Slither (2006)
Slither Review
By Calum Whitfield
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| Copyright Infringement Not Intended |
James Gunn is an interesting filmmaker. Best known these days for big-budget superhero blockbusters like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as the recent Suicide Squad. But before his mainstream breakthrough James Gunn started his directorial career with an interesting little film called Slither. Slither flopped on arrival but is a film that deserves to be looked at again as it is, in my opinion a treasure.
Slither follows the residents of a small town in South Carolina. When a meteorite crash-lands nearby a sentient alien parasite is released and begins to take over the community beginning with wealthy local, Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) who becomes the central host of a hivemind being. As Grant’s wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) becomes suspicious she begins to work with local police chief Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) to uncover what’s happening to their town. And what’s happening is a hell of a lot of mutating, meat eating and exploding. Oh, and don’t forget the alien slugs.
The plot plays out as a homage to the B-movies of the 1950’s, but the added gore (of which there is an abundance) as well as the truly grotesque creature designs play out more in reverence to the body horror movies of the 80s. Yet despite these fairly serious, dark influences Slither is a very funny movie, largely of the back of an excellent lead turn from Nathan Fillion who has enough charisma to leave Tony Stark lost for words, although many of the films best lines are reserved for the character of Mayor Jack Macready, played by Gregg Henry who hams it up in the best possible manner, revelling in the role of the semi-incompetent, self-centred arsehole in charge of the town. Coupling comedy like this alongside tense, gory horror is nothing new; films like “The Evil Dead” or “Shaun of the Dead”, to give but two popular examples have done this all before; but Slither does it perfectly. There are scenes in this film that will leave you on the edge of you seat, and there are scenes in this film that will leave you laughing out loud, and at times one scene will do both. In fact, I’d argue this is one of the most balanced horror comedies out there.
So what’s wrong with it? Well, as touched upon before, the film can feel a little derivative, not really doing anything particularly unique with its plot. This leaves it feeling like a film made specifically for people who are already fans of the sort of the classic horror movies its paying homage too, thus limiting its market significantly. On top of this, Grant’s love for his wife, a key point in the plot plays out as more creepy than it probably should, hurting the emotion of the film at its climax. Yet despite these flaws for horror fans like me no word better sums up Slither than entertaining. What more can you ask for?
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