SlashBack Cinema

Night of the Creeps (1986) Why This Cult Sci-Fi Horror Still Rules

• Ryan Dreimiller, Shanny Luft • Season 1 • Episode 45

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Alien slugs, zombie frat boys, and Tom Atkins dropping scorched-earth one-liners. This week Shanny and Ryan pop in the cult classic Night of the Creeps. Don't forget to bring your flamethrower!  Listen in as we explain the movie’s wild concept, its standout scenes, and why it refuses to die among ’80s horror fans.

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Ryan Dreimiller:

If you've ever wondered who would win in a competition between alien slugs and an 80s fraternity, then we've got the film for you,

Shanny Luft:

because today we're watching night of the creeps, the schlocky sci fi horror comedy from director Fred Decker.

Ryan Dreimiller:

This movie really has it all, zombies, aliens, flamethrowers and a good cop gone bad, or is he bad cop going good?

Shanny Luft:

We're still confused, but we're going to sort it out in today's episode of slash back cinema. Shanny, yeah, thrill me. Thrill me is one of the taglines of this movie. The cop, played by Tom Atkins, plays the cop, and he definitely understood the assignment. He's like grizzled, and he's alone in the world, hard

Ryan Dreimiller:

drinking, hard smoking. And then inexplicably,

Shanny Luft:

he he says, throw me a lot. He says, thrill me. Did you just answer the telephone?

Ryan Dreimiller:

That's one of my favorite scenes. We'll talk about that a little bit. But yeah, there's a lot of thrill me. That's quite the line. I'm just gonna start weaving that into my day to day here as a 50 year old detective Cameron, no

Unknown:

boom, Winkle, moose. Thrill me. It's that body we're looking for, detective. Thrill me.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Thrill me. Today's episode of slash back cinema. It's brought to you by slashies, chainsaw and floral, the only shop in town that understands the simple truth. Everyone needs something now and then. Some folks come in for tulips. Others come in for replacement chainsaw after the old one unexpectedly wore out, slashy has got your back splashy chain for since 1982 Jordan ad, I was like, We need like the garrison, Keillor Perot, companion,

Unknown:

slash these chains, dress the shop that does it all.

Ryan Dreimiller:

I feel like we need to create this whole like this movie encapsulated perfectly. There was this whole like town, yeah, created in the 50s, but now it's in the 80s, this small town America where all these horror movies happened, usually, in this case, you know, the random spaceship from outer space, and then some weird shit happens. There's some zombies like this movie, really, it did cover the bases. Ryan, why

Shanny Luft:

don't you give us a little plot overview to summarize night I was almost at night of the comment, Night of the creeps, listening audience.

Ryan Dreimiller:

We've watched a lot of these night of movies. So this is the latest night of the creeps from 1986 basically. It starts off in outer space, like many of these films are. Start like they like to do, as capsule hurls through space, crashes into Earth, and it happens to be full of brain eating slugs, lands in a college town, and it turns frat boys and towns folks into the shambling zombies. And it's up to this freshman in college and this world weary detective to stop the slug invasion before everyone turns into a full blown zombie fiesta.

Shanny Luft:

When the movie started, I was like, momentarily disappointed that it didn't feel I wasn't getting, like the 80s vibe from this movie that I wanted. But then, as I thought about it, I realized this movie has something that you and I haven't talked about, which I think of as like an essential 80s movie trope, which is college frats. Have you ever thought about like, how many movies in the 80s? And I feel like this all stems back to like, Animal House and porkies, right? And then Revenge of the Nerds, the character who is like a wealthy, blue nosed, obnoxious frat boy is like one of the most common 80s tropes. I was reflecting on the fact that when I got to college, I had this like hatred of frats, despite the fact that I knew nothing about them. And it's got to be from the 47 movies that came out in that decade, that in which frats were always, always portrayed as idiotic or stupid or a waste of time or illegal or involved in like inappropriate hijinks. They're never the heroes of the movie. They're always the antagonist. And so this movie definitely checks those anti frat boxes.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, good point. I feel like we've dabbled a little bit in like, 80s. I was trying to think Black Christmas was set out of college, but not like from the frat perspective, right? But you're right. So this is, like the first one. It's like a little Porky's mash up too, right? Actually, I think the actress, the lead actress, oh, shoot, was her name, Jill Whitlow, had a part in Porky's, if I built that up correctly from my ID, MB, or IMDb, IMDb, thank you. Thank you for shaving me straight.

