Slither

A great, goofy B-movie, James Gunn's Slither serves up a clever and affectionate homage to the flicks that filled drive-in double bills in the 1950s, combining lowbrow slapstick and gory scares in equal measure. The plot, set in an unidentified yokel hamlet famous for its deer hunting, is put into motion when a rich local businessman cheating on his trophy wife is attacked by a creature just hatched from a fallen meteorite, which starts his ghastly transformation into a half-alien monster with a craving for meat. By the time he's turned into a low-rent version of Jabba the Hutt, the fellow has sired a whole slew of giant slugs that strike a nearby farm before moving on to the town, slinking down the throats of horrified victims and turning them into hungry zombies with whom our head slug is psychically connected. Deployed against this growing menace is an array of local yahoos, including a stalwart, dryly humorous sheriff, the fatheaded mayor, a brace of bumbling deputies, and a posse of redneck gun-toters. One could list a small catalogue's worth of influences at work here, but what saves Slither from joining the many failed horror spoofs is the balance it maintains between cheap effects (splattering green acid, exploding heads, a body being literally sliced in two) and rambunctious slapstick. Slither is most definitely not art, but it's certainly good dumb fun. Recommended. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include audio commentary by director James Gunn and costar Nathan Fillion, the 20-minute “Bringing Slither's Creatures to Life” featurette, eight deleted scenes with optional commentary (10 min.), the 10-minute “making-of” featurette “The Sick Minds and Slimy Days of Slither,” the nine-minute featurette “The King of Cult: Lloyd Kaufman's Video Diary” featuring the Troma icon, an eight-minute gag reel, four extended scenes with optional commentary (7 min.), six minutes of “Who is Bill Pardy?” outtakes, a “Slithery Set Tour with Nathan Fillion” (5 min.), a five-minute “Step by Step” visual effects featurette, “The Gorehound Grill: Brewing the Blood” (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solidly slithery and slimy set of extras for a fun flick.] (F. Swietek)