The Latester and Greatester Night Of the Creeps

Night Of the Creeps came out right on the cusp of me getting a blu-ray player. So it's one of those last titles I bought the DVD of instead, and then quietly regretted it for years. I'd keep looking up online blu-ray prices online every so often, hoping it would suddenly go on sale for some bargain basement price... Who wants to double-dip on a DVD they just bought new for a simultaneous release with no new features or anything? But it was also annoying being stuck with the standard def version of a favorite horror film I'd grown up on since I was a kid. Well, finally, Umbrella Entertainment has come along with a brand new blu-ray edition, which isn't all that far beyond the Sony's 2009 blu-ray. But it is an improvement, the best edition yet, and that was enough for me to shake loose the old DVD.

Update 5/1/16 - 8/19/19: Another new edition??  Yes, Scream Factory has picked up Night Of the Creeps so they could release it this summer with a giant action figure or whatever.  Or you can also just buy their new 2-disc set by itself... but would you want to?  It's Update Week, so there's literally no better time to find out!

Update 4/2/25: Scream Factory circles back around to bring us Creeps in 4k.  It's a proper UHD release, with a couple new extras to boot, but they dropped something significant.

Night Of the Creeps is pure crazy, 80's fun. Slugs from outer space turn a bunch of college students into homicidal zombies. It's full of fun set pieces and shifting tones, but it never loses sight of its characters, or stepping too far into the comedy that it stops being effective as a horror film. Tom Atkins steals the show as a Mike Hammer-esque detective who's finally gone off the deep end, but the three young leads, including European Vacation's Jason Lively, are all charming and well-rounded enough to carry the heart of the picture. Round that off with a great supporting cast, including Dick Miller and David Paymer, a catchy soundtrack, clever script and the special effects work of KNB, and you've got yourself a genuinely great movie.

It's a delicate balancing act that takes some serious talent to pull off, but first time director Fred Dekker rises to the challenge. He went on to create another masterful blend of humor, heart and horror with Monster Squad, but that one's a little too kiddie for me. It's like a well made Disney film; I can appreciate how well made it is on all these different levels, and even laugh at some of the jokes; but give me something a little edgier and more adult. And in fact he already had given it in Night Of the Creeps. Unfortunately his third film, Robocop 3, was a colossal misfire and he hasn't directed since.  It's such a shame, because the world could've used a string of similar, smart and atmospheric cult films over the past two decades.

And he has started making a bit of a comeback working with Shane Black, co-writing a TV movie called Edge and the latest Predator sequel/ reboot, The Predator.  Okay, that one didn't turn out quite as many of us had hoped, but most recently he's done a short film called Dent that's fun and weird in the best way.  Somebody give this man another shot at a feature!

Night Of the Creeps took forever to come out on DVD; especially for such a beloved cult title. This was one of those titles where the laserdisc kept going for good money, because it was still the best release there was, well into the 2000s. I remember being really excited to find a bootleg of a high quality TV rip that also included the original ending, which was different than the one that had played on cable and VHS for all these years. So when the special edition DVD/ blu-ray was finally announced for 2009, with a heap of extras and the original ending restored, I was through the moon. And even more so when it turned out to be the official debut of Dekker's Director's Cut, with the original ending (and that's the only difference, by the way, between it and the regular theatrical cut). So I've got that DVD for us today. Then even better, I've got Umbrella's 2016 region B blu-ray special edition (which is also of the Director's Cut), with a little something extra over the US Sony blu.  Still not enough?  Okay, how about Scream Factory's latest 2019 2-disc BD set?  It's two discs because they include the director's cut and the theatrical cut, which includes the other ending most of us grew up on.  And finally, we've got Scream Factory's (mostly) upgraded 4k restoration on UHD.  One thing, though, Scream's done what they've been making a habit of lately, and dropping the additional cut that they'd originally included on their 4k upgrade.  So now we get the director's cut, but that's it.  No more theatrical.

