Starring: Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, and Tania Saulnier
Director: James Gunn
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
An alien life-form lands on Earth and turns the citizens of a small town into parts of his hivemind. Unless Chief of Police Bill Pardy (Fillion) and an ever-dwindling group of survivors can stop the menace now, the entire world will be consumed.
"Slither" is a movie fans of monster films and B-horror flicks have been waiting their whole lives to see: It's a B-movie style monster film with a decent budget, a great script, and a cast of fabulously talented actors. It is, quite possibly, the greatest monster movie so far this decade, and it takes a well-deserved place among the best of Universal Picture's horror flicks.
Skin-crawlingly creepy, expertly filmed, rich in snappy dialogue and dark comedy, and full of unexpected character twists, this film delivers everything horror movie fans could ask for. Even gorehounds will feel satisfied as the end credits begin to roll.
Although this movie bombed at the box office, it is one recent horror movie that deserved more attention than it got.
It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Slither, but I remember my feeling of disappointment upon finally watching it after reading some of the more positive reviews. My favorite type of horror film is one with supernatural or alien creatures in them. Slither fit that bill and I had hopes that it would also recreate the feel of those creature features of the 50’s that I grew up watching on TV. Unfortunately, despite the setting (small town), characters (policeman) and tone (serious) there was far too many “gross-out” scenes that seemed to be there just for the gratification of the gore-hounds. I’m not squeamish when it comes to horror violence, but for a film that is trying to emulate the tenor of a more ingenuous era, I felt the abundance of disgusting effects marred what could have been a genuinely genial creepy creature feature. In this humble film freak’s opinion, Night of the Creeps (1986) is still one of the best films of the “modern” era to recreate the feel of its predecessors, while injecting the more graphic imagery allowed in contemporary horror films.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a lot of praise for "Night of the Creeps." It's one of those movies that I have to get around to seeing one of these days.
ReplyDeleteAs for the gore level in this film, I felt it was just right... and I DO tend to be a little squemish as far as the that goes. :)
But I can see your point, and it is certainly true the film would have been more like the classics it harkens back to if the gore had been dialed back. Heck, it might even have done better in theaters, because the rating might have been different and more kids might have seen it.