Nothing quite says the '80s like a mashup of weird ideas, horror, comedy and science fiction. The neon opening credits accompanied by a score from Barry De Vorzon certainly helps things along. Like Monster Squad this is another iteration of director Fred Dekker's idea to bring a whole bunch of influences into one film, in this case b-movie clichés. So this is zombie story that also includes a prologue involving both a space ship sequence and a serial killer, before it moves into college pranks and then the parasitic creatures right out of Shivers. Throw in a grizzled detective and a bunch of great practical effects and hey a good time starts to form. With so much going on not everything works, but as I'll discuss here it doesn't always matter.
Originally the film makers wanted to shoot the whole thing in black and white, and it's easy to see why. This is another throwback in which a director in the 1980s looks back to their memories of the 1950s, a time of cheap monster movies and alien invaders. From Critters to Matinee this sort of things crops up a lot, and it's usually done with a lot of heart. If nothing else this is a film with plenty of charm, although the overall story is kind of uneven. The opening involves some sort of alien conflict in which a science experiment is ejected into space, only to eventually land on Earth of course. The contents of this sinister phial are parasitic slugs of some kind that turn people into zombies in order to reproduce. Through the human brain. It all makes perfect sense.
Before we get ahead of ourselves however there's also a secondary plot about an axe murderer in the '50s who killed some friends of Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins) when he was younger. It seems that the boyfriend of the victim found the parasites just before the slaughter, and his body was taken away and frozen in a cryogenics lab before anything nastier could happen. Jump forward thirty years and Ray is now a jaded chain smoking detective harbouring a dark secret. What could have happened? And how will all this come back around to those alien worms? Everything does eventually fall into place, however it's the middle section of the story that lets things down as the focus shifts away from him so we can spend time with some dumb college kids.
The usual stuff is all here as Chris (Jason Lively) lusts after Cynthia (Jill Whitlow) the girlfriend of a frat house goon. A bunch of the kids look like they're thirty years old and there's a lot of silly talk about parties and dating; it's pretty typical genre stuff. The characters are all named after horror directors with surnames like James 'J.C.' Carpenter Hooper (Steve Marshall). I guess it's cute but still this is kind of on the nose when it has to be said out loud for the joke to land. Eventually Chris comes up with a plan to impress Cynthia dragging J.C. along to help. Apparently going to a local morgue and stealing a cadaver is the only way to get into the fraternity which her boyfriend is head of... and somehow this will help Chris get lucky with her?
I guess it's not important. The point is that they of course end up at the place where the alien infested corpse is being held. At least all the romantic teen melodrama is broken up by some decent suspense set pieces as things start to go awry. There are lot of creepy crawly effects and exploding heads, and slowly the immediate area is taken over by brain dead parasite hosts. How the creatures work and what they're for is never clear, particularly when bodies that have been long dead and brains that don't even have a body at all become their target. But the overall tone is silly enough for things to keep moving, or at least shambling along.
If only the narrative was more focused on Ray and his depression, but at least the third act really shines as things get much crazier. Eventually the whole fraternity is taken over and Ray and Chris have to team up, resulting in some top class Tom Atkins scenery chewing and a lot of fiery b-movie spectacle. It's cheesy and gruesome in all the ways a monster movie finale should be, and they even throw in an appearance from Dick Miller to complete the whole package. The use of a lawnmower may not be a patch on Braindead, but there's enough shotgun and flamethrower toting action to maintain the variety of gore.
The ending aside this is a fun blend of comedy and splatter that should be viewed by anyone with a passing interest, even if it's just to see what the James Gunn's cult favourite Slither was inspired by. The middle is pretty baggy and there's only so much college dorks versus jocks in-fighting I can take before I start to check out, but overall it delivers in the ways that matter. Besides where else are you going to find alien infested pets and the hammiest and best Tom Atkins performance since Halloween III? His weird dream sequence is worth watching it for alone. It's colourful and overdone and while the different elements don't always form a congruous whole it's never dull for any lasting stretches.
3/5
