Director Fred Dekker on His Restored '80s B-Horror Gem Night of the Creeps

"It was released worldwide but it didn't really take off," Dekker told me last week of Night Of The Creeps. "It was an incredibly strange film, tonally it was all over the place. The original ending was a lot spookier. Unfortunately, we showed it to the studio and they got very confused." This week's release sees his original, darker finale restored and a bunch of extras added, including cast interviews and a look at how the simple but practical alien-slug effects were achieved.

Despite Creeps' failure at the box office, it, like Monster Squad, eventually gained an ardent following. "It found a few people who appreciated it, but it wasn't a mainstream success," said Dekker. "Over the years, through home video and cable and late-night TV, people started to gravitate toward it."

Dekker's influences were the modern masters of horror, religiously name checked, but he also sought inspiration from the mid-century movies he'd watched growing up with his dad. "I was always very comfortable and conversant with older movies -- if it was black and white, that was fine with me, maybe even better," he said. "So, yeah, my misspent youth is reflected in the film."

And of B-creature features, he reserves a special place in his heart for Plan 9, which isn't just name checked, but which appears on TV screens in Creeps. "It was one of those movies where I would get up in the middle of the night at college -- or, more likely, was still up, having not gone to sleep -- and I'd watch it at 2 or 3 in the morning," he recalled. "I loved it, it's just hilarious. And there's a particularly cheesy moment where one of the aliens is talking about these electro-guns which bring the dead back to life, and he crosses his arms just so. And I'd think, 'Wow, this is a gay actor from the San Fernando Valley, not some alien. I have to use that moment in my movie.'"

Creeps and Monster Squad's theatrical underperformance put a huge dent in a promising career. "The fact of the matter is that Hollywood is very mercenary," Dekker said. "Whether your movies are good or bad, if they make money, then they let you keep making them up. If they don't make money, you find you have a slightly harder route." Dekker did get to direct Robocop 3 later on, which made its money back, but it was "so universally loathed it kind of tainted me."

Dekker makes no secret of the fact that it's a frustrating state of affairs. "Oh God, yes," he laughed. "If you're a painter or a novelist, then you've got yourself, but when you're a filmmaker, you need other people, and money and resources, to make movies. So, it's been frustrating -- thanks for asking."

Sorry, Fred, but where from here? He's working, he said, on a drama completely removed from horror and comedy...but... but... if Night Of The Creeps 2 came a-calling, he'd be there. "The idea of a remake is ridiculous," he scoffed. "The original was already kinda a ripoff and remake, but I've always been interested in a low-budget sequel. Maybe if we sell enough DVDs and Blu-rays, it'll be possible."

To paraphrase Tom Atkins -- who's reportedly keen to be involved- - "Thrill us."

Michael Adams is the author of the upcoming comic memoir Showgirls, Teen Wolves, And Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest To Find And Watch The Worst Movie Ever Made (HarperCollins)

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