Night Of The Creeps - Director’s Cut (1986/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Barely released for whatever reasons in 1986, Fred
Dekker’s Night Of The Creeps is a
dark comedy with some unusually graphic blood and violence for its time in this
zombie comedy that Tri-Star may have considered too dark or bizarre to be a
commercial success. With its
studio-ordered ending, it did not work.
Now we get the Director’s Cut on
Blu-ray which simply adds the original (and better) ending back and that may
not save the whole film, but it makes more sense.
After a late 1950s flashback (in black & white yet)
showing us how a strange creature escaped outer space alien hands, we forward
to the mid-1980s when the little menace comes alive again and anything it
enters it can turn into a zombie, even bringing back the dead to life. Trapped in a cryogenically-frozen body since
1959, that body thaws and the terror begins again. However, Dekker’s script has some pop culture
references and though it is not as successful as An American Werewolf In London, it joined Return Of The Living Dead and Romero’s Day Of The Dead as the zombie films of the time as the end of the
cycle that started with Romero’s original 1968 Night Of The Living Dead and the foundation for all zombie films
since were set, even if most did not realize it yet.
Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow and Tom Atkins
head a decent cast and the link between the two decades is not outright
complementary, but that is besides the story that is uneven and never exceeds
its genres. Fans might like that and it
is now a cult time, but if it had been stronger, it might have found a larger
audience sooner. Still, it has its
moments and is bound to find a new audience.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is soft
like many 1980s films that were printed on low-light 35mm film stocks. Add the monochrome purposely made to look
like semi-clear 1950s filming and the playback is held back by its age and stylizing. The DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 is
the best that can be expected from a film issued in old Dolby analog theatrical
A-type sound with distortion and sonic limits throughout. The remixers did their best to upgrade this,
but that can only go so far.
Extras include the studio ending, two feature length audio
commentaries (one by Dekker, the other by the cast), BD Live interactive
functions, trivia track, original theatrical trailer, six interesting making-of
featurettes and Deleted Scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
