Slither
R
2006
**1/2 out of ****

I have been wanting to see this movie since I first learned that it was being made. The trailers were great, and I love actor Nathan Fillion (of “Firefly” and “Serenity”). Unfortunately I missed my chance to see it in the theater, and had to wait for it to come out on video. Seriously, I had this movie on my Netflix queue before there was even a release date. And after finally seeing it, I can safely say that I was not disappointed. ^_^

Premise: Small, sleepy, southern town celebrating the beginning of deer hunting season. Meteor. Alien worm thing. Need I say more? ^_^ This movie has a very Master of Puppets-like theme. Alien worm thing takes over the body of a prominent citizen, Grant, who uses people as a host for the incubation of all those little slug things. Slug things take over more people, and pretty soon you have a zombie-esque army all connected to good ole Grant. Main characters are Nathan Fillion playing police chief Bill Pardy and Elizabeth Banks playing Grant’s wife, Starla, who spend the bulk of the movie trying to find Grant and end the terror.

I was expecting this movie to be really bad. It wasn’t. It was actually hilarious. The beginning of the film isn’t bad, but it’s nothing special, but as the movie goes on, it gets funnier and funnier. The script is great, and Nathan Fillion is wonderful. Actually, I’ll go so far as to say that Nathan Fillion totally makes the whole movie. The guy who plays the mayor is hilarious too - great supporting character!

This is a James Gunn film, and since James Gunn is the same guy who wrote the newer version of Dawn of the Dead, you would expect some gore, but this movie is gross. I mean seriously gross. Not just gore, though there’s plenty of that, but throw in people eating raw, rotting meat, dead animals, the slimy little slug things themselves, and more in that vein, and you’ve got a disgusting film. Word of advice - don’t eat while watching. I actually think this was the biggest drawback of the movie - the overload of grossness. And actually the overload of swearing, too. Swearing doesn’t bother me at all, but it was constant through this whole movie. When Nathan Fillion says something like “That is some fucked up shit” with his deadpan expression it’s funny, but it would be even more funny if people hadn’t been saying “fuck” every two seconds through the whole movie.



Bottom line, this was actually a pretty good movie. Intentionally funny, good acting, good script, good (but gross!) special effects. Very entertaining, and very worth watching!