Somewhere in the forest, close to the small town of Wheelsy, a meteorite has struck down from the sky and has some evil kind of alien inside of it. Businessman Grant who has been drinking and is about to cheat on his wife Starla, becomes the alien's first victim. Thing though is that the alien does not kill Grant, but instead turns him into something else, and infected by the alien seed, he starts to spread the infection further, turning people into flesh-eating zombies. Will Grant's wife Starla together with the sheriff and the good folks in town be able to stop the coming alien invasion?
Slither at first made me think about The Blob as it is somewhat similar and therefore very comparable. The cool thing here is that Slither came out now in 2006, but when watched it, it felt just like when watching an 80's horror comedy back in the day when those kind of movies kept coming out. It's a very cool feeling, and even if I was aware of it before, when watching Slither you're bound to realize just how much you miss the 80's (that goes for when talking about horror movies).
I'm actually complaining quite often about the fact that those great 80's kind of movies are not made these days, and you have to live of old memories and re-watch those good old flicks every now and then. So of course Slither came as a big surprise, and it was somewhat amazing to see just how well they had managed to capture that great 80's feel.
Grant, portrayed by Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer) is great as the richest man in town who one day's turned into a big alien blob kind of thing. His performance stands out over the rest, and while he's a creepy character, he never misses a chance to deliver some great humour.
Slither features a lot of gore of course, is gross and has some stomach turning moments to offer as well. It has so much gore and some scenes that are truly disgusting, that sitting through the film while eating would be somewhat of a challenge. This is nothing negative though, infact it's just positive. And while another director may have held back on the gore, director James Gunn dares to go all the way, all the time, and so makes it all better, for people into that stuff that is. Sometimes when watching the gore, it's hard not to think of Troma, because of the comical side the movie has as well. Although, when mentioning Troma, don't expect it to look or be like your normal Troma flick, this is of course ten times better, at least.
You could say that Slither had a somewhat sickly feel to it, and is nasty and disgusting and never lets you down with not giving a hundred percent when it comes to being gross. The acting is fine, and the 80's feeling is definitely there. Storywise, you've probably seen similar things before (but haven't we almost always?). Of course it has some negative sides as well, and while the first half-hour or so was great, after a while things started to become less effective. But in the end, Slither is a blast that oozes of great fun and great gore, gives you that fantastic 80's feeling even though it's the year 2006, and is overall a truly entertaining ride. Well worth a look.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: James Gunn
WRITING CREDITS: James Gunn
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, Sci-Fi
CAST: Michael Rooker, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 95 min
RATING: 8/10
Slither Website/IMDB Click here
Slither Trailer Click here
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