Creepzone

I highly suggest you spend it with director Dave DeCoteau because homeboy can make 72 minutes feel like years! It is post-apocalypse 1998 and a group of five Army deserters (including Linnea Quigley and Ashlyn Gere) find shelter from the acid rain inside an abandoned medical test facility. Bad news as this houses some big ass monster that likes to tear people apart. Oh, and a shower. This low-rent sci-fi horror is like ALIEN and ALIENS but on a budget of a few thousand. In the positive department, DeCoteau knows how to properly get exploitation material (nudity, gore, slime, mutant rats) up on the screen. The downside is there isn't really much else. The end has the hero (Richard Hawkins) confronting the monster alone and I swear he lets the thing sneak up on him about 50 times. To make matters worse, Creepozoid dies but immediately produces some mutant baby Creepozoid, Jr. that proceeds to sneak up on our hero 25 times before he strangles it with its umbilical cord.

There's not a lot you can say about Creepozoids, it's really just a rip-off of Alien with an extremely trashy feel. The lighting is poor and the pace is a little slow. However there's some mildly amusing scenes scattered throughout, mostly towards the end when you get to see the monster and the "baby". The monster effects are actually quite decent considering the obvious low budget. I laughed a few times, especially when the guy throws the baby off himself, and also when the monster is apparently holding him up in the air - it's obvious that he's attached to a harness from the ceiling. There's also a few funny scenes involving giant "rats" that look like puppets. Oh, and one of the girls bares her breasts.

Creepozoids isn't a total waste of time, but it's not something you'll want to go out of your way to find either.

In the near future, a group of Army deserters take shelter in an abandoned building to hide from acid rain and the two world superpowers remaining (presumably the United States and Russia, though I do not recall the film being specific). What is locked inside the building, however, may be even more deadly than the war raging on outside.

"Creepozoids" is probably one of the most under-rated films of the late 1980s. While it is true that the plot is a bit thin, the acting average and the special effects not overly stunning, it doesn't deserve the low rating it tends to receive. IMDb, for example, gives this film a paltry 2.2 -- yet, I can say with confidence I've seen countless 5/10 films that were far worse and much less entertaining. This film has a certain B-movie fun factor to it that really provides a lot of charm.

What will probably draw most people to this film is the appearance of Linnea Quigley. And if you're looking for more of her clothes-free scream queening (if "Return of the Living Dead" isn't enough), this film will be right up your alley -- even in a world with contaminated water and rodents of unusual size, Linnea finds the time to have a steamy, sexy shower scene.

The Guy Moon score is cheesy but effective. The effects department... that's a bit odd. We have an alien in a rubber suit. Large rats that don't move at all unless a victim throws them. And a metal tunnel that is only filmed on two of the four sides, making it appear that the person crawling through it is merely low along the wall and not actually in a vent. If the budget was a concern, I think they saved a few dollars along the way.

I really did enjoy the film, though. At a short 70 minutes, the pace is quick and leaves little time to lose interest. Some of the bad dialog can be excused, and despite the fact many people have called this film derivative of "Alien", I just don't see it. I saw much more in common with splatter-melt flicks such as "Street Trash" or "Demons". In this department, the effects were top-notch.

I may be alone on this, but I'd love for Full Moon (or anyone) to release a special edition of this film, perhaps for its 25th anniversary in 2012. An audio commentary with the director and Linnea Quigley would be welcome, and if any outtakes, behind the scenes or cut shots exist, these might be of interest. I really found this to be a good example of an enjoyable film made on the cheap, far more fun and entertaining than bigger Full Moon flicks like "Puppet Master".

I understand why the rating is so low. This really has quite a few issues and flaws in a few departments. Actually the director himself will admit to that (listen to the audio commentary). Anything wrong with this or whatever you feel does not work, he is taking responsibility for it. Now that is someone who can self reflect (even if he apparently wasn't able to do that back in the day).

All that aside and really considering this being a low budget movie, it can be fun to watch. It has decent special effects (again budget taken into account), horror, suspense and even some love making! Go in with low expectation and the very restricted movie/location will entertain you.

I remember seeing this film some years back. CREEPOZOIDS features some horrendous acting, and some obviously cable-controlled monsters. I also recall the shower scene with Quigley, which although gratuitous, is a welcome break from boredom.

It seems Dave DeCoteau thought he was making a tightly-wound sci-fi thriller. But the pace is so languid that any sense of suspense is lost within the first few minutes. We are just waiting for the cast to get devoured. And its a long wait.

CREEPOZOIDS is the kind of film that is "so-bad-that-you-never-want-to-watch-it-again". And, needless to say, I haven't. Unless you are a Quigley fan, avoid this bit of cheap pond scum.