Slither (2006)

I am in a major conflict with myself over the movie Slither. On the one hand, I laughed alot while watching it. On the other hand, Slither is so vile and so disgusting I'm not sure that I can recommend it in good conscience. I know you believe you have a strong stomach but Slither is the kind of movie that will put your gut to a test you may not pass.

Is much of Slither alot of fun? Oh yeah. Is it enjoyable enough to make you forget about vomiting during the movie? No.

Smarts

60%

In the tiny town of Wheelsy the most important time of the year is the opening of deer hunting season. The entire town shows up at one tiny little bar in the middle of town to drink beer, sing songs and plan their hunting parties for the following morning.

This year however, hunting season will have a whole new meaning. Somewhere in the forest a meteorite has struck the earth and inside is an insidious alien being bent on consuming the entire human race. First up is the lecherous businessman Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), no typo his first and last name are Grant. In the woods after a night of drinking and preparing to cheat on his wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), Grant stumbles across the meteorite and becomes the alien's first victim.

Grant is not dead. He has become the alien delivery vessel. He carries the alien seed that will infect the entire town and eventually the world. The aliens take the form of slimy, disgusting slugs that leap into the mouths of victims turning people into flesh eating zombies.

Standing between the aliens and world domination is Wheelsy's easy going sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). An unassuming slacker, Pardy has remained in Wheelsy his whole life because he really had nothing better to do. He has, for years, nursed a serious crush on Starla but sadly watched as she tried only to leave Wheelsy before settling for a life of comfort with Grant.

Now the sheriff and Starla have to team together to find Grant and stop the alien invasion. They are aided by the venal Wheelsy mayor Jack McReady (Gregg Henry) and a teenage girl, Kylie (Tania Saulnier) who survived an attack by the aliens and gained the power to see their plan in full completion.

Much of Slither plays like the kind of ironic detached horror comedy that I truly love. Minor touches like Starla and Grant's song being a super-cheeseball tune by Air Supply, which we hear at the most unnerving moments, are just brilliant.

The humor extends to the casting where the ultra-creepy Michael Rooker could not be more suitably cast as the sad, tragic and disgusting Grant Grant. Rooker who played, arguably, the most terrifying screen villain in the history of the horror genre in Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer, is unafraid to tweak his creepy persona for a few big laughs. His commitment to the character is unnerving leaving this critic with the wonderful sense that Rooker rmay have played Grant in a full on method performance, never breaking character.

Written and directed by James Gunn, who did an exceptional job adapting a new version of George Romero's Dawn of The Dead, Slither is one of the most stomach churning horror films in the history of the genre. That is not surprising considering Gunn's history with the ultimate purveyor of disgust in the industry, Troma films founder and filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman. No one knows gross, not the box office kind, like Lloyd Kaufman and his influence can be felt throughout the more stomach turning moments of Slither.

Grossout is not necesarily a bad thing. However, Slither overdoes it with the gross. The eviscerated corpses of dogs and animals displayed onscreen are bad enough but the oversized blood soaked appearance of a character who has become an alien slug womb is enough to make you wish they had airsick bags stashed in the seat in front of you. This may be a badge of honor for a production designer, Andrew Neskoromny, who can make audiences stream for the restrooms. For my money however, there is something to be said for subtlety and restraint.

Popcorn

72%

The film plays like director James Gunn's attempt to fuse Troma style gut churning grossout with a mainstream sci fi, horror and comedy. The attempt is brave but the results are mixed. Slither works in making its audience ill from its brand of grossout gags, eviscerated animals, over-sized exploding humans and those dreadful slugs, but fails to keep up the energy needed to keep the audience fully engaged beyond needing pepto-bismol.

There is no denying that the film is very funny, with especially humorous peformances by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. Fillion's deadpan humor in the face of so much disgust is a real treat. Banks for her part, is funny and sexy in equal measure. Watch the scene where the hunting party searching for the now alien infested Grant find him in a field and Banks' Starla talks of marriage as a sacred unbreakable bond, very funny stuff.

Final

There is alot to love about Slither and yet I cannot fully endorse the film. Maybe this was the films intent all along, but I was made physically ill by the end of Slither. Do not eat before you see it because you may not be able to keep it down, it's that disgusting. If the filmmakers were judging the movie on how many patrons ran for the bathrooms at the end, they have a major success on their hands.

However when that sickly feeling makes you forget about so much of what you enjoyed about the movie, is that really a success?