Well, at least this time they picked the right cut.

1) 2009 Sony DVD; 2) 2009 Sony BD; 3) 2016 Umbrella BD;
4) 2019 Scream Factory theatrical BD; 5) 2019 Scream Factory director's BD;
6) 2025 Scream Factory BD; 7) 2025 Scream Factory UHD.

So we see that these subsequent Umbrella and Scream Factory blu-rays, at least until 2025, are essentially the same as the Sony.  Same framing (slightly matted to 1.85:1), same colors... same original master. And that's alright, because Sony made a pretty high quality release the first go around, so we weren't exactly gasping for an improvement.  Of course, they both trump the DVD, as there's naturally a compression difference. Detail is much clearer and more accurate here, with visible film grain as opposed to the digital mushiness on the DVD.  There's a bit more of a shift on Scream Factory than there was between Sony and Umbrella, but it's hard to declare one objectively better or worse than the others, and it's the kind of distinction you'll only see in zoomed-in screenshots anyway.

But in 2025, Scream Factory went back to the OCN for an all new 4k scan, and... even then it's not hugely different.  While still 1.85:1, you can see that the framing has shifted slightly in some shots.  Above, for instance, you'll notice the tops of the Ts are now visible in that "BETAS ARE BETTER" sign in the second set of shots.  And the colors have been adjusted.  In the first set of shots, you can watch that middle guy's sweatshirt turn more orange, and in general a purplish hue has been pulled to give more natural whites and greys.  That's a subtle improvement.  And the resolution is smarter.  Even just comparing the two BDs, edges are cleaner and grain goes from mushy to sharp.  And on the UHD, every speck of grain is fully accounted for, something you couldn't say for the earlier transfer, as impressive as it was for its time.  The upgrade may not be enough to make casual fans feel the spring for a new edition, but it is unquestionably an upgrade, so purists should be pleased.

There's an important distinction in the audio department, as well.  Sony's DVD, Sony's BD and Umbrellas BD, all feature a remixed 5.1 track, with the latter two in lossless DTS-HD.  Scream Factory (on their 2019 and 2025 editions) has the same track, too, but they're also the first to restore the original stereo track, in DTS-HD as well.  So that's pretty sweet.  All five sets also have optional English subtitles.

And now it's time to talk extras! Sony's release (both their DVD and blu have all the same bonus content) is pretty packed. There are two audio commentaries, one by Fred Dekker and one by the four lead actors, the latter of which is fun but pretty light on content. Every time Steve Marshall starts to an anecdote or bit of information, the rest of the cast interrupts him to keep laughing and kidding around. Then there's a great hour-long documentary, which is broken up into five sections and winds up interviewing pretty much everybody involved including Dekker, producer Charles Gordon, stars Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins & Steve Marshall, editor Michael Knue, effects artists Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman & David Miller, and composer Barry De Vorzon. Then there's a featurette just dedicated to talking with Tom Atkins about his entire filmography, film by film. Then there are several deleted scenes used in the extended television version, plus the alternate ending most of us were familiar with before the director's cut. Plus there's a subtitle trivia track and the original theatrical trailer.

A shot from Dekker's incomplete film, Baton.

All of that, right down to the trivia track, has been carried over to the Umbrella release. All it's missing are a couple of autoplay bonus trailers and an annoying commercial for blu-rays. But it has one really nice new addition. It's a 32 minute HD featurette called Creator Of the Creeps, and it's primarily a sit-down interview with Dekker. This was made more recently than the other extras, but yes, he does cover a lot of the same ground he does on his commentary and in the documentary. But he has some new stuff, too, including his script for House. And one of the best parts is that, in both his previous commentary and interview on the doc, he talks about how a lot of the ideas and a couple of the lead characters for Night came from an independent science fiction film he started shooting but never finished called Baton. He only shot about five minutes of it, he says, but we get to see some of it for the first time here in this feature. So it's a little redundant, but still a pretty great new feature, and it's exclusive to this release. Umbrella's blu also has reversible cover art, with the original art shown above and this crazy original piece [right] on the reverse. Both of Sony's covers suck, so Umbrella gets an extra point there, too.

