Slime City (1988)

When Alex moves in to a newly rented apartment, he has no idea that the residents want more than just a new tenant.No budget B-movie slime city has a silly plot involving Long dead cult members old wine and Himalayan yogurt. All this adds up to our Alex having to kill to stop himself turning into a walking slimeball. The script has several unintentional laugh out loud moments and there are some pretty cheap but pretty gross special effects which for me were the highlight of the film. The story races along at a fair old pace so there's no time to get bored. I love B-movies for all their no budget charm and this movie has that in abundance. If you're not a fan of this sort of thing then it probably won't win you over.

Slime City is a low-budget gore movie that features some decent special effects and some good dark humor. This movie has a charm about it, even though the acting is bad and the plot is pretty lame, it's still fun and entertaining. Lamberson has gone on to make several low-budget efforts and this is his best work (a special feature on this disc is another one of his low budget films). The film played in a lot of grindhouses in the 80's and on 42nd street. The plot revolves around a guy who eats some green pudding and starts melting away. His body parts start falling off and decaying. And the only way to slow down the process is to kill people. The film has some good moments and the last 15 minutes are pretty entertaining. This and "street trash" would be a good double feature.

I can't say I enjoyed Slime City too much, but it does have an element of trashy fun to it. The atmosphere is similar to Basket Case, only trashier and on a lower budget. There are some cool death scenes early on, but then the pace seems to plod for ages. There's a good erotic dance scene from one of the ladies which some may enjoy. The only reason I would recommend Slime City to anyone is for the scenes at the end, which are priceless. The girlfriend of the guy turning into slime hacks his head off, and the head splits apart and his brain tries to escape by slithering across the floor. Seeing that she is in front of him, the brain turns around to slither in the opposite direction. She then hacks him up. If you can tolerate low budget trash this may be your sort of thing, just don't expect too much.

Slime City takes place in New York & starts with a young guy named Alexander Carmicheal (Robert C. Sabin), or just Alex for most of the film, answering an advert in a local paper about an apartment for rent with his girlfriend Lori Swan (Mary Huner). They meet the buildings owner Ruby (Bunny Levine) & after having a look around Alex decides he'll take the apartment. At first Alex is very happy as the apartment is clean, tidy & more than acceptable. Alex's neighbour's begin to introduce themselves, first there's a rock chick named Nicole (Mary Huner again this time in a large black wig, come to think of it you never see Lori & Nicole in the same shot together...) who looks pretty hot in mini-skirts & high heels, then there's a guy named Roman (Dennis Embry) who likes to rummage through the bins looking for stuff & finally there's Lizzy (Jane Doniger Reibel) who's Father Zachary (Daniel Frye) was into alchemy & the occult, he lead a cult whom all committed suicide over 30 years ago in the basement... One day Roman ask's Alex round for dinner & Alex agrees, once in his apartment Roman serves up some strange green slimy goo that he claims Lizzy gave him & is Himilayan yogurt. Alex starts to eat the stuff & actually finds he quite likes it, Roman pours Alex a green liquid to drink out of a wine bottle, also given to him by Lizzy. The following morning Alex wakes up to discover he is drenched in a repulsive oozing slime & to add to his problems Alex soon discovers he must kill to stop the slime consuming him completely, a homeless man (T. Clay Dickinson) & Alex's best friend Jerry (T.J. Merrick) become victims of Alex's new found need for blood. As does a prostitute named Heather Langly (Eva Lee) who just happens to be a friend of NYPD cop Detective Irish O'Bannon (Dick Biel) & won't let her sudden disappearance go as Alex's problems continue to mount up...Co-edited, co-produced, written & directed by Greg Lamberson on a estimated $50,000 budget according to the IMDb I was pleasantly surprised just how much I actually liked Slime City, an appropriate title considering it's set in New York, maybe it's art imitating life! Sorry New Yorkers only joking! The script has a good central premise which I liked, at least it isn't just a teen slasher film & I must congratulate the cast & crew for turning in a fairly decent watchable & to an extent an original film that stands on it's own within the genre. Slime City moves along at a nice pace throughout & never becoming boring or bogged down with unnecessary padding which these low budget horror films usually have in abundance & at only 80 odd minutes long Slime City doesn't outstay it's welcome. There are also a couple of references, homages or rip-offs whichever way you want to view it, to classic horror like the Invisible Man (1958) as Alex hides his slimy features behind bandages & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with Alex's split personality, one a vicious killer trying to completely dominate the other an ordinary person. The characters are pleasant enough & the script thankfully doesn't resort to having them constantly swearing, the possession aspect of the script is a little cloudy & underdeveloped telling us nothing more than Zachary was an alchemist & occultist but there is just about enough information to get by & understand what's going on. Please don't take my praise the wrong way & expect the production values of a big budget Hollywood film as Slime City most definitely doesn't but the photography is steady, director Lamberson tries to create a few good shots & the lighting throughout is also good which helps, the New York locations work well & help to create the sleazy feel that only New York can, the acting isn't as rotten as I have come to expect from these zero budget indie horror films with star Sabin in particular putting in a reasonable performance & the most impressive & enjoyable part of Slime City has to be the special make-up effects credited to Scott Coulter which are surprisingly good, again don't expect anything outstanding but I've seen worse in much bigger budget films. They have star Sabin covered in oozing slime throughout, someone is killed with a straight razor, someone has their head bashed in with a metal pipe, someone has their head bloodily smashed open, someone has their arm severed & the final 20 odd minutes sees the almost total destruction of Alex's possessed body with the help of a meat cleaver eventually ending with his brain being hacked up, good stuff. I can forgive some of the rougher technical aspects of Slime City such as a few obvious continuity flaws & some pretty poor acting by the supporting cast member's because I just thought that generally speaking it's good entertaining fun & at the end of the day that's what watching films is all about & especially horror films, having fun & being entertained. Overall I didn't think I would but I really liked Slime City & considering that it was made for $50,000 which is peanuts it's an achievement in itself that I was impressed, easily one of my favourite semi-professional horror films that I've come across. Certainly not for everyone as it is very low budget & a little rough around the edges but I personally think it's worth watching especially for horror fans, just go into it with realistic expectations & you might have some fun.