On This Day in Horror History: August 22nd – Fred Dekker’s ‘Night of the Creeps’ and Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Mimic’ Arrived in Theaters

Over the years August 22^nd has played host to the premieres of some highly entertaining horror films. At the top of the August 22^nd release list are Night of the Creeps (released in 1986) and Mimic (released 20 year ago in 1997), two unanimous fan-favorite features that differ in great ways, though both are extremely endearing pictures.

Night of the Creeps wasn’t treated to much of a theatrical release, in fact, it only hit 50 screens, and it didn’t spend more than a weekend or so at the box office. Needless to say, it didn’t make a whole lot of money on a commercial level. But then, a stretch of months later, the movie landed on VHS and horror fans completely devoured it. Today, Night of the Creeps is regularly referenced when discussing top films of the 1980s.

And then there’s the great Guillermo del Toro creature feature, Mimic. While Mimic wasn’t setting the box office ablaze, but it did perform significantly better than Night of the Creeps. It was released on 2,255 screens, opened at number four at the box office and eventually slipped from the big screen circuit with a total take of $25 million dollars. Not so surprisingly, Mimic went on to become a major hit on home video.

Night of the Creeps and Mimic have more in common than some may have thought!