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Slither up the cinema aisle for a taste
of freaky horror
SLITHER - Directed by James Gunn
Certificate 12A
SLITHER presses all the right buttons, and no wonder as director
James Gunn has a track record in creating B-movies.
He subscribes to the school of thought that horror films are
meant to be far-fetched. Not for him the subtlety of trying
to make you jump out of your skin in the same way Hitchcock
or Kubrick did.
Gunn has a good pedigree in this sort of thing, namely freaking
out people who suffer from a touch of squeamishness.
He never takes himself seriously and this works in his favour.
Slither is full of camp histrionics.
Gunn worked for the American B Movie stable Troma and this,
his first directorial debut, his heavily influenced by this.
He also wrote the screen play for the remake of the zombie classic
Dawn of the Dead, and in Slither, he has brought together strands
from just about every budget horror flick you can think of.
We are introduced to the small-town world of Wheelsy, a pretty
typical southern, Nowheresville USA outpost, if you believe
films like Tremors.
What gives Slither a head start over is the cast; they enter
into the spirit of the thing. They don’t so much produce
characters, rather caricatures. It is oh-so over the top.
The aptly and absurdly named Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) wanders
out back to investigate a lump that has fallen from the sky
– just to discover is isn’t any ordinary meteorite.
It’s brought something nasty with it from the depths of
space, and poor Grant becomes a body for a rather unpleasant
alien that sprouts large tentacles, has a horrible craving for
meat and is pretty effective at getting it.
And on top of all that, it begins to spread some slithery slug-like
offspring which slip unawares into bodily orifices and before
you know it, you are a flesh eating zombie.
There are enough creepy moments – including the ubiquitous
bathroom scene – to make your date squeeze your hand tightly,
and enough laughs to make you feel that it will all work out
in the end. |
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