Slither (2006)
Directed by James Gunn
Staring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Greg Henry, and Michael Rooker
The movie opens with a meteor crashing into the woods of Woodsville. Local business man Grant Grant (Rooker) finds the meteor while fooling around in the woods with a local woman. It turns out that the meteor carried an alien parasite to earth. The slimy mass stings Grant, infecting him and absorbing his consciousness. His wife, Starla (Banks), starts to suspect something when Grant behaves erratically. Soon, Grant transforms into a giant slug creature. The town becomes overrun with alien slugs that attach to a person’s brain and infect them with their evil. Between a giant alien monster and the zombified people, things are not looking good for Starla. It comes down to Sheriff Bill Pardy (Fillion), Starla’s old crush, to save the world from Grant and his army of infected townsfolk.
Slither marks James Gunn’s directorial debut. Previously known for writing the Scooby Doo films and contributing to the Dawn of the Dead remake, Gunn ably handles the director’s chair. Granted, it helps that he wrote the script as well. He shows that he is very capable of handling gross out horror and gross out humor in equal parts. The two are combined frequently and yield disgustingly hilarious results. When Starla finds out what happened to all the neighborhood dogs and why Grant put a lock on their basement door, you laugh at how terrible her situation has become.
The actors all do an admirable job juggling the dark comedy and the horror. Fillion makes for an affable Sheriff Pardy. He knows how to smirk and lay on the smarmy charm. The real gem in Slither is Michael Rooker. He plays Grant in every stage of his life and rebirth, all with distinctive personalities and mannerisms. Rooker goes from sceevy to predatory in a heartbeat. And even under all the monster makeup, Rooker makes sure you can still see a man inside the beast.
The practical and CGI effects deserve a special note. The slugs writhe and squish convincingly, leaving goo wherever they go. There can be hundreds of slugs worming their way across the screen, and all of them move in a frighteningly real way. Zombie townspeople look wonderfully dead. The slug birthing sequence in particular is a glorious combination of practical and CGI. With a movie like this, the makeup and the computer generated work are such a big part of it. It is good to see that care and creativity went into the effects.
For a first feature, James Gunn did quite well with Slither. It even makes up for both of the Scooby Doo movies. If you like creature features, zombie flicks, and gross humor than this is a movie you should see.
8 out of 10
