Night of the Creeps Blu-ray Review

Remastered, the ’80s cult classic comes alive on Blu-ray.

LIGHT:  
Night of the Creeps makes the leap to digital media with a 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer that is a bit of a surprise on Blu-ray.

Whereas other low-budget ’80s horror titles, such as Evil Dead II and Creepshow, received nothing more than upscaled DVD transfers, Night of the Creeps has been completely restored.

And it shows.

Complimented by a surprisingly clean and detailed transfer, Sony has masterfully removed a lot of the more pronounced grain from the previous home video release. Flesh tones look natural, blacks are deep and the picture is extraordinarily clean.

Night of the Creeps actually proves to be good looking film, considering its age and film stock.

Director of photography Robert New seamlessly blends the retro black-and-white feel of the opening credits with the more colorful, albeit dated look of the ’80s with his wonderful visuals. Despite the budget, Dekker and New faithfully recreate the vintage look of similar films from their youth.

The overall presentation comes together to form a surprisingly good looking Blu-ray that will please genre enthusiasts and older fans.

VIBRATION:  
Great sound design, a necessity for any horror film, is thankfully reinforced with a Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that belies its age.

Night of the Creeps just sounds that good.

All channels are efficiently used, creating a dynamic sound stage that immerses the audience with alien noises, ambient sound and other things that go bump in the night.

Directional audio is expertly used, from the opening sequence aboard the spacecraft to the film’s riveting climax.

Composer Barry De Vorzon contributes a mooted score, one that just kind of falls in place and never threatens to give your subwoofer a workout. That said, it never overpowers the crisp dialogue track, nor does it create a bombastic collision of sound during the climax.

Not that Night of the Creeps is a reference track, because its age simply does not allow for the level of acoustic clarity that is standard from modern day dialogue tracks, but it sounds great nevertheless.

In fact, it is rather difficult not to be impressed with the effort put into the audio presentation, especially for a film as old and obscure as Night of the Creeps.

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