Title: Night of the Creeps
Year: 1986
Dir.: Fred Dekker
Producer: Charles Gordon
Writer(s): Fred Dekker
Company: TriStar Pictures
Starring: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Jill Whitlow, and Steven Marshall.
I’m skipping over quite a few movies to talk about this one because I recently just sat down and watched this movie (last week) for the first time.
My initial and first thought about 1986’s Night of the Creeps is… why did it take me so long to watch this movie? I loved this movie. I had fun with this movie. It’s a movie that isn’t taking itself seriously and it’s a b-movie, cheesy horror/sci-fi/comedy and it works.
There is so many things that I loved about this movie that goes beyond just cinematography. I enjoyed the surprises, the acting, the special effects were fun and decent, some character development, there was a lot.
I should start by saying that on Amazon Firestick, for me anyway, there’s a IDMb Freedive app where you can watch movies and television, documentaries, whatever you want for free. There are ads throughout but they are 2 ads at a time, most are just for Amazon original programming and it goes right back to the film, no buffering, etc. You won’t find everything available to watch but there’s a good selection available. Anywho, if this app is available for you, take advantage of it. We don’t like ads but the ads is why the media is free.
Back to Night of the Creeps.
I had heard about this movie. Seen screen captures and mini clips of this movie. I even did an entire post on the tumblr blog and even from that, it seemed like this movie was in the same realm as… The Return of the Living Dead. That movie will also be featured on this blog in the future. This movie captured the 80s. I have seen TONS of horror movies from different decades and there’s something about 80s horror that just sparkles. There’s magical dust on it. There’s something about 80s movies in general that I clearly love more than horror films from earlier or later, doesn’t mean I don’t disrespect them or dislike them. I love them all… catch me on a day when I can go off on one that doesn’t work but you just know an 80s film when you see it.
Night of the Creeps is that movie that when you see it, you know what decade this is.
I love the colors and lighting in this movie. The colors are obnoxiously bright. For me, in my mind, it falls into the category of Creepshow, The Twilight Zone movie, Vamp, Suspiria, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, Hellraiser, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and so many more where they use color combinations or just in general colors that are appropriately used to create a moment, a capture. 
A lot of this comes from me spending many college credits on art and art history and color theory so that’s what immediately draws my attention in film, no matter what the genre is. Horror (fantasy or sci-fi) just happens to be that genre(s) that switches that light bulb on in my mind to see something like how they use color. How do they use lighting? How do they make a scene memorable using visuals and it isn’t about the dialogue?
I can give an example of what I am talking about. The movie has “3” different time periods. And by that I mean, there’s the space/alien aspect, there’s the 1959 scenes and then later the 1986 “current” scenes. There is a scene that eventually gets played out in its entirety where one of the characters is attacked and its initially in black and white, for being in 1959. The scene evolves in a main character’s flashback where we see the color, we see the baby blue Cadillac (I’m assuming) being drenched in bright red blood. It’s almost “cartoon-y”.
It just sucks you into reality like “oh shit, she actually died” versus “oh shit, is she gonna make it or leave or run or something?” NO.
If you have time, please watch this movie. It is very fun. The version that was available for me had the alternative ending so just be aware of that possibility.
Shots of Horror 