Horror's Hallowed Ground rocks!

But then a new contender came to town.  Scream Factory has everything from the Sony release, except technically for bonus trailers and the alternate ending, because of course, they have the entire second disc with that ending attached to their theatrical cut.  Then, they've also come up with a whole bunch of new stuff.  Mostly what they've added is a series of upbeat HD on-camera interviews, with Jason Lively, Alan Kayser who played The Bradster, Ken Heron who played the 50's kid who becomes the first zombie, Vic Polizos who played the coroner, Killer Klowns' star Suzanne Snyder, who played a bit part as a sorority sister, and editor Michael Knue.  They're all tightly edited and include many people left out of the documentary, so these are very rewarding additions.  Then there's a brand new episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds, where they revisit almost all of the film locations, with Dekker and Lively showing up to add some additional backstory.  This version also includes reversible artwork and a slipcover that finally uses the classic cover art.  Kudos to Scream for not sticking us with more cheap comic book art.  If you look at all the covers up top of this page, you can watch the artwork slowly evolve from terrible to excellent.

Oh, and of course, you could've sprung for the deluxe limited edition version with the 8" action figure, plus a (rolled, not folded) poster and second slip cover.  About the only thing it doesn't have is Umbrella's still-exclusive Creator Of the Creeps.

And in 2025, yes, Scream carries over everything from before and adds even more, though honestly, it feels like they're stretching now.  First up is an audio commentary, which is almost more of a fan commentary than an expert one, by two younger filmmakers.  They engage in a lot of casual small talk and delve into some cliche commentary sand-traps like debating physical special effects versus CGI.  A lot of the info they provide is taken directly from the preexisting special features, and they get some things wrong in the transition.  But on the plus side, they have Suzanne Snyder along with them.  As you can imagine, she can't carry a whole commentary by herself, seeing as how she only has roughly 20 seconds of screentime in this.  But she has some good memories and a good attitude, so the three of them provide an easy listening experience, even if we're not learning anything new at this point.

And while they still don't have Umbrella's Creator Of the Creeps, they've conducted their own exclusive interview with Dekker called A New Breed of Terror, which runs just about as long.  And while they've ditched the theatrical cut, they did throw in that ending as a deleted scene.  This new release comes in a slipcover, too, which is better than those old ugly covers, but as good as the classic artwork from their last slip.  You could get a second, alternate slipcover (but it's worse) if you ordered it direct from Shout, which also would've netted you two posters and yes, another 8" Detective Cameron action figure, this time decked out in his white formal-wear dance attire from the famous dream sequence.

So yeah, we can no longer complain that Night Of the Creeps isn't well represented on home video.  I didn't recommend replacing your Sony blu for the Umbrella just for their one featurette, but now in 2025, there's no question which is the definitive version, and I think we've progressed enough now that it's worth upgrading to the UHD.  Getting both cuts in 4k would've been ideal, but this is the next best thing, with the preferable cut in 4k, the alternate ending as an extra, the most features and both audio tracks.

Ozploitation Classics: Inn Of the Damned and Night Of Fear

I know it seems like I've been on the Umbrella bandwagon lately, but what can I say? They've been putting out some good stuff. And today's DVD is actually a very old DVD (2005) that's just been reissued, possibly to cash in on a little attention Code Red is drumming up. This is the double feature of two of Australia's earliest horror films by Terry Bourke: Inn Of the Damned and Night of Fear. It's just been released here in the US last month by Code Red, but you might rather import this month's edition from Umbrella instead.  We've already looked at one of Bourke's subsequent horror films, Lady Stay Dead, which debuted on blu-ray from Code Red last year. And you can definitely feel touches of the same director's hand in these two films, though all three are very distinct.

