If there’s a movie that so embodies its title, it’s Slither. Writer/director James Gunn’s 2006 science-fiction-horror-comedy is a skin crawling smorgasbord of slimy space worms and blown out insides. Throw in geek heroes Nathan Fillion as the town sheriff and Michael Rooker (a Walking Dead fav) as the film’s infected baddie and you have an instant cult classic.
Set in the sleepy town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, things take a turn when local car dealer Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) encounters a meteorite and becomes infected with a slimy parasite. Grant Grant mutates into a hideous slug-like monster infects a woman named Brenda (Brenda James). Brenda swells up into a gigantic amorphous blob of a person and gives birth to hundreds of infectious slug offspring. After that it’s up to sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) to rally the townsfolk and fight off the intergalactic invasion.
Slither is one of the grossest movies I can think of that got a wide release. Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything less than a former writer of Troma films. James Gunn combines puke-yer-brains-out gore with blue collar folkiness to create a blood-soaked love letter to B-movies. Gunn was said to have been influenced by the gory B-movies of the late 70s and early 80s. In fact, Slither is more or less Night of the Creeps (1986) in better packaging. The influences are all there but the product feels fresh.
If you’re looking for a great late-night movie to watch with a couple a chums and a few brews, this is your flick. It’s films like this that make me wish drive-ins still existed.
“There’s something I need to get off my chest.”