cast, and the second is Dekker on his own. The version of the movie on the disc is the director's original cut, which has a different ending than the movie did theatrically. The theatrical ending [SD 0:29] is on there as well, and after watching it, Dekker's original one is much more satisfying. There's a set of 7 deleted scenes [4x3 SD 7:40] as well as a trivia track.
Amazon has the Blu-ray for $15.49, a whopping 50 cents more than the DVD at $14.99. I told a friend I would custom-make some replacement cover art for both. That'll take some time, but I still plan on making it happen. If I do two designs, it'll be reversible.
The most enjoyable featurette, however, focuses on the man, the legend in Tom Atkins: Man of Action [20:00], which is the closest we'll get to a full-on career retrospective documentary for the guy. He talks about how he got into the business and experiences he's had along the way. Thrill Me: The Making of Night of the Creeps [59:44 total] is a five-part documentary put together from interviews done at the time of reuniting the cast for a commentary track and the aforementioned Alamo Drafthouse screening. It's split up into the following pieces: Birth of/Cast of/Creating/Escape of/Legend of The Creeps. You'll want to watch the whole thing all in one go. I was a bit disappointed they didn't include the entirety of the Drafthouse Q&A on the disc as I assumed they would. It was good to see a couple friends and familiar Alamo acquaintances. This is the treatment fans of genre movies wish all our favorite titles got. Kudos to Sony for doing it right on this one.