Shanny Luft:

Not all the cast had much of a career after this movie.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, so I was really surprised. I'd never heard of this movie. I thought this was going to be a different film than it wound up being, because not having heard anything about it, I just assumed it was going to be sort of. On the level of uninvited or some of these other poorly done movies that we've watched, but this is actually a really well done film, like, I feel like it was paced, well written, well had a very interesting plot and storyline, covered a lot of stuff.

Shanny Luft:

Okay, I just want to say I don't agree with any of

Ryan Dreimiller:

that good good. Come to a, you know, a good resolution here at the end. But it just weird that I never heard of it.

Shanny Luft:

Well, it didn't have much of a theatrical release. I feel like the studio that released it didn't believe in the movie I read, so they just gave it like theatrical release in like minor markets. I always wanted to listen there's minor markets, and do they know that they're a minor market? Gotta suck to think. You know, both of us might be living in minor markets right now. I think we grew

Ryan Dreimiller:

up in a minor market. When they're saying minor market was racist, maybe not, waits field.

Shanny Luft:

You don't even rise to minor market. Yeah,

Ryan Dreimiller:

we're like micro influencer market.

Shanny Luft:

So anyway, then, then the movie just went straight to video, but then it was, like, a huge hit on VHS, yeah, I feel like on VHS, it finally found its audience. I'm here for it, but maybe you aren't, yeah, so we'll talk about that. So that was a good overview. This is yet another movie where the title of the movie isn't very helpful. Are the creeps supposed to be the zombies? Or the creeps supposed to be those slug creatures that turn you into a zombie?

Ryan Dreimiller:

You know, as much good art does? It leaves room for interpretation. Shot so you could be in the slug side of the question and answer, or you could be on the zombie side, so or both.

Shanny Luft:

They're all creeps. I feel like the guys at the fret are the creeps. That's true. Is there any like film lore that you found out we're already kind of getting into it well, so exploded on VHS, yeah, it did as

Ryan Dreimiller:

we were watching it. I think the main female character, her last name was Cronenberg. And I was like, that's a really weird name for

Shanny Luft:

this character. And then as

Ryan Dreimiller:

you start to pay attention, they all have horror influence names, like, there's Romero Carpenter, references to Remy and Cameron and right Craven like. So this, the director was definitely a horror geek and wove some of that stuff into the film. Fred Decker, so,

Shanny Luft:

yeah, that was actually kind of cute, that he kind of worked in all of these. I'm sure I didn't get all of the references, but you're right, he named the characters like in honor of his heroes, and they were heroes at the time. It's not even like he's paying homage to, like a previous century. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, did you watch the movie with anybody?

Ryan Dreimiller:

No, it was just, just my myself. The kids popped in and out. But how about you?

Shanny Luft:

So I started watching it with Kim, and I fell asleep twice. Kim was awake, and she's like, you're watching I have to watch this movie for your podcast, and you can't even stay awake. I'm like, no, no, what? I just closed my eyes for a second. I'm totally there. And then I watch it for a few minutes and realized I have no idea what's going on, what has happened? There's a bus accident. I am lost, so I had to get up bright and early and then watch it in the morning. Okay? And I could really kind of focus.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Well, yeah, I was about to say, I don't know that that counts, if you have Kim watch it, and then she gives you the notes, the Cliff Notes.

