Slither

(2006) ***1/2

First name, Grant. Last name, Grant -- Grant Grant. It begins with him. We're inclined not to like him at first anyway. He's the richest man in the small town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, has a beautiful young wife, Starla (Elizabeth Banks) of whom he's possessive and clingy, and he's played by Michael Rooker -- anyone who's seen Mallrats can tell you that he plays "Guy You Don't Like Much" pretty well. He finds a meteorite crashed in the woods one night, and the thing that crawls out of it fires a little worm at him. The worm tunnels into his body, crawls up towards his brain and plugs in.


When he opens his eyes (which are leaking blood, as are his nose and mouth) he's seeing the world for maybe the first time. I say "maybe" because when he starts talking again later, he still seems to be just as clingy to Starla as ever. This is as important as any of the changes he undergoes. With his little brainworm calling the shots, he goes in search of a queen to carry his spawn.


He considers Starla for a moment, but in a spark of tenderness, he backs off and looks elsewhere. He settles on Brenda Gutierrez (Brenda James). To the discomfort of everyone on this blog, pictures of what happens to Brenda later have already been posted in JPX's and Johnny Sweatpants's reviews. In fairness to Brenda and in the interests of not grossing people out more than I need to, this is what she looks like before...all that.


After that, she gets all blimpy, and then explodes, spilling forth thousands of little red slugs, which head for town looking for carriers, human or animal. They crawl in through your mouth and take over your thoughts, much like the alpha worm, leaving your memories intact. It's different with the spawn though, because they also carry with them the memories and motives of the Grant Grant-worm. This means an entire town full of worm-zombies is now hopelessly devoted to Starla. She's actually a pretty good sport about all of this and still seems to harbor devotion and marital faith to Grant Grant.


The rest of the movie concerns the plight of Sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), to rescue what few townspeople he can and stop the spread of the worms, and of Grant Grant -- for he too is spreading. This is an overwhelming task. This alien force is a threat in a number of ways. There's Grant Grant himself who now has tentacles, is enormous and fast. There are the worms -- as I mentioned, they attack through the mouth, which turns out to be pretty problematic, because the first thing you want to do when a pack of them are wiggling your way is scream. After that, there are the people they possess, who will try to eat you. And to top it all off, they vomit acid.


Needless to say, Slither is pretty gnasty. Not on the level of Dead Alive, but still. Gnasty. Also, like Dead Alive, it's a horror comedy, and at that, it's mildly successful. I laughed out loud through a lot of it, but I think I'd have found it funnier if it were less tongue-in-cheek. It's not something that kills the joy -- like Octopunk, I got a great laugh out of a particular use of the line, "Oh, that's awesome!" -- but it aims itself firmly at casualness. So we can't help but feel casual watching it.