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Some movies are so strange, so bizarre, so ultimately excellent that they belong in their own pocket universe of The Sci-Fi Podcast, known as Planet X! Mattroid will be joined in each of these short episodes by a special guest and together they’ll discuss a relatively unknown movie and any number of related (and unrelated) tangents.
In the first episode of It Came From Planet X, Mattroid and Movie Podcast Network’s very own Spacewolf tackle one of the greatest and goofiest movies to come out of the 80s — Night of the Creeps.
Have you seen it?
Do you like it?
Do you own it?
You gotta love it, baby. Thrill me by talking about the movie in the comments section.
Podcast production and artwork by Mattroid. Music provided by TMMC.
I’ve never seen Night of the Creeps and, to be honest, this review made me more interested to check out Slither than Creeps. I’ve been meaning to get around to Slither more or less since it appeared on the scene. As I recall, there was no press screening at the time or I’d have seen and reviewed it for the Daily Herald way back when.
My favorite movie of this sort has long been Tremors, which I own and usually get around to watching every other year or so. Never bothered with any of the sans-Kevin Bacon sequels. The actors who did come back for the sequels are fun, but the true magic of Tremors is the Bacon-Fred Ward buddy chemistry.
Between this and his nigh frothing-at-the-mouth love of The Monster Squad (most recently on display in the initial episodes of Universal Monsters Cast), I’m a little surprised that Spacewolf hasn’t launched The Fred Dekker Podcast yet.
Slither is excellent but I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice by skipping Night of the Creeps in favour of it, Cody. Night of the Creeps lacks the minor but unfortunate detraction of some noticeable CGI effects that show up in Slither and is a classic of the 80’s in my book. Not to be missed.
Mattroid and Solo: Have you heard this Terry Brooks TEDX Talk?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fExrstN8TEg
With all the talk of Night of the Creeps being a potential influence on Slither I feel like it’s pretty imperative to throw The Deadly Spawn into the equation. It’s way more of low budget trash-fest than either of the other films mentioned but it came out a couple of years before Night of the Creeps and prominently features very similar space-slug type creatures. It also has the same B-grade 50’s drive-in movie type vibe. It was actually the first film that flew into my head as a likely inspiration when I first saw Slither and I feel like there’s a chance it could definitely have inspired elements of Night of the Creeps.
Like I said, it has a much more amateurish, home-spun bent but in a way that adds to the charm and for me it’s thoroughly entertaining with a lot of heart and some surprisingly impressive and gory practical effects.
None of this is to take away from Night of the Creeps or Slither though. I adore both of those films. Night in particular stands out as a perfect example of a style of horror we seldom see these days. Simultaneously extremely fun, creepy and gross with some very likeable characters and a comic book type energy to the whole thing.