Shanny Luft:

I respected the audience way too much to just like read the Wikipedia entry. No, I put in the work. Okay, good. Most of that's one of my main criticisms of the movie is I feel like the first half, or even the first two thirds are pretty slow, but it does pick up and they'll it's, I like that. It's 90 minutes. It doesn't overstay its welcome. I feel like the first hour is kind of slow, and I felt like could have been edited down and moved a lot quicker. But the last half an hour, it's actually pretty entertaining.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, definitely pretty tight. As you as you get to that the final third of this film, what struck me is like it was such a mash up of styles and, like, B move. I mean, you had the goofy space alien characters at the beginning, like, right out of the gate, I was, like, the

Shanny Luft:

movie opens with these, like, naked they look like little mud people that came to life, and they're running around Peter

Ryan Dreimiller:

Jackson's bad taste guys, like, little kind of fat suit alien guys, and one's trying to, like, get away from the others, but it's, like, not such a funny style, yeah.

Shanny Luft:

Also, you never find out what that's all about. Like, the movie then picks up with its Earth in the 1950s I think, yeah. And that little pod has landed, and it's got these little, like, slug creatures that jump into your mouth. Get to see that eight or nine times in this movie, and then they turn into zombies.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, because the slug creature, as you've come to find out, then takes over your mind. It's like a parasite, and then keeps you alive. And then eventually your head splits open and creates more slug creatures that then it spreads. So it's a problem. You really got to manage these, these slug and fish. Stage it.

Shanny Luft:

Here's my first criticism of this movie. If you had just skipped the first 10 entire minutes of the movie, would it have made any difference at all? Why is that? Any of that relevant? Why not just start with it lands and infects somebody. The zombies are coming.

Ryan Dreimiller:

It's the backstory for the policeman, like he dated the girl that got murdered in the 50s. Okay? And so he in the 50s, the cop killed the homicidal maniac with his shotgun, buried the body under the fret of the sorority house. And so he's got, he's been carrying this weight all these years that he let that girl die. Okay? Now the guy, yeah,

Shanny Luft:

here's question number 17 I have. So yes, a police officer comes upon an ex building maniac stabbing his girlfriend. He shoots the maniac. Why is he burying it under a house? Why doesn't he just radio for backup and then he could just stick it in the morgue like he's killing someone committing a murder? Why is this? Why is he acting like this is a terrible secret thing he did. I'm already confused.

Ryan Dreimiller:

You're asking excellent questions that a B movie from the 1980s they're unanswerable. It's sort of like, you know, what is the nature of consciousness? Is what you're

Shanny Luft:

asking and you're saying, that's too much to put on this movie. Yeah.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah. You're really holding it to a high standard. I mean,

Shanny Luft:

I was holding it to the standard of, let's get to the zombies. So do we want to get their favorite scenes? Do you have any more, like notes or lore to discuss? No, I think we're good to go to scenes. Okay, yeah, let's start jumping into these. So one thing I want to comment on, because we already started talking about it is a thing. This movie gets a positive mark for me is the cop has great one liners that he just Yes. Now, a couple of them don't work as well as others, but I thought the What's that opening line that he said that we said at the beginning? Thrill me? Yeah, yeah. I thought that was going to be his main line, but he is just, like, rolling these things off at one point before he shoots a zombie. This one, I don't think worked, he says it's Miller time. I don't know why that would be Miller time. Like, right after you shoot a zombie, is it really Miller time? Did Miller pay money? I doubt it. So that one I felt like didn't work, but he does have a line that is so good, they actually put it in the poster. Oh, great, yeah. What's that? Lay it on me. By the last third of the movie, there's a a bus full of frat boys, and the bus flips over, and then all the frat boys get infected. I like the fact that when you become a zombie, you just go on to whatever you you were going to do anyway, right? They were all headed to the girl's house. So after they come zombies, they just get out of the wreckage of the bus and just keep walking in their tuxedo suits because they're going to some kind of dance. And Detective Cameron is standing at the window, and he goes, I've got good news and bad news. Girls.

