Thrill Me.

"What is this? A homicide, or a bad B-movie?"

I'm experiencing an uncharacteristic display of elation from the announcement over at Ain't It Cool News this weekend that Sony will be releasing a special edition DVD (and maybe Blu-Ray) of one of my favorite genre films of the 80's, Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps!

For a couple of years there, back in the mid-80's, Dekker looked like he was going to be the next big name in genre films. He had writing credits on a few decent B-movies, and then wrote & directed two great cult classics in a row: Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad. Both of them were smart, funny and full of obvious affection for the horror genre. Unfortunately, neither one really set the box office on fire (The Monster Squad, in particular, was badly handled by its distributor, and pretty much flopped), and when his next film, the disappointing sequel, RoboCop 3, died in theaters, his career pretty much died with it.

Both Creeps and Squad had strong fan followings, though, and their cults have only grown over the years, kept alive by aging VHS copies being endlessly replayed. A couple years ago, Lionsgate released a beautiful, widescreen special edition DVD of The Monster Squad, and I guess it must have sold pretty well, because now it's delightful predecessor is coming to disc too.

Night of the Creeps is a smart horror comedy that spoofs 50's alien invasion flicks, as well as 80's slasher and zombie movies. It's got a great cast - especially Tom Atkins as a hardboiled cop – and extremely witty, quotable dialogue. It's great fun, and I'm thrilled to see it get a deluxe home video release at last.

It's supposed to be out for Halloween.