From the man that brought us Guardians of the Galaxy, and Peacemaker comes a wonderful jaunt into body-horror in a small town.
It’s another boring night in the very rural town of Wheely, South Carolina. Wheely is a quiet town where everyone knows everyone, life moves slowly, and that is the way they all like it. In the next couple of days, the town will be throwing its annual “Deer Cheer” celebration to start hunting season. The local sheriff and one of his deputies sit in a parked police car looking for speeders, to no avail. As things go, it’s just another night of the routine. That is until a meteorite crashes in the woods.
Grant Grant (not a typo that’s his name) and his wife Starla are a bit of an odd couple. She is quite possibly young enough to be his daughter, and when they first met it was courtship and marriage of convenience. Starla needed a new life that was better than her old one, and Grant was a lonely man who just wanted to know the love of any woman. Over the years he has doted on her and though he may be a slightly jealous husband, he truly does love her. However, one night after not finding any satisfaction in her arms, Grant goes out to a bar, gets drunk, and has a run-in with a woman who has always had a crush on him. In a moment of weakness, they go out to the woods but Grant quickly realizes his mistake and attempts to leave. That’s when he stumbles upon a strange thing in the woods. Following the trail that leads away from it, Grant finds the source, or rather, it finds him.
Yet another movie I was made aware of years ago but never actually took the time to watch. What I didn’t know was that this was written and directed by James Gunn. As previously stated he is the guy that brought us Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad, and several other huge-budget Hollywood movies. I also didn’t know that he worked with Troma for a long time and having that knowledge, then seeing this film it all makes sense. This is a big-budget Troma picture. It may not have the name on it, but it has all the other markings of their films. Hell, it even has Lloyd Kaufman in it in the background. That being said, it’s good.
Slither somehow got mixed up in my head with the old 80s horror movie “Slugs” for some reason and I think it suffered there for a long time before I realized they were different. Slither is a movie about an alien lifeform that literally crashes to Earth and then tries to take over the planet. It has blood, guts, and more than a few instances of some real gross body horror. It does a lot of things right though, in my opinion. The alien is basically a hive mind, and because of that when it takes control of Grant Grant (again, that’s his name) played by Michael Rooker (a Gunn favorite) all the zombified humans all speak like him and directly to Starla as if they are all one mind. It’s subtle in the grand scheme of things, but effective.
I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the movie, honestly. However given who it is from, maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. The writing is great. All the actors and actresses have great comedic timing. It’s disgusting. I don’t know if this is considered a modern-day “cult classic” but I wouldn’t be surprised by that now having seen it. Not sure if I will watch it on a regular basis, but it is one that if I catch it running on some streaming service, or in my horror movie rotation I probably won’t skip it.
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