Unknown:

The good news is your dates are here. What's the bad news? They're dead.

Shanny Luft:

That line is so good. It's good poster. Yeah, so that's one of his good one line that's a lot better than it's Miller time. And I want to say one other thing, and then I want to hear some of your favorite scenes. If you shoot a fire at them, that is what kills the slugs that are inside one's brain. And so I give the movie props for this that it's a two part kill. To kill the zombie, first you have to shoot him in the head, and then when the slugs pop out, then you have to, like, use a flamethrower. So my favorite moment comes when the cop decides to get a flamethrower. Instead of going to a store to buy a flamethrower, he goes to pick it up at the police department, and when he gets to the apartment, did you recognize the actor

Ryan Dreimiller:

Gremlins, who's been in like 100 films? Yes.

Shanny Luft:

Miller, Dick Miller, I looked him up. He definitely is one of those actors that if you, if you say his name, most people are going to have no idea who you're talking about, but you have definitely, definitely seen him in a movie before. He played the old neighbor in Gremlins, who was like, sessed with the Gremlin characters.

Unknown:

You got to watch out for. And it's because they plant Gremlins in their machinery. That's the same Gremlins brought down our planes in the

Shanny Luft:

big one. And he just shows up in movie after movie. I think he sells the Terminator a gun,

Unknown:

the 45 long slide with laser siding. These are brand new. We just got the new that's a

Ryan Dreimiller:

good gun. Wasn't he in chopping mall too? Or am I mixing that up?

Unknown:

No, you're right, you clumsy son of a bitch. Look what you did. I gotta turn into scrap metal for this. Hey, I see your identification badge, please. Identification badge. Do not make any sudden moves. Sudden move. I'll give you a sudden move upside your head.

Shanny Luft:

I mean, what a career this guy had. So I was kind of delighted to see him pop up for a moment, even just to get the flamethrower.

Unknown:

What can I do you for? Well, the thing is, Walter, what I need is need your basic flamethrower, flamethrower, flamethrower, flamethrower. Jesus, what's the matter? The old snow Mills ain't good enough for you anymore.

Shanny Luft:

So those are, those are two scenes I really appreciated. The tagline, they're dead, and seeing Dick Miller pop up in this random ass movie. I could go on, but you tell me, what are some of your highlights and low lights?

Ryan Dreimiller:

So the lawn mower flamethrower showdown. Yes, I thought that was pretty great. It's two protagonists, Chris and Cynthia. It's kind of the scene right after the zombie ambush. They've been fighting him in the house, and then they are in the sorority house, and then they're outside in like this shed, and I think he gets grabbed, and then she helps him out, and then she gets grabbed and then pulled out of the shed, and he's like, he's like, Oh my God, and she's got the flamethrower, right? He's got the flamethrower. He's got a gun. But for some reason, he decides not to use the gun. But you realize that, you know it truly is the master stroke in terms of he then sees there's a lawnmower. He starts cracking that thing up, yeah? And it proceeds to take the he's like, get out of the way, and takes the lawnmower and takes care of that zombie.

Shanny Luft:

Now this is definitely not the lawn mower at my house where I have to prime it and then pull the chain six times. No, not enough. Okay, gotta prime it six times and pull the chain some more. No, not enough. Check to see if it has gas. And if I were in this zombies would have killed me and everyone I know before I got the goddamn lawnmower started.

Ryan Dreimiller:

It's, it's totally true. But you know, if you went to slash these chainsaw and floral I got electric, you know, lawnmower, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Shanny Luft:

That's true. That's either ad, it protects you from zombie attacks

Ryan Dreimiller:

totally but, right, yeah. If this was my lawn mower, she would have died. But he gets the starred and proceeds to chop up the zombies.

Shanny Luft:

Did this movie come out before Peter Jackson or after Peter Jackson?

