"Slither": A Slug In The Mouth
Written: Apr 25 '06 (Updated Apr 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Scary fun.
Cons: Too short to build on its many ideas, which are often rushed.
The Bottom Line: Smart, a little mischievous and falling on the right side of gross. Just a pity that Gunn tries to cram in too much.
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| Simply_Crispy's Full Review: Slither |
THE PLOT
Slither takes place in Wheelsy, South Carolina, a small rural, somewhat forlorn town where every man, woman and child seem to idly count away the minutes until the start of hunting season. Gun happy hicks: always the ideal target for slugs from outer-space, it seems. So we shouldn’t be even remotely surprised that a meteorite inconspicuously crashes in the forest surrounding the place.
The first unwitting victim to the slugs is Grant Grant (the always-reliable Michael Rooker), the richest guy in town, a card-carrying redneck and leech of a womaniser, who regularly cheats on his doting young wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) - a poor girl who was trying to escape from poverty and an unhappy family. After a sex-related domestic fallout, Grant x 2 meets up with his regular bit on the side, local white trash single mum Brenda (Brenda Gutierrez), and heads on out to the woods, where – you betcha – he encounters the landing site of the meteorite and soon has a nasty little alien slug burrowing into his brain.
Before long, Grant x 2 is transforming into a hideous, tentacle-bearing, meat-craving monster with a tendency for slaughtering the local animals and storing the mangled corpses in his basement. To what end? That’s exactly what noble police chief Bill Pardy (Serenity's Nathan Fillion), intends to find out.
THE GOOD
Every so often, a film can come along with so little hype, fanfare or media-induced hysteria that it completely sideswipes you. A film so unashamed in its own crass, campy schlockiness, that it that reminds us all why we love horror films in all their terrifying glory.
Not since Tremors hit cinemas in 1990 has a film so gratifyingly blended humour and horror as Slither. Debut director James Gunn, who no doubt draws upon the experience garnered from his previous work on Troma movies, isn’t in the slightest bit reluctant to make viewers squirm in their seats on their way to a punchline. Exhibit A: a hilarious stomach-churner of a scene where Bill and his colleagues discover the location of the missing Brenda, who has been locked away in a secreted barn and force-fed rotting meat and animal carcasses. To not give too much away, imagine Violet Beauregarde but a less purple, a load more gore, and a couple of thousand of alien slugs exploding from her bloated beach ball of a body, and you’re pretty much there.
And this in itself is Slither's one genuine advantage over most of its horror counterparts; it’s not afraid to follow through with its promises when it comes to bloodshed. Gunn is still classy enough a director to prevent things from going overboard, but nevertheless refuses to flinch during the key moments. Exhibit B: a glorious shot where one local hot-head is sliced in two by Grant x 2's ever-expanding behemoth is played out superbly.
While this additional gore certainly ups the ante, Slither’s other advantage is its smart-arse nature, which is plentiful. Much like Shaun of the Dead before it, Slither strikes a surprisingly effective gross-to-gag balance, thanks to script that knows when to draw line between ‘homage’ and ‘rip off’, and a cast that triumphantly understand the heavily ironic tone.
Fans of horror movies of yesteryear will almost certainly get a kick out of identifying the many references to the works of David Cronenberg, Jack Sholder, Frank Henenlotter and, naturally, George Romero to name but a few. These range from the quietly understated, to out and out in your face, but whether he’s referencing entire plot points he always delivers, with the whole meteor-from-space idea obviously inspired by The Blob; specific scenes - a slug slowly snaking its way across a bathtub to the intended victim of Kylie (Tania Saulnier) is almost a shot-by-shot re-enactment of Shivers; or even his own work (the entire town being overrun by zombie-like creations is no doubt inspired by Gunn’s scriptwriting duties on 2004’s Dawn Of The Dead remake).
The dialogue is suitably agreeable, with many quips delivered as natural reactions to the situations that gross the characters out as much as the audience. “This is some fucked up shit” gags Fillion before being attacked by a plethora of slug-infected townsfolk, to which he calmly growls “My easy-going nature is getting sorely fucking tested”. The ace in the pack is Gregg Henry’s superior turn as the foul-mouthed town mayor, who steals the show with every single expletive. We are introduced to his character as he roars for an idle driver to “Get the fuck out of the way, cocksucker”, before turning to a shocked woman and child and flashing them a shit-eating grin and merrily going about his business. This guy takes the art of swearing to a whole new level.
THE BAD
While Henry and co hit their required marks, it’s disheartening to see Fillion making absolutely no attempt to play his role as anything but Capt. Malcolm Reynolds in a sheriff’s get-up. Fillion employs the same mildly smarmy attitude to flesh out the character as he does in both Firefly and Serenity albeit with a slightly dumber persona. Not exactly a tour-de-force of acting.
He’s also lumped with a whimsical, and often forgotten, love story with Banks (guess what? He’s been in love with her for years) that isn’t given nearly enough screen-time or even believability to make it work. The occasional throwaway line at arbitrary points in the film make it seem more than an afterthought than anything else, pretty crass considering that we’re supposed to believe that it’s this same love that is the only thing that spurs him into staying alive during the films final third.
Ah yes, the final third. As well-engineered as it is, there’s no escape from the fact that it’s nothing but yet another stab at a zombie-flick that has, excuse the pun, been done to death. People previously left for dead sprout back to life and start chasing after our heroes... we’ve been here many times before.
Gunn tries to inject originality by throwing in some hokum about how they all share the same collective consciousness, but this idea is again given too little focus to actually work – particularly during an exposition-heavy scene in the back of police car, where Kylie attempts to explain the entire background of the parasites. At just 95 minutes, Gunn severely restricts himself with being able to truly dwell on his ideas, more so when you consider that the first 40 minutes are predominantly spent focusing on Grant x 2’s and Banks’ relationship.
Which in itself leads to the films 11th hour decision to turn Grant x 2's creature into some sort of tragic figure, a la Frankenstein’s monster, which is something of a farce. Gunn asks us to believe that despite her best intentions, Banks can’t help but look beyond the grotesque, mutated appearance of her husband and see the man she loves, but he falls flat on his face.
THE UGLY
Phallic, slug-like monsters slathered with a thermal gel usually associated with the adult industry, which ‘violate’ people orally? If that’s not a euphemism, then I’m a frickin’ Dutchman. Check out the scene where the virginal Kylie gags as one oddly sexual parasite struggles to enter her mouth... hmmm.
THE SUMMARY
Slither is everything it sets out to be: derivative, glib, throwaway, and thoroughly entertaining but little more. While it succeeds in amusing and horrifying in equal measure, and reminding us just how fun horror movies can be when they aren’t trying so hard to frighten us, it fails to come across as anything other than a tribute to the comedy-horrors of the early 1980’s.
Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but with such a lean running time, during which Gunn attempts to pack in way too many ideas that are only given a fleeting amount of attention, Slither ironically manages to come across as a little empty. It may not be the next great thing, but it’s pretty darned close to being the next best alternative. Take it at face value alone and you’re in for riot.
Recommended:
Yes
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Simply_Crispy
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