Creepozoids (1987)
★★ — Creepozoids (1987)
By the late 1980s, the post-apocalyptic science fiction horror hybrid had become its own reliable little cottage industry in American low-budget filmmaking. Films like this one sat comfortably at the grungier end of the video rental shelf, designed less for the cinema and more for the kind of Friday night where you and a few mates pick up a tape based purely on the cover art. Creepozoids, released in 1987 and clocking in at a lean 72 minutes, fits that description about as well as anything you could name. The premise is pleasingly no-frills: five army deserters, wandering a post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles where even the rain has turned toxic, take shelter in an abandoned research facility and, predictably, find something considerably worse waiting for them inside. The tagline, "Your flesh will crawl right off your bones!", does not exactly promise a night at the theatre, and Creepozoids has no interest in pretending otherwise.
The film was produced under the banner of Empire Pictures, the low-budget genre outfit that punched above its weight throughout the 1980s (and which also had a hand in Re-Animator, if you want a rough sense of the stable). Directing duties fell to David DeCoteau, who was at this point in his career a reliable workhorse of the straight-to-video horror circuit, turning out genre pictures quickly and cheaply with a certain workmanlike consistency. At 72 minutes, there is very little fat on the running time, which is either a mercy or a missed opportunity depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing. The production is functional rather than inspired, though the 1980s synth score, very much of its moment, gives the whole thing a bit more atmosphere than it might otherwise deserve.
The cast is headed by Linnea Quigley, who by 1987 had already established herself as one of the defining faces of 1980s genre horror, and who brings the same committed, game energy she always did to material that rarely gave her much to work with. She is joined by Ken Abraham, Michael Aranda, Ashlyn Gere, and Richard L. Hawkins, a group of mostly familiar-to-genre-fans faces who were clearly brought in knowing exactly what kind of film they were making. Nobody is here under any illusions. If you have spent any time on the rougher edges of 1980s horror, as covered in places on this site with pieces on films like The Serpent and the Rainbow and Homework, you will already have a reasonable sense of the territory.
Utter grindhouse trash. Which isn't all bad. I do have to commend some of these 80s grindhouse movies. You can tell the budget was tiny and what they achieved with that was pretty impressive. That and the awesome 80s synth soundtrack. That's where it ends. Acting, scripting, special effects... they're all horrible lol I do have a soft spot for grindhouse films
And honestly, that soft spot is well earned. There is something weirdly endearing about films like this one, made with next to nothing by people who clearly just wanted to get something on tape and into rental shops as fast as possible. The synth score, as I mentioned, is the genuine highlight, the kind of moody, bubbling electronic work that dates the film precisely but also gives it a texture that bigger productions sometimes fail to manage. Everything else is rough as you like, and anyone coming in expecting polish is going to have a bad time. But for those of us who grew up with this stuff, or who found it later and understood what it was going for, Creepozoids is exactly the film it set out to be. Sometimes that's enough.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 1987 | Watched: 2025-05-18
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Creepozoids (1987) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Full Moon Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