Ryan Dreimiller:

It did so. The movie that I was referencing earlier in the conversation was Peter Jackson's dead, alive, which came out, I think, in either late 80s or early 90s. This was 86 and Peter Jackson definitely like referenced his influences, but I don't know they ever called out Decker directly, but in Dead Alive, there's a whole scene with this. The guy straps a ladder to his chest and proceeds to take care of a bunch of zombies. But they kind of spared you the gore a little bit in this movie, versus Peter Jackson's film, where, I think it was waist level blood,

Shanny Luft:

it was pulled up everywhere. And this movie did a lot of, I feel like, because this guy is so influenced by 50s B schlock, hard movies, his favorite thing to do was you see someone hold up an ax, and then they swing it down. You don't see the acts actually make contact, but you see blood

Ryan Dreimiller:

splatter on the ladder. Yeah, and that actually, so it's not much of a scene, but it, it's a little sequence that I just thought was so great. It was the one where it was, I forget what they kept referencing it like you if maybe, if we went to Frater sororities, we would know, but it was like the woman's house that watches over the sorority. It's like the little cottage outside. Yeah, it is where the cop buried the maniac that he killed years ago. They built sons, built this house on it, and there's the old woman in there who's watching the B movie.

Shanny Luft:

So that, that old lady, is she the we've we saw, I think, Black Christmas. Black Christmas. Black Christmas had it. There's like a there's like a lady that lives with the sorority sisters, keeps an eye, keep an eye on and make sure they're like, getting back for curfew, right? This is a thing I'd never heard of, but if I've only seen a movie, I'm sure it existed in real life. But, yeah, you're right. I had not never noticed it before. We've now seen this in two movies.

Ryan Dreimiller:

So, so she's, she's in there falling asleep. She's got a little like fluffy dog, and she's watching this old 50s sci fi horror movie on TV. And essentially, the guy that the cop killed comes back. You hear this banging noise. He comes out of the basement. She's like, what's going on? And he's a zombie at this point with with an ax. And the way they they shot that was so well done. It's like this, you hear the dog barking. It's like, woof, woof. And the AX comes up and it's and then the blood shoots onto the screen on the TV. The phone rings, and then it's the cop. He's like, throw me this little punchy sequence that was very entertaining. Yes, I was like, well done. Fred Decker, good job.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, that sequence was really good. That's something else I was going to talk about. Is this movie did not get the memo that you don't kill dogs,

Ryan Dreimiller:

yeah, or cats, like he was, he was this murderous back bastard here, yes.

Shanny Luft:

So it's really surprising, and this dog does quite a bit of damage. I like the fact that he becomes a zombie dog. So the slug goes into the dog, and then he is responsible for the bus flipping over that kills like everyone in the fraternity, just because this tiny little dog is sitting in the street that bus driver, I gotta say sorry to our canine lovers out here, but it's a bit of an overreaction if you see. Cai. Yeah, if you see an eight inch dog in the road, I don't know that you should flip your bus over and kill 20 people. Feel like you have to make a choice at that point. Yeah, but it's, is it a zombie dog at that point, or is it just

Ryan Dreimiller:

a regular Yeah? No, no. It's a zombie dog at that point because it got infected by the zombie that came out killed the old lady, and assuming then slugs got into the dog or whatever. So, right, right? So I was thinking about this, and maybe you've got a different opinion as to why this film wasn't so popular, but I was wondering if, like, part of it was, there was so much slug focus in the film, and and people just don't like slugs. They're gross. But you might actually think this is not a good film, so maybe that's so that's my question to you, why? Why do you think Shanny this film did not gain the traction and popular culture?

