SLITHER

It's easy to have low expectations when you settle in to watch a movie called Slither, but perhaps that's why it's such a welcome surprise when it turns out to be good.  Even if you think you don't like guts or aliens or horror movies, Slither is bound to entertain.  Why?  Because it's genuinely funny.

 

Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks) is a lovely young woman married to a less than lovely older man named Grant (Michael Rooker).  It's easy to resist his advances on a good day, but these days something seems very wrong with Grant Grant.  He claims it was just a bad bee sting, but how could one little bee cause a man's head to swell up and blister like a circa 1980s Madball left in the microwave?  And what's with his sudden craving for meat?  It might make sense if he were pressing it on the sting, but he's not.  He's eating dozens of steaks in one sitting, and it just ain't right.

 

As it turns out, a meteor full of aliens landed just outside of town, and poor Grant was the first to fall victim to its parasitic takeover.  These alien worms will slither right in your mouth, and after that you're little more than a fancy human outfit for a very ugly creature.  You can expect intense meat cravings and a constant urge to kill the humans and spread the alien race.

 

Naturally, Starla feels responsible to help find the zombie-alien that was her husband, so she teams up with Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), a cute, age-appropriate sheriff's deputy who used to have a crush on her.  With the help of the hilarious town mayor, the rest of the sheriff's department, and a few good townspeople, they manage to kill the aliens and save the world.  There's plenty of carnage and destruction left behind, but thankfully it's contained in one tiny town.

 

While scary moments and gross-outs abound, what makes Slither brilliant is the writing.  If you strip away the guts and the worms and the zombies, the dialogue alone makes the movie.  Witty one-liners pass easily between the characters, and for once we find a horror movie where the characters are reasonably self-aware.  Even at their most ridiculous they seem like real people, and when things get freaky, they're not afraid to call it like they see it.  When all is said and done, you're not the only one shaking your head and saying, "Well, now that is some f***ed up sh*t."  Your new pals Starla and Bill are right there with you.