Slither (2006)

Slither is written and directed by James Gunn. The film sees a midwest town become infected by alien worm creatures, that turn the townspeople into meat craving mutated 'zombies'. Influenced from classic 50's sci-fi such as: The Blob, The Thing etc, Slither is a horror comedy that's light on the horror and the comedy. With the talent in front and behind the camera I was expecting a-lot more.The standout performer in this film was by far Michael Rooker, as always he gives a charismatic over the top performance that lights up the screen. Especially when he stumbles across the creature that attaches itself to him, leading to him doing funny bizarre things. Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks were also solid in their roles without leaving their comfort zones. Everybody in the film does a good job.I found it hard to rate this film, as this isn't a bad film but I found it un-engaging and tiresome to sit through. Technically speaking the film was well crafted. The practical effects and gore looked good, even if at times they resembled the left over props from The Thing. However I found this film to be tonally perplexing, the scary moments weren't scary enough. With the only effective scene coming from the bathtub sequence, but that was it. The comedic elements were also lacking I can't remember a scene (other then when a character loses a hand grenade) that even made me slightly chuckle. In the end this film ends up getting lost between the two elements, and that made for frustrating viewing.

As "yet another body-snatchers invasion movie" (YABSIM), it's OK. The main "problem" is that it seems that it could have been more.Elizabeth Banks is not as pretty as she can be and Nathan Fillion is not as funny as he can be, so, the two main things that could have made it "more than a YABSIM" are misfires.The script could have been better also, we could have had much more suspense and mystery and less simple gore. So, script could have done the "escape from YABSIM" and/or made a better YABSIM.There are many issues, but, most are OK, as this is a silly movie, after all, so, we don't expect much. But, the "alien grows by embedding humans" is particularly badly done, from writing, to directing, acting...Bottom-line: if you like decently done light horrors with some humor, this one is for you. Otherwise, pass, there's nothing in it for you.

*SIGH* Well......... *SIGH* I really wanted to like this. I love James Gunn, Dawn Of The Dead was great, Super was amazing, Lolypop Chainsaw was amazing and the Guardians of the Galaxy films are the best Marvel Films. After seeing and playing those games and films I wanted to see his directorial debut. I get what this film was going for, it wanted to be a schlocky comedy horror, and the second half was that... but the first half wasn't, and I quite literally mean half, I can pinpoint the exact second it turns into a great film, 45:00. But this is an hour and a half long film. The problem with the first half was that it was boring. Thats what makes it worse then the second half, they both half the same problems but the second half is very entertaining. But let me be clear it would not be a 10/10 if the whole film was as entertaining as the second, just a 7/10. One of the biggest problems is the effects,there are some great practical effects, but it is littered with very very very very sh*t CGI. Another is a romantic subplot that is useless, and has no payoff.If those 3 problems where fixed I'm pretty sure this film could have been an 8/10 and recommendable to anyone, but the way it was I would only recommend it to people that enjoy horror schlock.

This could have been much worse, because it was a sci-fi movie, which is about as low as the bar gets in the movie world, but it was bad enough as it was.It's basically a combination of as many horror and science fiction staples as the writer could muster. If any were missed, it was only because of the time element.It keeps in line with the censorship policy of the sci-fi channel of neo-Nazi propaganda, making movies for American women, most of whom are blond, by perpetuating the myth that men prefer blonds, even though only about one out of ten do, though nine out of ten dare not admit it to women, who rely on the myth for control. It's just easy to be blond. Most people can do it just by hours in sunlight.Here, we have a creature who prefers a blond, and the whole movie is generated around this brainwashing scheme to make us think it is an animal's nature, when it is exactly the opposite in the animal world.That's bad enough, and contrived enough, but the contrived script goes so far as to make sure no one in an entire town survives a horror ordeal except a few principles. That's so contrived that only a moron can't be bored by it.Why is it not 1/10? The actors seem to enjoy it, and looked like they had fun, and did their job well. There are a few things that aren't exactly in line with the horror formula. Not many, but a few.Still, it's a movie that probably only women will enjoy, and the only men who watch it are those who do so for a project, or to critique it, or to please the women in the group. It's not enjoyable at all for guys. And the women probably won't like the idea that a brunette gets to survive in the end along with the blond.