Sci-Fi Stew.

This week's VHS is David DeCoteau's 1987 post apocalyptic creature feature Creepozoids.

A band of deserters take shelter in an abandoned research facility only to discover they may not be alone.

Wrapping up Women In Horror Month, I decided to watch a movie starring one of the genre's favourite daughters, Linnea Quigley. Creepozoids was the first of many of her collaborations with DeCoteau. I thought I had watched this movie as a teen, but I remembered nothing if it so it's possible I was confusing it with Shadowzone, the first Full Moon flick I ever saw. Truth be told, considering how similar the box art is to 1981's Galaxy of Terror, I'm surprised I didn't get my wires crossed there either.

Linnea Quigley as Bianca in Creepozoids.

Even at a lean seventy-two minutes, Creepozoids still seemed like the bulk of it was the characters wandering around looking for stuff. It was clearly made on the cheap, but the money went in all the right places so I can't really complain. When I say “right places” I naturally mean the effects, as they were abundant, ranging from hilarious giant rats to bad-ass mutant babies.

Actually, speaking of rats, Creepozoids reminded me of Bruno Mattei's Rats: Night of Terror as much as it did its obvious influence, Alien. Of course, Rats was much more colourful, sleazy and, what's the word... oh yeah, problematic. As for that dope mutant baby that just shows up at the end like some sort of wonderful bonus level, I was racking my brain trying to remember if it was ever recycled in a later Full Moon production. Maybe Baby Oopsie Daisy from Demonic Toys?

I digress. It was a little hard to get a handle on what the Creepozoids (technically Creepozoid) were actually doing in this movie, as their actions and motives were a little unclear. I mean, sometimes it would kill, sometimes it would drag characters back to its lair for unknown reasons and sometimes it would just throw people around Evil Dead style.

As for Linnea Quigley, she lasted a lot longer than I was expecting. It was even getting to the point that I thought she might mak-- oh wait uh oh, guess not. Lastly, I just want to make note that this movie's apocalypse happened in 1992, just five years after this was made. Geez, bleak outlook, DeCoteau.

Creepozoids is a perfect example of stuff that was getting cranked out for the horror market in the mid-to-late eighties. It's by no means a memorable affair, but it has its moments and was enough to entertain – it certainly made me laugh out loud a few times – for its perfectly unassuming length. It's all just part of the winning formula that made Empire and Full Moon so successful.