Review - Slither

A slithery, slug-infested good time . . .

I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect from Slither. All fibers of my being wanted it to be good. And after I left the theater this afternoon, I am happy to report that all fibers of my being were happily satisfied.

Slither was part horror film, part love story, part comedy and all good. With just the right amount of cheese, it portrayed the touching love story between both Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) and Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks) as well as Starla Grant and Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). It also portrayed the torrid little alien influenced fling between Grant Grant and Brenda Gutierrez (Brenda James) quite well too.

The film starts off innocently enough, with the town’s newly appointed Chief, Bill Pardy and his trusty sidekick, Wally (Don Thompson) sitting behind the proverbial small town billboard waiting for speeders. In the background you see what looks like a meteor touch down in the woods behind them. Lucky for them, they are too busy sleeping and clocking whippoorwills (respectively) to notice.

Unfortunately for Grant Grant - the town’s richest man - he is out gallivanting after his wife rejected his advances for a little fun. This should teach all you guys that if bad things are on your mind when a meteor from outer space touches ground, it is not going to end well for you. He and his little fluzie tramp off to see what they can see and Grant is shot in the belly by said meteor.

This begins a whole world of hurt for this small town after Brenda is impregnated by the alien bug mutant infested Grant and eventually explodes in a spray of what look like bloody cow tongues. And only Starla and Bill with the help of young Kylie Strutemyer (Tania Sauliner) who knows the history of said alien/bug thing due to the fact that she was almost infested herself (that whole angle was pretty interesting if you ask me) have any hope of saving their town or at least themselves.

I have to give a big shout out here to the town mayor Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry) who played such a fabulous ass in this film. He was hysterically annoying and over the top without being too over the top. With one liners like “This chic is hardcore” and “nobody deserves this, not even you even though you’re a lesbo” (paraphrasing here) he had me laughing till I cried. And his hissy fit over Mr. Pibb - oh it doesn’t get much better. Also, the bit character of Shelby played by Jenna Fischer was another little gem in the film - I just love her in The Office.

I would absolutely recommend this film for anyone who loves a good horror, comedy and/or love story. It was all three, and it was all three fabulously.

Directed by
James Gunn

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
James Gunn

Cast (in credits order)
Nathan Fillion .... Bill Pardy
Elizabeth Banks .... Starla Grant
Michael Rooker .... Grant Grant
Gregg Henry .... Jack MacReady
Tania Saulnier .... Kylie Strutemyer
Brenda James .... Brenda Gutierrez
Don Thompson .... Wally
Jennifer Copping .... Margaret
Jenna Fischer .... Shelby
Haig Sutherland .... Trevor

rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bart Anderson .... Butcher
Amber Lee Bartlett .... Jenna Strutemyer
Adam Behr .... Puppeteer
Mary Black .... Mrs. McCammon
Beverley Breuer .... Jo-Anne
Ben Cotton .... Charlie
Michael Cromien .... Fitzgibbon
Matreya Fedor .... Emily Strutemyer
Lorena Gale .... Janene
Tom Heaton .... Tourneur
Dee Jay Jackson .... Dwight
Lloyd Kaufman .... Sad Drunk
William MacDonald .... Otis Strutemyer
Matt McInnis .... Norman
Dustin Milligan .... Tad a.k.a. Drawing Boy
Robert Musnicki .... Jeff the zombie
Iris Quinn .... Kylie\'s Mom
Darren Shahlavi .... Brenda\'s Husband
Rob Zombie .... Dr. Carl