Shanny Luft:

I don't think it's the slugs. I agree with you that slugs are pretty gross, but people don't like spiders either. And there are popular horror movies with spiders, even giant spiders. And what was the Kevin Bacon movie? Those were giant worms. Tremors, yeah, tremors, right. So this, I don't think the slugs themselves are the problem. I think it's one hour of boring nonsense that isn't funny. Aren't interesting. Could be I'm just gonna spitball here. The thing that made this movie kind of a loser. So the enormous amount of setup, it's a the main characters are these two kids, Chris and JC, and they're just like, they're into this one girl, but she, of course, is dating the head of the fraternity. It's another movie where this, like, sweet girl is dating, like the jerkiest guy in the world, dating Brad. Does he call himself the Brad Stewart? I think so.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Come on, that scene was good when, like, he'd been turned into a zombie and came up to the house and locked on the door and, like, the sorority sister doesn't even, like, blink an eye when he's there standing, like he's, like, he's all zombified, yes, and she comes down and thinking he's just upset about because she didn't invite him to the dance or whatever, she's never quite looks them in the eyes, so they she's holding hands with the zombie.

Shanny Luft:

They're sitting side by side, and she's like, I just feel like we're not the same. He's a zombie at that point, just drool is coming down his chin.

Unknown:

I'm sorry things didn't work out. We're just two different people. That doesn't mean that it's over forever. We just need time to think,

Shanny Luft:

yes, that was good. That was in the last half an hour of the movie. Every good moment of this movie is in the last 30 minutes.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah. I mean, it had just had, like, the 80s banter between the friends. And it was, you know, kind of, I mean, the whole it was so light and silly, like the space aliens down to the shenanigans with with the friends and the fret brothers wanting them to be the lab that they go into. Like, what's never explained is like, why did they keep this body from the 50s in a cryogenic state to begin with? That was a major plot hole. Like, like, who decided that was a good idea, and really it wasn't under any any level of security if, like, two random dudes can walk in and bring the zombie back to life. So Right? But I mean, I just thought kind of the lightness and kind of homage and play to all those genre films was kind of fun. I thought it was kind of fun

Shanny Luft:

to watch. Once the zombies appear, it definitely picks up dramatically.

Ryan Dreimiller:

So note to directors out there, get to the zombies faster. This is what keeps your audience engaged early Shanny, so that's why we came before we move on from the lack of zombies like I was reflecting on night of the comet, also, which was another night of film that was one of our critiques, or criticisms of that movie. Was like, more zombies were needed, right? It was pretty late on zombies like so this one, I felt like paid off in the zombies, but you had to wait, you know, I got half of the film before you got there.

Shanny Luft:

Here's something I want to ask you. There's a sequence where, JC, he's the buddy in the movie. He's sitting in the bathroom, literally sitting on the toilet, and then a guy walks into the bathroom and then falls over dead, and all the little slug creatures slither out. Did you look at what's written on the bathroom wall next to him? We need so much

Ryan Dreimiller:

good stuff on the wall there. Did you pause so many details? So I all I could tell on a quick read was, like, Humpty. Dumpty was sat on a wall. There was, what else did you get? I feel like there's, like, some band references and some other stuff.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, that's the what. That's what I want to talk this is the reason I was looking forward to this conversation. Ryan written up in red ink on the bathroom wall behind JC, it says, striper rules, Ryan. Do you remember the band striper from the 80s?

Ryan Dreimiller:

So yes, and I couldn't remember if they were like the Christian rock band striper. Like, yeah. So that's pretty niche, right there.

Shanny Luft:

Turns out somebody that worked on the film was. Dating a band member in striper and so she just wrote striper rules on the wall. So that was a Christian Hard Rock Band. Were you a striper fan? Or, because I remember you were, you were a fan of like the Christian rock you want to hit us with some of your favorite tunes,

Ryan Dreimiller:

man, I feel like the one that was on my radar. Was there a band called Petra, like But, and I might have listened to a little striper, but then I realized at a certain point that, like, those bands were actually kind of bad, and I should just listen to the movie The music that came from Satan, like Nader. That's always better than

Shanny Luft:

Wasn't there a band called Rez? Wow. Shanny, yes, good job. Wow. Yeah. We talked about this all through high school. Yeah, I

Ryan Dreimiller:

have not thought of either of those bands in 30 years, maybe. So yes. Res refers to resurrection band, a pioneer, pioneering Christian rock band that formed in Chicago 1972 Wow. I didn't realize they were around that long.

