Fred Dekker on Slither’s similarities to Night of the Creeps

Fangoria has posted a brief article in which writer-director Fred Dekker comments on the apparent similairties between his own debut feature NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and writer-director James Gunns’ recent box office bomb SLITHER. Not surprinsingly, Dekker is reluctant to accuse Gunn of plagiarism, because “I don’t believe there’s anything particularly original about NIGHT OF THE CREEPS…”

For some reason, the article also insists that Dekker is “a very powerful man” because “All the people who write for Ain’t It Cool News…love THE MONSTER SQUAD” (Dekker’s other ’80s homage to familiar horror). While it feels nice to indulge in blogger triumphalism, one should never get so swept up in it as to forget that no amount of championing by a small cult contingency is ever going to overcome the fact that MONSTER SQUAD (like CREEPS and Dekker’s other feature film, ROBOCOP 3) failed to make a dent at the box office. Not that box office equates with talent, but it does equate with power, for better or worse.