The horror scene in the past year has been a bit stagnant being flooded with unnecessary remakes, PG-13 watered-down pap, and a series of filmmakers trying to emulate 70's exploitation horror (some with decent success, such as rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie and his The Devil's Rejects) - so it's nice to see someone paying homage to the 80's creature features I grew up on.

The town of Wheelsy is about as redneck as it tends to get and it's certainly not that exciting a place to live. In fact, it's so dull living in the town that in the opening scenes of Slither we see two policemen trying to pass away the night sitting in their squad car with one trying to catch a nap and the other guessing the flying speed of passing birds using the "speeder gun". But all that is about to change when a meteor comes crashing into the nearby woods.

From there we meet a couple of folks who are living in town: there's the new sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), hypocritical mayor Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry, who's given the best lines and steals the show), and schoolteacher Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks) and her older, wealthy husband Grant (Michael Rooker, a steady B-movie actor who's great to see here).

Things start to go wrong in Wheelsy not long after the meteor hits the Earth when Grant ends-up having a fight with his wife that leads to him getting drunk at the local watering hole Henenlotter's (an in-joke reference to Basket Case director Frank Henenlotter - which isn't a surprise since writer-director James Gunn's main creature resembles BC at times) where he gets drunk and goes to the woods for a quickie with a local girl who has a crush on him.

Unable to do the deed, Grant soon finds the meteor and is infected by some weird alien being when he follows a slime trail and sees an odd, white pod. From there he starts to change drastically getting an appetite for "meat", acting strange, and generally creeping everyone out. Things get even more bizarre though when it turns out he's using his failed lover as a breeding chamber and all Hell breaks loose when she births thousands of slug-like creatures who proceed to infect the townsfolk and turn them into zombies.

Slither is a bit slow to get rolling, but it's worth it when it does get going as Gunn shows his love for the genre (and such 80's monster camp like Night Of The Creeps and Critters) by throwing out a silly story, packing it with sarcastic and amusing jokes, and giving us a little bit of gore to chomp on (one guy is split in half by a tentacle, others get parts of their heads blown off and alien slugs popping out). For this I thank him wholeheartedly as he manages to bring back all the great memories I have of watching these types of movies over at my friend's house who was lucky enough to have the pay-TV movie channels.

Gunn also keeps the CGI effects in his movie to a minimum using mostly practical effects (that were co-created by the great Todd Masters) which only helps to continue to capture the whole 80's vibe he's built-up. He also manages to throw in a few sly winks for horror fans (we get to see Toxic Avenger playing on a TV set, a "thank you" to Troma I assume since Gunn started out with them), piles on lots of cool moments in the outrageous finale, and keeps the whole thing entertaining.

Slither is the kind of movie that people just aren't going to "get" - in fact; I've had many people tell me they think it looks "stupid" not realizing that that's the entire point. It's not supposed to be this intelligent and highly scary movie, it's supposed to be a horror-comedy that pays tribute to the kind of movies we just don't see anymore. It makes all the years of me being a horror fan worth it; just to be able to be in a theatre and get the same sort of feeling I once did in my early teens. Slither is the kind of experience meant for people like me - people who love horror, but also have no qualms loving cornball monster movies.

Try to see it before it's quickly out of theatres (it barely made 3 million opening weekend, which is a truly disappointing), or wait for the DVD and buy it - it's worth it and it's one of 2006's best horror flicks so far. (Chris Hartley, 4/3/06 - DVD, 10/31/06)

Directed By: James Gunn.
Written By: James Gunn.

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Considering this is a modestly budgeted big studio movie the print here is completely free of any dirt/debris and solid all-around with no noticeable flaws.

Extras: Universal have given us a lot of extras here, even if a lot of them are of the "throwaway" type, but they've certainly been more generous than you'd expect for this type of movie.

We get a gag reel, "Who Is Billy Pardy?" featurette which is basically the cast and crew riffing on star Fillion, a decent featurette on the films creature effects, a video diary by Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman he filmed when doing his cameo, a brief set tour with star Fillion, some visual effects step-by-step sequences, a tutorial on how to make "fake blood", 8 deleted scenes with optional commentary, 4 extended scenes with optional commentary, a too short making of featurette entitled "The Sick Minds And Slimy Days Of Slither", and a quite fun commentary track with writer-director Gunn and star Fillion.

Despite the fact most extras here are of the "watch them once variety", at least the deleted moments and commentary track are worth checking out - as well as the effects featurettes for those interested in how it's all done.