I don’t know what it is about Fred Dekker films. The older I get, the more I love them. I loved them when I first saw them as a kid, but seeing them years later as an adult and they really speak to me. And it’s not just in that nostalgic way that we love so many things from our youth. His movies have aged wonderfully.

I just re-visited Night of the Creeps for the first time in years. Just like I this film will be turning 30 this year. While I’ve arguably gotten much worse over the years, Night of the Creeps has gotten significantly better. So much so that I think it may have actually worked its way up into my top ten of all time now. That’s still up for an internal debate that I’ll have at some point, but it’s definitely in the conversation.

The movie gets it right from the start. It opens with these wonderful rolling credits as this blob in the center of the screen slowly morphs into the word “creeps” and the title is finally displayed in all its glory as Barry DeVorzon’s main title track plays. Credits seem like such a simple, almost meaningless thing, but they play a huge role. They set the tone of the movie. Night of the Creeps has a title sequence that absolutely crushes it.

After the credits we head to space which lets us know this movie is going to be big. I mean there’s a freakin’ spaceship and aliens are chasing one another! Sure, the aliens look pretty rubbery and have funny looking butts, however, they have a very classic 50’s sci-fi look. Speaking of 50’s once the story jumps ship to Earth, the year is 1959 and the film is black and white. Lovely B-movie touch.

Within about the first 10 minutes we’ve got space invaders, zombie-like creatures and an axe-wielding maniac. Dekker wasted no time in checking all the boxes.

After the fairly brief opening in 1959 in which we see an alien capsule crash land on Earth the film jumps ahead 27 years to pledge week 1986. This is when we meet Chris (Jason Lively) and J.C. (Steven Marshall). Chris and J.C. are a couple of nerdy outcast college kids. Despite it being pledge week, they have no desire to join a frat. That is until Chris lays eyes on Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow), the instant love of his life.

A girl like Cynthia isn’t likely to have much interest in a guy like Chris, at least that’s what he thinks. Despite J.C.’s suggestion of just talking to her, Chris is convinced he has to join a frat. They decide to try out for the coolest frat on campus which coincidentally enough is headed by Cynthia’s boyfriend, Brad. The frat gives Chris and J.C. one simple task to determine their worth – they must get a cadaver from the campus cryogenics lab and place it at the doorstep of a sorority house.

Determined to impress Cynthia, Chris drags J.C. along to look for a body. And they find one, a frozen one. A body that has been frozen since 1959, when the alien capsule landed on Earth. They unhook the body from the various gadgets in the lab and plan to head out with it but then it moves and they freak out and immediately run out of the building like a couple of screaming banshees. The body happens to be infected with alien slugs and now it’s on the loose, infecting the entire town.

The boys are questioned by Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins). As crazy as the whole story sounds, Cameron isn’t shocked. He was a new cop on the force in 1959. He knows what’s up. Chris, J.C., Cynthia and Cameron team up to take out these alien slugs!

There is so much to love about Night of the Creeps that I have no idea where to begin. I guess I’ll start with all the cool little references to horror icons and classics. The entire movie is a homage to B-movies in general but lots of little specific references are tossed in throughout. The most obvious are the character names. There’s a Romero, a Cronenberg, a Carpenter, a Cameron, a Raimi and a Hooper. There’s probably more that I’m missing. The college is Corman University! I love this stuff! None of these are subtle. Normally I don’t like references that are so on the nose, but there is something so damn charming to the way Dekker pulled this all off.

Then there’s Atkins. Who doesn’t love Atkins? His introduction in this film is among the greatest introductions in the history of cinema. He’s in a snazzy white suit, sitting on a sunny beach with a drink in hand as multiple bikini clad women parade around him. Sure, this scene may be a dream sequence but don’t we all imagine this is how Atkins lives his everyday life? He’s so cool that I wouldn’t expect him to live another other way.

His character of Cameron is pretty bizarre. The things he says are so ridiculous. I mean his catchphrase is “thrill me” and he uses it to essentially ask people to get him caught up to speed with what’s going on. Worst case scenario that catchphrase should be dumb. Best case it should be incredibly cheesy. And yet, somehow someway, Atkins makes it so damn cool. How many actors can do that? I say not many.

The effects from Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman and team cannot go unmentioned. This film relies on practical effects pretty heavily and they look great. I especially love the way the slugs slither across the ground. They’re the perfect amount of creepy. And of course the number of head explosions is quite lovely.

My most recent viewing of Night of the Creeps came courtesy of the new region free Blu-ray from Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment. Its a really terrific release with great picture and audio quality. I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same transfer as the Sony release from a few years back. The special features are loaded with two audio commentaries, one with Dekker and one with the cast, a making-of, the original theatrical ending, a 20-minute featurette on Atkins and an interview with Dekker. I’m fairly certain all of these are from the Sony release as well, aside from the Dekker interview. I don’t recall that being on the Sony release.

Out of all the features the conversation with Atkins is my favorite. He talks about coming up in Pittsburgh and then walks us through is career giving interesting tidbits along the way. The best and most fascinating is when he talks about a kid hanging around on the set of Night of the Creeps. That kid asked Atkins to read a script. That kid, Shane Black. That script, Lethal Weapon.

One thing that really sets the Umbrella release apart from the Sony release is the artwork. The Sony release has terrible artwork. I mean it’s really, really bad. The Umbrella Blu comes with two awesome options, one of which you can see below.

Night of the Creeps is a fantastic horror movie. It pays respect to the B-movies that came years before it and has that 80’s charm we all love so much. Thirty years later and it still thrills me.

Night of the Creeps is now available on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.