Slither (2006) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s not easy to absolve inner demons because sometimes, it can spread to those in your way. PLOT 2006’s Slither takes place in South Carolina and follows an extraterrestrial parasite crashland on Earth. A day after it lands does it possess a wealthy resident named Grant who despite being married to his wife Starla, their love has faded. When he goes out with another lady named Brenda Gutierrez, they find the meteorite and it controls his brain. Rather than go to the hospital, he goes back home and starts craving heavy proportions of meat. He continues his craving by morning and starts transforming into a grotesque tentacled monstrosity. While Starla goes out for a dance, he uses Brenda to breed the larvae. When his wife sees how much he’s changing, he claims he went to the doctor only for her to check he hasn’t visited in a year. Police chief Bill Pardy even checks with Starla on Brenda’s whereabouts as witnesses confirm she was spotted with Grant the other night. Believing to be betrayed, he attacks his wife until the cops shoot at him, causing him to retreat. Three days would pass of his disappearance and would find Brenda after a report of an animal attack near the barn she’s hiding at. They scout the place at night and see Grant attacking a cow. Starla tries to talk him into surrendering, but he refuses. This leads to Pardy’s posse finding Brenda in the barn where she is insanely bloated and bursts all her larvae that would infect most of the town. Starla and Bill, as well as Mayor Jack MacReady are able to avoid infection by blocking their mouths from the larvae getting in their bodies. The larvae do spread to the closest house of teenage Kylie Strutemeyer. As she pulls one from getting into her mouth and kills it, she sees a vision of how it’s infested other planets. She is able to run away from her infected family until Pardy finds her. Everyone who gets infected becomes a hive mind which is proven when Grant speaks to Starla through the likes of Deputy Wally Whale (Don Thompson); Deputy Margaret Hooper (Jennifer Copping) would die of acid spit before Starla & MacReady catch up with Pardy who saves him and Kylie from an infected Deputy Trevor Carpenter (Haig Sutherland). Police dispatcher Shelby (Jenna Fischer) wouldn’t be able to call for backup at the station due to being infected as well. When getting struck by another car, Pardy & Kylie split up which leads to Starla & MacReady getting captured, taken to Grant’s home. There, the mayor gets infected while Starla arms herself with a sharp hairbrush to try and kill what was once her husband. Bill & Kylie reach the house where they see the townsfolk fuse with Grant. The chief even gives a merciful kill to the mayor as he begs for death and just when Grant is stabbed by his wife, he throws everyone across the room. Kylie gets subdued with a couch and he and Bill barely evade a grenade they brought to the fight. Pardy also avoids infection by blocking Grant’s second testicle from penetrating him and plants it into a propane tank. This gives Starla the opportunity to shoot him down. The explosion within him causes to kill the everyone else connected to him in the hive. As Pardy heads to seek help with Starla and Kylie, the film ends in a post credit cliffhanger with Grant’s remains still sentient and infecting a stray cat. THOUGHTS This creature flick is the mainstream directorial debut of writer James Gunn who had previously made his breakthrough in Troma Entertainment before writing Scooby Doo & Dawn of the Dead for Warner Bros. Gunn had originally wanted to direct Super next, but producer Paul Brooks convinced him to go for it and the rest was history. Gunn bleeds his love for body horror gems of the 70s & 80s and it is so fluent that you love him for it. Apart from all the Easter eggs being put into the names of the characters and fictional stores surrounding the town, I immediately thought of how Grant’s final form was heavily a reflection of John Carpenter’s The Thing thanks to a great makeup effects team led by Todd Masters of MastersFX. The whole thing is fucking unsettling and before all of that, it’s all the more creepy when seeing a body explode an orgy full of larvae. That was just felt like the stuff of nightmares apart from the tentacles swinging about. With a shitload of insanity occurring from start to finish, you’re gonna wonder what’s the point of it all. In my opinion, it’s just an over the top answer in saying what happens when you let love be possessive. The second you do that, you’re doomed before you know it. Through a memorable ensemble that result in most of Gunn’s ongoing collaborators going forward, they get the message just right. Michael Rooker is great as Grant because the guy definitely is responsible for his own demise from the get go. While I don’t really doubt the love is there between him and Starla, the age gap is what was drifting them apart and he wanted excitement which he thought he could get with Brenda. Brenda James stands out as well because she relates to him in that nostalgic trip wishing they had what they wanted sooner and sets up her downfall sooner. Had the two been grateful with what they already had, they would’ve gotten to live longer and avoided the meteor even if it meant someone was bound to find it. I mean the hungrier he got rather than go to the hospital just straight up reflected how much he wanted to be in control and should’ve known that ain’t how love works. Hell, I’m still saddened we don’t know what happened to her baby after the outbreak because it doesn’t like the remaining survivors are thinking about the little guy and that sucks. From the look of it, I do think Starla still had that genuine love for Grant because whenever you see Elizabeth Banks, she refuses to give up on who she loves until she has no choice. Had she not defended herself, she likely would’ve not prepared for the inevitable. If there is a bright side, it would be that she didn’t have to fight such a battle alone. I did laugh my ass off for Gregg Henry as the foul mouthed Mayor MacReady due to how his hysterical behavior makes him more cartoonish then the threat he faced. Since he was so funny, I can see why Gunn maintained this type of comedy throughout his following filmography. I even got to give a big shoutout to Tania Strutemeyer who too was great in making Kylie quick witted as well. On the other hand, Nathan Fillion was so cool as Pardy because while he’ll spend many times feeling out of depth, he steps up to the plate as a reluctant hero needed to save himself and those that are left. I don’t blame his hesitance when it came to Kylie’s family because that was a lot to grasp. And honestly, he’s very lucky to survive that impalement. It did sometimes feel rushed to notice he and Starla had unspoken feelings for one another that is acknowledged by the end of it, but his good heart embraced by bravery does back it. If they do really end up should they survive a second wave of the outbreak, I hope they don’t waste the opportunity. In short, Slither holds up in being an entertaining creature flick that deserves more respect to this day for paving the way of a now iconic filmmaker. If body horror is your jam, check this out.
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