Shanny Luft:

So this is useful, because I feel like when, when you think back to the 80s and Christian rock, I feel like people are going to think, oh, Ryan was a big fan of Amy Grant, but you were much more obscure and niche because you didn't listen to Christian pop. You only listen to, like, Christian Thrasher metal, which is like, how big could the audience be?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Pretty small. Yeah, I think they were that was probably, like, the biggest thing that come out of that, that like SLUB genre, until you got the Creed, you know,

Unknown:

can you take me higher? Yes.

Shanny Luft:

So, yeah, striper has a pretty good Wikipedia page.

Ryan Dreimiller:

So when you google striper, the only image that I know from them is that one photo that comes up where they're dressed like yellow jackets, yellow and black, colors of caution.

Shanny Luft:

Yes, look at that hair. Wow. Anyway, all of this was my aside because I saw striper rules on the bathroom wall. Friggin rabbit hole. Wow, trip down memory lane. Absolutely, we're keeping all this. This is gold right here. It's good stuff, all right. So back to Night of the creeps. Yeah. So the thing that most surprised me the movie is there, the two main characters are Chris and JC, and in that scene I just described, where JC was sitting on the toilet, he actually then gets infected and then die, he becomes a zombie, yeah?

Ryan Dreimiller:

And that's kind of a shock. It was kind of a shock. And then he left that tape recorder. He's like, listen to this. And it's like, him basically turning into a zombie, talking about what's happening to him. That was, like, kind of, actually, generally sad. And they find it. He goes, he's like, I'm in the boiler room. And he goes down there, and he finds his buddy, like, face down with a bunch of melted slugs. And you're like, that's like, actually sad. That's not funny.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, he actually, like killed himself. I thought, because his name was James carpenter and so, but people called him JC, and I thought, Is he gonna, like, sacrifice himself for other people? He kind of does that, yeah, but he doesn't save every everybody. He just basically saves, I guess, maybe his friend. And he leaves this recording, and that recording is important because it explains how to kill these creatures, which is fire,

Ryan Dreimiller:

right? Which is so key to so many 80s films.

Shanny Luft:

Are there other movies in which fire have we seen? A lot

Ryan Dreimiller:

of pumpkin head? Come on like you were, what was that expression or phrase you brought up

Shanny Luft:

Chekhov's flamethrower? Yes, the expression is Chekhov's gun. And if you show a gun in the first act, somebody better get shot by act three. Yes. And the thing about Pumpkinhead I was complaining about was not enough flamethrower action. They introduced a flamethrower and give nothing this movie a good flamethrower scenes.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, they really delivered, like, and that's, that's some qualities 80s film right there. Like when you write some serious flame flamethrower action, which in the scene we talked about earlier, where they met Dick Miller, who was like, basically the guy that you had to check out the weapons from. You know what good police station doesn't have a flamethrower in stock that you can check out and use for your police work? Yes? So I will say, like, yeah, that was, it seemed like kind of standard fare for a lot of these films. But what I will say was a fresh take that I thought stood out to me in this film was the main character, Chris and his buddy, JC. JC, had a physical disability. He had the walk around crutches. And they didn't really, I mean, there was one scene where the bully, Brad tripped the guy. But, like, they didn't really make the movie about that, like, I feel like silver bullet, like any other 80s thing. It was like, Oh, this is about this is about this kid that has this disability. So I thought that was a pretty progress, like it was just, yeah, he just happened. That was his deal, and they didn't make it this major plot point. The other thing that I thought was a fresh take was, as the movie gets to the final climax, Cynthia and Chris together that take on the zombies. And they're, they're this dynamic duo. Of like, he's not just saving her. She's like, working the flamethrower, and he's working the gun, so to take lobbies. So I thought that was a nice little

Shanny Luft:

progressive. Yeah, I did like that. I like that. She wasn't just a damsel

Ryan Dreimiller:

in distress. Let's bring it for stabby scores. I'm just gonna step up to the plate go. I hear you. There are some plot holes in this film that I happily overlooked. This film was just a fun romp of genres and tributes, and as we talked about some pretty niche things that, like, there's a lot of details in this film, you can tell that, like, this guy was definitely a nerd and a fan of horror, horror comedies. Practical effects were fun, like they weren't amazing. But I really enjoyed the zombie characters. I thought I had style. Was really well done. I agree it took, like, a long time to get going, but I didn't mind it. I kind of was like having fun in the the world that he created.

