In 2006, Slither was easily my favorite horror movie. It combined a lot of my favorite elements of horror. It’s a black comedy, an alien invasion movie, a zombie movie, and a body horror movie—and it features a great cast. Slither was directed by James Gunn, who might be famous for Guardians of the Galaxy, but keeps his teeth working with Troma Entertainment. Troma is known for its bizarre, campy horror movies with tons of gross body horror.
In Slither, he flexes those muscles. This was his directorial debut, and it became a cult classic. In fact, it was included on Rotten Tomatoes’ list of 50 Best Ever Reviewed Horror Movies. It also set up Gunn with a cast he’d work with frequently, including Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Gregg Henry.
Since it’s the spooky month, give Slither a watch. After this section of the article, there will be spoilers, and you should go in fresh if possible. It’s a great horror movie bound to make you feel uncomfortable, at the very least!
Slither — Master of Awkward and Uncomfortable
Slither takes place in a small town in South Carolina. Deer season is about to start, and the town is celebrating its annual Deer Cheer celebration. Gunn does a great job of making the world awkward, from the background characters to the environments. It’s a little weird—not the same super wholesome world we are used to seeing.
We meet our main character quickly, the Chief of Police, Bill Pardy played by Fillion. We also have Starla Grant played by Elizabeth Banks, and her husband, Grant Grant. Plus, the humorous, over-the-top Gregg Henry as Mayor Jack MacReady. I like the quick but relatable view of our characters that helps them feel real.
Pardy is a bit of a slacker but holds a candle for Starla. Starla married Grant due to her own abject poverty as a child, but she genuinely cares for him and their marriage. That’s on display throughout the entire movie, even going well beyond normal. Our mayor seems like a jerk but does put himself front and center in solving the problem when it pops up.
An alien in the form of a blobby parasite lands on earth and shoots Grant Grant with a dart that slowly converts his body and mind into an alien. From there, the movie moves along at a good pace, and the problem of Grant Grant grows and evolves, literally. Along the way, Slither has plenty of jokes, quips, awkwardly funny situations, and horror scenes.
The Horror!
The horror is often broken up with levity, with the characters riffing on the odd situation they all find themselves in. When residents of the town are affected, they aren’t strangers to the characters. These people all know each other and can have these quasi-normal conversations in the face of some clearly unexplainable events. Slither makes use of the small-town setting very well.
The horror itself is just tons of grossness. People are eating people, roadkill, and raw rotting meat. They are overwhelmed with hunger, and it’s weird and uncomfortable to watch.
Grant Grant becomes an oddly slithering creature that’s covered in goo and has a split mouth. He still resembles something vaguely human, and that’s what is really disturbing about him. A character named Brenda becomes hugely bloated, to an absurd degree, due to Grant Grant impregnating her with his stomach tentacles.
Eventually, she bursts, in full view of our main characters, and explodes into thousands of red slug-like creatures. These creatures get into your mouth and eventually turn you into a zombie-like creature. They are all a hive mind of Grant, and everything they see, he sees.
There is even a zombie deer seemingly getting revenge on the hunters. Eventually, we see a degree of society evolve around this one alien being. We have the master, Grant Grant—or what’s left of him. Then we have his zombies who are bringing meat to the other caste, his impregnated breeders. The zombies are also melding with Grant Grant into one massive monster.
What in the…?
I feel like I’m not describing Slither very well. It’s really something you have to see. They even give you a bit of an explanation for the monster. Thankfully they make it quick and brief and still leave it largely mysterious. It’s a creature that travels from planet to planet and consumes everything on the planet until it launches the parasite blob into space to do it once more.
How do you kill something like that? Well, Pardy plans to do so with Chekov’s grenade. It’s mentioned earlier they confiscated a grenade from some trout fishers. The plan goes awry, and when it all seems over Starla, a little propane and a Beretta save the day.
The Guns of Slither
Guns are somewhat ineffective in Slither. The creatures they face are their friends and neighbors, turned into zombies. The small slugs are tough to hit, and admittedly they take a little too much time to talk when they should be shooting when it comes to Grant Grant. However, we do get a few weapons worth noting.
When the police and some posse members decide to set up a stakeout for Grant Grant, they open their armory, and we see firearms that seem normal for a small-town police department but descend into some craziness. We see the standard wood furniture shotguns, then a Mossberg Special Purpose with Surefire light. Then a Colt Commando, still fairly normal, but then a police officer pulls out a decked-out HK G36K.
Obviously, we also have the grenade sitting in the locker for later. There is a weird lack of continuity in regard to Pardy’s service weapon. When he first sees Grant Grant all mutated, he and the rest of his department have revolvers. Later in the stakeout, he has an automatic but refers to it as his Colt. After losing that gun, he then grabs a Beretta from the police station.
Slithering In
Slither is largely forgotten. It did fail at the box office even with a modest budget. That’s sad because it was a great movie and could have helped create a more modern genre of body horror. It remains firmly lodged in my mind, and I still enjoy Gunn’s work.
Any other Slither fans? What gun would you take to face the creatures from Slither?
