Creepozoids

Here's the gist of the plot: five rogue soldiers find shelter from acid rains (commonplace since nuclear war broke out between superpower countries) in a scientific installation seemingly built to keep others out and something in...a creature is loose in the building, found nestled quietly in some desolate US city, absent a thriving populace thanks to the trigger happy humankind. The creature's bite causes a bodily reaction where those infected puke black shit, suffer alterations to their genetic make-up, have discolored eyes, and eventually collapse into a mutated heap. Often violent and in agony, the victims eventually succumb to the infection.

Along with the creature is a giant rat (a really lousy prop that the cast do a hell of a lot of work trying to sell as legit) that loves to pop up from time to time to take a chunk out of somebody with the ladies scared out of their wits. Quigley gets star treatment in this diabolical stinker from director David DeCoteau, providing us with the expected shower, this time sharing with her character's beau in the film, played by Ken Abraham. She at least makes it to the end before being lifted up, her face munched on off-screen (we see her feet tremoring, screams, and drips of blood). It isn't a flashy part, but she gets to fight off one of her comrades who has become a mutated psychotic freak (her throat with bit by mutant rat) in a scene.

Richard Hawkins is the hero of the film, the leader of the group with an authority the others uphold despite a world no longer quite stable and in control. The majority of the plot is confined, however, to the building, the film just a bit over 60+ minutes, while we get a sense that so much more turbulence and activity exists away from the setting. The creature is so obviously a man in a suit and DeCoteau carefully tries to shoot around this fact, mostly unsuccessful. Like Jack-O, Creepozoids was part of the "A Little Quigley Goes a Long Way" series, probably the worse of the lot. I can only hope the last two movies (Graduation Day, a revisit, and Whispers from a Shallow Grave) are even remotely better. What might cap this abomination off is the hero's quarrel with a monster baby having split from the creature! Yes, seeing a man choking a monster baby with its umbilical cord was a bit too much for me personally...the monster baby itself was rather impressive, though.

This was something different for Quigley and DeCoteau, a departure from the norm if you will. I wish I could say it was worthwhile, but maybe for junk movie aficionados who just find the bottom rung of the latter appropriately entertaining, Creepozoids might be what the doctor ordered.