Slither (2006)
Directed by James Gunn
Written by James Gunn
Starring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Jenna Fischer
Release Date March 31st, 2006
Published March 30th, 2006
I am in a major conflict with myself over the movie Slither. On the one hand, I laughed a lot 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 and a love of ironic humor but Slither is so polarized in its humor and horror that many audiences will find it hard to enjoy both of those aspects at once.
In the tiny town of Wheelsy the most important time of the year is the opening of deer hunting season. The entire town seemingly 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 what is 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 aliens first victim.
Grant is not dead, rather, 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 survives an attack by the aliens and gains 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 inside joke of Rooker maybe having 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.
The film plays like Gunn's attempt to fuse Troma style gut churning gross out with a mainstream sci fi, horror and comedy film. The attempt is brave but the results are mixed. Slither works in making its audience ill from its brand of gross out gags, eviscerated animals, oversized exploding humans and those dreadful slugs, but fails at times to keep up the energy needed to keep the audience fully engaged beyond needing pepto-bismol.
The film is very funny, with especially humorous performances by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. Fillion's deadpan humor in the face of so much disgustingness 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.
There is alot to love about Slither and yet I cannot fully endorse the film. Maybe this was the film's intent all along, but I was made physically ill by the end of Slither. Do not eat before you see Slither 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?
