Review of Slither (2006) by Spencer S — 10 Jan 2013

A fun horror film that is full of gore, disgusting sight gags, and characters that seem fresher and far better constructed than the slasher and possession films streaming out of Hollywood lately. Even for a film that wasn't a success right out the gate, it is still bigger and more impressive than many other films in its genre.

For example, this film boasts an impressive cast of semi-famous character actors, including Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect), and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead). The actual genre of the film is subject to argument because it is surely comical in its incredulity, science fiction through its use of alien creatures as the villains, and horror, as these intergalactic slugs take over a backwoods hick town.

The town is generic hillbilly fodder, but also strangely wrong and dirty, in a way only schlock can correctly characterize. The story follows the citizens of a town as it starts its yearly deer hunting celebration.

A meteor crashes into a section of woods where a drunken miser missteps with an equally drunk floozy, and gets sodomized with an alien prong, which takes his body over. This leads to him becoming a blob, setting his spawn upon the town, and turning people into zombies, all connected to the original, impeded in the brain of the man from the woods.

This alien, inside the man, falls for the man's wife, and is constantly trying to capture her as she flees with the town's police. Some of the effects in the film are especially graphic and vulgar in the way they look and are presented.

The film melds "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with "Night of the Living Dead", but also features some very gross out scenes of gore for those who love cult horror. It has a little bit of everything and always wins because it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Truly one of the better horror films of the decade and one of the smarter ones as well.