Update 5/11/16 - 11/26/22: I kind of like updating these very early posts from 2015 to 20166, because it gives me a chance to rewrite them so they're more in keeping with the style I've developed here over the years. But I like it even better because it means we've gotten a long-awaited new release, as in this case where Umbrella has updated both films to blu with all new special features - woot!

1974's Inn Of the Damned is a Western horror, set in the Australian 1800s rather than the American. You get a lot of shifting tones for each act, like you did in Lady Stay Dead, this time switching between a classical-style western and a horror almost like they're two different films with the same characters. The plot, however, very cleverly interweaves them. Australian troopers are having a hard time keeping the peace, so they bring in an American bounty hunter (played by American actor Alex Cord) to play a little tougher with the locals. But none of them suspect that the bulk of their unsolved murders might be taking place at a quiet, little out of the way inn run by Dame Judith Anderson, who's hiding a whole collection of dark secrets.

So yeah, this film goes rather deftly from quiet suspense in a dark old house to high riding action with horses and stage coaches racing through some really impressive locations. If you're looking for lots of blood and Grand Guignol kills, this probably isn't the film for you... although there are one or two nice payoff scenes towards the end. The soundtrack is also a bit clunky, especially when it plays overly comic music over scenes that are actually being played more naturally. Some cinematic influences are also pretty heavy-handed and the last five to ten minutes lose all sense of pace. But it's a good story (possibly based in part on the infamous Bender family of Kansas), well acted and the production values are really high for such an apparently low budget film. I liked this film even more the second time I watched it than the first, which is a very good sign particularly for a horror film.

Night Of Fear, then, was actually made first, in 1972. Unbelievably, it was originally produced and intended for Australian television, as the pilot for a proposed series called Fright. But when you see how dark and shocking it is, you can understand why they wound up rejecting it, and Australian censors even initially banned it from playing in cinema. Not that it's X-rated or anything close to it, but it's a pretty unrelenting, wordless film very much in the line of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which of course this preceded. I say "wordless," because there is no dialogue at all in this hour long film (well, technically there's one), where a killer terrorizes a woman for nearly the entire running time. It's essentially just about the experience of terror.

Sorry, Intruder, it looks like somebody did it first!

But it's a little clunky. Think of other early, cult horror like Eraserhead or Night Of the Living Dead, which has that weird dichotomy of an almost amateur feel to it on one hand. And those two films I've compared this one to are classics, which this isn't. It veers near them at times, and has some great imagery and production values. Plus, its star Carla Hoogeveen (who also had a secondary role in Inn Of the Damned) is convincingly at the end of her rope through most of this film. But even at under an hour, the pace drags, with the camera seemingly determined to give each item of set dressing its own, lengthy close-up. And some of the extras at the end seem to be trying acting for the very first time. Both films actually feature the same move at one point, where a killer chops someone lying in front of them with a big axe, and then it cuts to a solid red frame, which is kind of cool but kind of artificial and jarring. So it's an interesting film and I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone expecting a slick entertainment. This is more for the people who attend midnight screenings and collect off-beat VHS tapes.

2016 Umbrella DVD top; 2022 Umbrella BD bottom.

The back cover of the DVD lists Night as 1.66:1 and Inn as 1.85:1, but they're really about 1.69:1 and 1.78:1, respectively.  Now, the BD has clearly made some changes framing-wise.  They've matted Inn to actual 1.85:1, and while Night is still 1.69:1, they've zoomed in tighter this go around.  Otherwise, the DVD was already pretty good: 16x9, non-interlaced, richly colored and clearly taken from a film source. There's occasional dirt and debris, but not to the point of being distracting.  The blu-rays now, well, as you can see in the first two pairs of shots, some of the debris (in this case white flecks) have been cleaned up.  Though as you can see in the third set of shots, some has gotten a little worse, so I suppose it's a tie on that front.  The colors are definitely better separated (the DVDs have a light red cast over them that's been removed) now, so that's a clear improvement.  The increase in clarity with the higher res is real, too, probably more obviously with Inn.  So these are some solid upgrades if not showroom floor HD.