Shanny Luft:

And I feel like you're you're trying to defend the number. You're about to say, I'm

Unknown:

giving it four stabbies. What

Shanny Luft:

the hell get out of here with your four stabbies? I All right. So here's the thing, what I found so hard about this movie is that the first 45 to 60 Minutes are so unnecessarily boring. It's to me, it's not that there's plot holes. I don't mind plot holes in movies. What I mind is wasting my time. So it's like the whole background of the 1950s you don't need any of that in this movie. Like you could cut out the whole thing. The only piece of information you need is that the Coppa has shot the murderer who killed his girlfriend. But he just tells you that later in the movie. So it's already covered, we get it. I actually think it would have been better had they not shown it, because then you don't know why he's so like, grizzled and angry, until like, an hour in when he reveals his true reason. But then it makes no sense that he's bearing the body of the killer, and there's so much, like, chit chat of like, I felt like the movie was like merging a pretty decent zombie movie and a pretty terrible fraternity comedy. There are so many other fraternity comedy movies that are better from this time period. So watching the first hour of the movie, I was like, this is a too stabby movie, but then that last half an hour, I actually agree with you, that is a four stabby 30 minutes. So I'm not sure there's any part of the movie you have to watch before the last 30 minutes. Say fast to enjoy it up. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so, so, because this movie is a two for at least half of it, if not more, and then it's a four for the last 30 minutes, it's getting the three stabby for me. And as you know, I don't like to give movies, but I am committed to the law of averages, and so this movie lands a three for me, because it's got such a slow, lame beginning,

Ryan Dreimiller:

I think you have to be a fan of generations of kind of horror, sci fi, because like it that's where that whole first half of the movies playing, and critters like honestly, had a similar, like, it takes a lot of time setting that movie up in this, like, small world it's got, it's really similar. Like, starts in space, comes in a small town, right? Minus the sorority for attorney thing. But, like, it spends a lot of time, like, with the characters and, like, developing that before the action gets going. So similar structure, yeah. So it

Shanny Luft:

is really similar, yes, yes, it does have the same setup. I found the critters. Maybe the acting was better, the writing was better, but I feel like in the first half an hour, because you're setting up the town that's going to be destroyed, Gremlins, I feel like it's a master class, and how do you set up the town that you're about to see destroyed and actually care and enjoy watching the town, yes, and you're actually, like, like, invested in its destruction.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Well, it could be a mark that, like, you know, now we're over a year and we watched 40 something films like, I've gotten soft and I've started to enjoy it. Just whatever gets surfed up to me. I'm like, I'm like, the senile old man that, like, comes on. He's like, Oh, pretty colors, zombies.

Shanny Luft:

That's why you got to have two critics. You need a Cisco, you need an Eber, yeah, Jules and Colbert. All right. That wraps up under the trip down memory lane. Hopefully you enjoyed revisiting 1986 this night of the creeps, as much as we did.

Ryan Dreimiller:

If you want to support our show, tell your friends or your enemies about slash back cinema, and please check out our merch store at slash back cinema.com. Every little bit helps, and we promise not to spend it all on flamethrowers.

Shanny Luft:

And we want to hear from you. If you've got a favorite memory from the 70s or 80s or a classic movie you want us to dissect, drop us a line at slash back cinema.com because your suggestions keep the conversation alive.

Ryan Dreimiller:

See you next week. Folks, thrill me. Thrill me. You.