Slither

And so we come to the end of the Splice Halloween marathon thing for this year and what might be the most intense of all the films suggested. Slither is a strange, brilliant beast. It's a mish-mash of horror staples done in a style that recalls Evil Dead, Re-Animator and a ton of those schlocky 80's comic horror films. It too is very funny, but the humour is used to punctuate a pretty extreme set of events. So for every funny line, of which there are many, or stupid action, ditto, there are alien rapes, fat women giving birth to killer slugs, guys getting split in half, cows getting killed and the mutation of one character that just spirals until he takes up a house.

It sounds terrible when written down, I suppose much like Bubba Ho-tep, but just like that movie it's all about the execution and the performances. Nathan Fillion is the hero Bill Pardy, although I use hero in the Ash in the first Evil Dead sort of way, and as can be expected from him he's great. Goofy, charming and finally the guy you do want in this situation. Elizabeth Banks is also fantastic as Starla, a woman you most certainly don't fuck with:



The masterstroke in the casting though has to be Michael Rooker, who played Henry, that serial killer they done a portrait of, who as Grant Grant moves from an obnoxious slob through soeone experiencing love for the first time in their fifteen billion year lifespan to murderous alien to mutant freak with aplomb. Grant's the guy who finds a meteor with an alien parasite in it. it infects him, but has to use his brain and body to go about business so falls in love with Starla. then the parasite begins to mutate his body and he becomes a tentacled freak. That's not all, as he has set up a "womb" which gives birth to alien slugs that burrow into a host's brain, making them into a zombie that is connected psychically to Grant's original parasite. Then they go through the process of becoming one physically. So it's an alien possession, creepy crawly, mutant, zombie movie that's a bit like a comedy as well. A lot to take in.

It's a film that knows what it's doing though. As much as the threat keeps changing, and as a result the main protagonist of the movie changes on a number of occasions, this never becomes a mess, well it becomes a gory mess but that's something else altogether. this is thanks to James Gunn, who directed and wrote it. He's a guy that knows the genre very well, he wrote the 2004 version of Dawn Of the Dead and worked at Troma Films for quite a while. As a result he knows what he wants to do, and that is re-create those 70's and 80's films such as the early Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson ones, or the works of David Cronenberg during that time. There are many, many nods to the films throughout Slither. And what is so impressive about it is that Gunn has turned in a film that is worthy of those directors. It is intense, in an Evil Dead or Braindead sort of way. It bludgeons you with its ideas, and it is pretty damn sick. There's a good level of gore, disgusting but never too much that it becomes ridiculous, see Braindead, but there is also some genuine comedy found here too. Not just in the witty banter, but in the actual events. It's a film that becomes funnier the more you are acquainted with the genre .

In short if you're looking for just one modern B-movie to view with a group of friends on Halloween then Slither's the one. It was released about the same time as Snakes On A Plane and slipped under the radar while that film rode in on a wave of hype that was totally mis-placed. But it's a gem for those who like their horror gory, funny, sick and extreme. See Slither, it's one of the best movies of the past five years. I'm serious!