Both films have standard but clean and robust Dolby 2.0 audio tracks, bumped up to DTS-HD on the blu.  The DVD has no subtitle options, but the BD adds them for Inn (not for Night, even though there are a couple of spoken sentences).

So here in the US, the Code Red DVD was barebones, but the Umbrella disc (both the 2005 and 2016 editions) feature full length audio commentaries. Inn of the Damned has producer Rod Hay and actor Tony Bonner giving a very enthusiastic and informative history of the film. Then Night Of Fear has a slightly more defensive Rod Hay commenting with an anonymous moderator and star Hoogeveen (who repeatedly begs them to cut one scene out of the film when it appears on screen!). There's also a cool stills gallery of articles, posters and behind the scenes photos for both films. I usually pass over stills galleries, but I found this one pretty interesting. And there's the trailer for each film, plus some bonus trailers for four other "ozploitation" flicks.

And the BD turns this into even more of a special edition.  The excellent commentaries are still here, but now there's plenty more.  For starters, there's about 45 minutes worth of previously unreleased interviews, filmed for Not Quite Hollywood, with Hay, Hoogeveen (still arguing to have that scene removed!), and fellow Night actors Norman Yemm and Briony Behets, which are first rate.  Then there's a complete episode of Spyforce, which Bourke directed, and stars another cast member from Inn Of the Damned.  It's surprisingly good, and has an introduction by Spyforce star Jack Thompson.  and critic Paul Harris gives us a very informative and engaging video essay overview of Bourke's filmography... even if he fails to appreciate the writing of Lady Stay Dead.  There's also a trailer reel of Bourke's films, which the box says is "introduced by Terry Bourke," which is flat-out untrue.  Bourke has been dead for twenty years, and what I guess they're referring to is a vintage film clip of Bourke promoting one of his early films that they've stuck into the reel[pictured above].  I'm glad to get that clip, but it's not what we were promised.  Anyway, the trailers for the two films are still here (separate from the reel), and the photo gallery has now been broken up into two, divided by film.  This release also comes in a slip cover and includes an exclusive poster if you pre-ordered it direct from Umbrella.

So I was happy when Umbrella re-issued these on DVD, but I'm much happier now that they've really done them justice with a packed special edition on blu.  It's a very satisfying package, rewarding even if you're not a huge fan of either of these films in particular.  But you'll also probably come away with a greater appreciation of them after all this, so you might end up a proper fan anyway if you give this a chance, which you absolutely should.

Lunatics: A Love Story, On DVD At L(e)ast

High on the list of movies that are still in desperate need of some kind of DVD or blu-ray release (there wasn't even a laserdisc!) is Josh Becker's Lunatics: A Love Story from 1992. But technically, strictly speaking, if you're really going to get picky and split hairs about it, you should know that there is sorta kinda actually an at least semi-official DVD release of it. It's sold exclusively through Becker's site. I mean, it's a DV-R, not a pressed DVD; but hey, if Warner Archives can do it...

Update 2/12/15 - 12/27/18: It's finally here: a genuine, official release of the film!  But it's DVD only?  What's up with that?

In recent years, we've seen excellent special edition blu-rays of the early Evil Dead team's works... (Night Of) The Intruder and Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except from Synapse, Crimewave from Shout Factory, all three of which had also been issued many other times by many other companies. Code Red even gave us The Carrier.  And These blus are great releases in terms of restoring and presenting the film (well, except for the big screw up on The Carrier, but that's a whole other post), in terms of terrific extras, and in terms of just being fun indie movies. I'm very happy to have them in my collection. But I honestly think anybody who enjoys any of those films would get at least twice the kick out of Becker's Lunatics. It's got higher production values than a lot of them, A more engaging cult-film oriented story with likeable characters, and stars Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell. So where's Lunatic's special blu?

