Nathan Fillion, perhaps best known as Malcolm Reynolds from
Firefly and Serenity, stars in the horror flick Slither. He plays Bill Pardy,
the local sheriff of a small southern town called Wheeler, who’s still pining
for Starla (Elizabeth Banks), the love of his life who’s now married to the
oddly named Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), an older man who’s one of the
wealthiest in town. Deer hunting season is about to begin, and the town is busy
gearing up for the influx of hunters who’ll invade the surrounding woods. But
something else has already invaded Wheeler: a meteorite that came crashing down
from the night sky. After being turned down in the bedroom by Starla, a
frustrated Grant goes out for a moonlit walk with another local girl who had a
crush on him--yet Grant finds he can’t be unfaithful to Starla, and rejects the
girl’s advances.
However, Grant can’t turn down the advances of the thing that’s lurking in the
meteorite. When he bends down to inspect the strange object on the ground, it
jumps up and stings him. Hopelessly infected, Grant starts turning into a bizarre,
alien being who feels the need to build a nest in the basement of his house. He
tries to do this all without causing any suspicion on Starla’s part, yet it’s
hard for her not to notice his absences, his really weird behavior, and the fact
that he appears to be turning into a large squid. Despite the
half dozen eyewitnesses who saw the outer worldly changes taking place in Grant,
the mayor, Jack Mac Ready (Gregg Henry), is still hoping that this is all just a
bad case of lyme disease.
But Grant is busy in the woods making an army of vicious slugs that takes over
people by forcing themselves through into mouths. And soon, the better part of
Wheeler is inundated by these zombie-like humans who are under the control of
Grant…who’s still madly in love with his little sweetie pie, Starla. Written and
directed by James Gunn, Slither is about as much fun as a good horror movie can
get. Before Slither, Gunn got his start in movies by working for Troma films (Lloyd
Kaufman, Troma's founder and president, appears in a cameo in Slither as a drunk
in the police station).
After that, he wrote the scripts for the live-action Scooby Doo films, as well
as the well-received Dawn Of The Dead remake. Gunn is obviously just as much of
a horror fanatic as the best of us, and his witty script for Slither shows.
Filled with funny lines, and well-drawn out characters, Slither also has a good,
healthy dose of gore that is unflinchingly shown.
The film also fondly recalls such horror classics as the 1950s version of The
Blob, George Romero’s zombie epics, David Cronenberg’s Shivers, John Carpenter's The Thing, and even Brian
Yunza’s Society--all without losing sight of its own narrative drive, thanks not
only to Gunn’s great script, but also to a superb cast that’s led by the
perfectly deadpan Fillion. Everybody has their chance to shine, especially Gregg
Henry as the hysterically funny, foul-mouthed mayor whose introduction scene is
an instant classic comedic moment. If you’re squeamish about gore, or a pet
lover, you might want to avoid this one, but horror movie devotees should really
enjoy Slither as it worms it’s way into your heart.
--SF