Slither Review

Written by: jamhorner   

This movie was one of the best parody/reworking of all those C budget Troma pictures, it had the right feel of it, the right plot and gore for it, the only difference between those films and this one is that this one was more like a A-budget version of a low Troma movie. This movie had everything that a good horror comedy should have, right down to the love interest of story. This movie had excessive horror (disturbing alien humanoids, gore, frightening attacks and zombies), it had a great sense of horror that was both perverted and lightened up the situations, there was a great cast and performance and a great plot, with some weird relationships mixed into it. Essentially this movie is about a small town that gets invaded by alien worms that are all interconnected to the “king” worm, which has taken over the body of one of the townsfolk. Now the town must ban together and fight the alien force before they become infected and become zombie drones or worse, part of the huge fleshy bulk of the king worm.

I will first congratulate the actors and actresses of this film, their performances really made this film worth watching, as well. Nathan Fillion, who stared in Serenity, plays the town sheriff and does a fantastic job playing a somewhat calm monotone man who can be really, unintentionally funny at points. Elizabeth Banks, who plays Starla the wife of Grant Grant, does a perfect job for the stereotypical damsel in distress. Her performance was absolutely perfect, even though her part did not demand that much of serious acting, she does a terrific job screaming and basically being a scream queen. Michael Rooker who plays Grant Grant, the most ideal and loving person in the whole town who becomes the “king worm.” His performance, from scene one to the last, was amazing and he really brought his character to life. He used his monotone voice, in accompanied with some funny moments involving his chest and some great scary moments when he slowly turns into the slug and when he is the “king slug.” Gregg Henry, who plays MacReady, plays the funniest person in the whole movie mostly because he is fowl mouth, sort of sex induced and just generally a big hoot, especially some of his rants that he goes on when the situation gets worse. There were also some great acting by Tania Saulnier and Haig Sutherland.

The scares in this movie were prime, mostly because they weren’t “jump out” scares, but rather graphic, gory and disturbing scares. Literally, as I mentioned before, it had the feel of a very gory Troma movie, which was a huge inspiration for writer and director James Gunn. Some of the most disturbing parts happen toward the end when people literally become part of the “king slug” and the whole process of body transformation that takes place. Some great scares came along with the little slugs that would fly into your mouth and try to take over you, the scarier scene was when the slugs invade a nuclear family and take over the little girls, mom and dad and the teenage girl has to save the day. There were some zombie moments, there were some great “Grant monster” moments but the one thing that separates this movie from the others is the consistent humor that lightens up the mood for horror fans. In conjunction with Fillion, this film had some hysterical moments involving play on words, heroines fighting back, rants and reactions to extreme situations.

The plot is packed with great special effects, disturbing images and a great love triangle, of sorts. It has everything from the awkward relationship of Grant and Starla, to the stereotypical relationship of the “cute” sheriff and the “hot” housewife of the mutated husband. It even has the secret affair between the husband and the wife’s sister and the inevitable consequences. This movie was certainly a great horror homage to one of the most famous b-movie studies ever, Troma. I really enjoyed this movie and even though there were some minor flaws including some stale acting and story expansion problems, this movie is still a favorite of mine. I would highly recommend this movie to anybody who enjoys movies of the gore and disturbing category and the Troma films. It is true what they say, the chicks in this movie are “hard-core.”