Lunatics has a bit of a Psychos In Love premise, where two completely deranged lunatics wind up meeting and falling in love. But instead of being psycho killers, this is a pair of sweet, harmless loonies, who just face a ton of external problems dealing with the world. Raimi is a paranoid and completely delusional poet who covers his apartment in tinfoil to try to fend off his delusions of evil surgeons (mostly played by Bruce Campbell), rappers (played by the legit hip-hop crew Detroit's Most Wanted, who rap aggressively at him in his mind) and nightmarish spiders. He winds up crossing path with the ultra sweet Deborah Foreman, who seems to good to be true except for the fact that she's completely neurotic and possibly cursed after being dumped by her heel of an ex, also played by Bruce Campbell (essentially his Crimewave character reprised). A large part of the fun of this movie is seeing the world through Raimi's eyes, where his wild delusions are as real as anything else, and the lengths he'll ultimately go for a totally deranged romance. It's full of creative shots, like Raimi seeing his couch extend to a crazy length, separating him from Foreman. In other words, it's a charming rom-com where our hero just happens to have to take a baseball bat to fight a giant stop-motion spider that only exists in his mind to get the girl.

Instead, until just this year, our only option in the US or abroad was this DV-R Josh Becker sells to tide fans over while we wait, and wait, and wait. But if Becker had any kind of quality source materials for this film, he hasn't used them here. I mean, just look at the menu to get an idea of how no-frills this DVD is.

All that's finally changed, however, right?  Umbrella Entertainment has finally put Lunatics out as a proper special edition DVD, with commentary by the director and an interview with Bruce Campbell!  Or, at least, that's what was originally listed on their website.  Then they revised the page to say it was barebones and 4:3.  And say what you will about the DV-R's menu, this one doesn't even have a menu at all.  So just what have we got here?

What a great special effect - he has no face! Oh... it's not supposed to be like that?
201? Becker Films DV-R top; 2018 Umbrella Films DVD bottom.

Next you'll tell me that Bruce isn't supposed to be a hologram in this scene...

The Becker disc doesn't even come in a case; you just get a plain paper envelope with the disc inside, which at least has a nice label, I guess. But let's talk quality. It looks like it was recorded off of television onto a VHS tape, and then transferred to digital using a dodgy process with a pull-down issue adding interlace ghosting to some of the soft, murky frames. A "Love Stories" watermark even pops up intermittently throughout the film, showing us that this was taped off of the Encore channel.

So, given that, Umbrella's disc is a substantial improvement.  The image is unfortunately sourced from tape (which explains why they didn't make a blu), but given that, it looks about as good as it can.  It's soft and low on detail, but still substantially clearer and sharper than the DV-R.  The colors are much more accurate without that green haze plaguing the previous version, and the blacks are deeper.  The interlacing is corrected, and while they're both fullscreen, Umbrella's disc adds a few slivers of extra picture.  And of course, there's no ridiculous "Love Stories" watermark.

Umbrella just gives us a basic Dolby 2.0 mix, but it's fine, and clearer than the Becker Films disc. It has no subtitles or any kind of feature, not even the trailer... which Umbrella links on their own site, so why couldn't they at least slap that on here?

 

One small plus side is that Becker signs the discs if you ask him when ordering. So at least the DV-R could be a bit of a collector's item, and since it just came in a paper sleeve, you can just slip it in the Umbrella case.  Because, as disappointing as Umbrella's DVD is, it's certainly rendered the old version obsolete.  And I guess, since we're looking at a video tape source, that's all the rights owner has access to?  Assuming that's the case, this'll be the best we ever get.  So I recommend Umbrella's DVD since it's a movie well worth owning, and the official pressed disc is at least watchable... just so long as you know what to expect in terms of quality.