The Creeps

If while flipping through the channels and you spend more than 15 seconds identifying the quality of this film, you have a serious problem. A mad scientist summons four midget monsters and must sacrifice a young, naked, virgin, female librarian to take over the - oh, you get the idea.

As textbook b-comedy (with a hint of horror) as you get. This is one of those films with such a low budget that the viewer has no sense of geometry in any scene; you know, where everything takes place in the same room but you really have no idea where camera angle A is in the room in relationship to angle B. Neither the script nor the actors nor the director nor the composer take what they're doing seriously. It's *very* obvious, trust me.

I could go through a list what's bad about the film (both unintentional and intentional), but I don't see any point. Fans of crappy films will have fun with this, but anyone taking anything seriously won't. As for me, it was late, I was tired, and I watched Feardotcom . . . then it was *really* late, I was *really* tired, and I fell asleep during The Creeps.

A monster movie, but with little people. The front cover pretty much sums it up ... dwarf versions of the classic Universal horror monsters groping a half-naked busty young woman (who, incidentally, doesn't appear in the movie). Tasteless? Well, that goes without saying ...

Considering it's short overall length and it's fun tongue-in-cheek approach, this movie does take quite a while to get going. In the story, a nervous mad scientist is stealing first editions of various great horror books, in order to bring the archetypes to life with an ingenious machine. He wants to bring back Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Werewolf and the Mummy, and so needs to get first editions of the definitive books on these monsters. He succeeds, but something goes wrong during the creation and they end up around four feet tall. Ha! Anyway, a librarian and a wannabe detective become mixed up in this plot, and decide they must foil his plans.

For a low-budget B-movie, the acting isn't that bad here. Most of the cast appear to be very competent comedic actors, and that of course helps to make the whole thing more enjoyable. As for the monsters, a couple of them appear to have been cast right off the street which works okay because there's only one speaking role -- Dracula. Dracula is played by Phil Fondacaro, who like Warwick Davis got his start playing one of the ewoks in "Return of the Jedi", and since then you might have recognised him in films like "Willow" and "Meridian". He plays the part very well, acting it completely straight and letting the other comedians play off against him.

"The Creeps" was put out by Full Moon Pictures, a horror studio that makes puts out these great little trashy low-budget B-movies (check out their website). It was originally released in 3D, which explains some of the rather odd camera angles. The production values are actually very good -- the monster makeup for the most part looks really great, and in fact for genre fans that alone almost makes this movie worth watching. And in keeping with the Laws Of The B Movie, there is of course one brief scene of nudity.

It's silly and campy and a bit lame, but if you enjoy a good bit of light-hearted B-movie trash then this really isn't that bad at all. And yes, it is a bit creepy.

I stumbled upon the 1997 horror comedy "The Creeps" (aka "Deformed Monsters") by random chance here in 2022. And never having seen it, and it being a horror comedy, of course I had to watch it. Now, it should be said that I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to watching it, so I didn't know what I was in for here.

And when I saw that this was a Charles Band movie I have to admit that I was a bit ambivalent about it, as some of the Full Moon movies from Charles Band have been some duds and swings and misses, while others have been campy and cheesy but still watchable.

Luckily, then "The Creeps" was actually one of the more enjoyable and fun to watch movies from Full Moon, so that was a pleasant surprise. And I have to say that the storyline and the whole concept of having iconic literature (and movie) monsters come to life at half size was as much fun as it was creative. So writer Neal Marshall Stevens definitely managed to churn out something interesting with "The Creeps".

The storyline was good, campy and cheesy for sure, but it just worked out on a satisfying level, and that made the movie all the more enjoyable and watchable.

Of all the cast that performed in the movie then I was only familiar with Phil Fondacaro (playing Dracula). But I will say that the cast they had for this movie actually put on good performances and carried the movie quite well.

As for "The Creeps" being a horror comedy, then you have to bear in mind that the comedy is not the type that will make you laugh. Nay, the comedy here is subtle and sort of just is there as a layer pulled over the horror aspect of the movie. So if you are expecting a movie full of laughs and funny situations, then you will be disappointed.

I was actually genuinely entertained by this movie, and as such then I am rating "The Creeps" a six out of ten stars. This is definitely one of the better movies from Full Moon.

I was surprised by the total lack of decency in this movie. It's not cool, there are no decent actors, no interesting storyline or captivating direction. It's not even so bad and over the top that it's memorable. It is a totally forgettable film and without any positive side, at least I have not found any.

A goofy mad scientist who havs created a machine that's capable of bringing famous monsters from worlds of literature into reality, does so and he of course screws it up and they come emerge from the smoke half-sized! Isn't that hilarious.. This film is like total garbage it's not even good enough to be classed as trashy fun, it's clearly made on a micro budget and it shows, I'm sure that what little budget there was went on the pretty good monster makeup, but the acting was, apart from one person, absolutely terrible and it's one of the worst efforts by Full Moon that I ever seen, their earlier horror movie output was so much better, the Subspecies movies are a fantastic saga, but the ones this bad were just moronic and irritating. I didn't like the idea of small people actors playing the monsters and how it's playing off the way they are, it just seemed tacky and fundamentally off to me. The part that really made me go "nah" and decide I didn't care for this movie was when the mini Frankenstein and Mummy were 'chasing' the girl around the library, it just seemed awkward and in poor taste as they were floundering after her, all the monsters apart from Phil Fondacaro had virtually nothing to do but shuffle around awkwardly in place, but he kind of wrangled and spoke for all of them and he really made this movie worthwhile, or at least he almost did as the one bright spot in a terrible mess. Fondacaro was by far the best actor in it and I really bought him as a Dracula who happened to be small in stature, he had the dignity he had the imposing glare, the pathos, and I thought he was a great Dracula, he's a great actor I've always thought so in movies like Troll and Willow and even in Ghoulies 2 he played one of the most interesting characters, I'm a big fan I've never looked at him and seen his condition, to me his personality and talent has always shined through, he's always took every part seriously and gave it his all, and it was great to see him in a substantial role that allowed him to chew the scenery like a villain. For what it was it seemed to have genuine love for the Universal Monster movies and for me the best part of the story was nothing action-related, just some dialogue, it was when the captive sacrificial girl gives this really great little speech about why we need monsters and how they live forever as monsters in the original tales and in the imagination, how she spoke it wasn't the best and it comes from out of nowhere but I thought it was a really sweet little moment that was sincere and was written by someone with a real love of scary things and monsters. Very playful and I like the concept but this is a complete cheesefest and unfortunately for me it's good points don't nearly outweigh its shortcomings..oh well, there we go! Sorry.. That's The Creeps, not the most shining gem in the Full Moon repertoire by a long shot but hey a monster mash is always fun X