10 Best Creature Features Of The 1980s

In Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps, college student Chris accidentally unleashes a cryonic alien zombie on a fraternity, leading to chaos across the neighbourhood.

Just to be clear, Night of the Creeps knows how goofy it is - at one point, a cop blurts out, "Is this a homicide or a bad B-movie?" - but the zomedy is much smarter than it appears. The story deliberately sets up cliched subplots, only to go in a different direction. Even though it looks like the detective on the case and Chris will butt heads, they quickly realise they would work better as a team. And although Chris' best friend serves as the annoying comic relief, he's the one who deduces the Creeps' weakness.

Also, the Creeps don't function like traditional zombies since they're controlled by extra-terrestrial parasites. If the mindless flesh-eaters are killed, the parasites burst out, infecting anybody nearby. As a result, our heroes have to be strategic to defeat these ghouls, which is a nice change of pace for an undead flick.

Night of the Creeps sank without a trace upon its initial release, so it's reassuring to see it being elevated to cult-classic status over the past few years.