THEY WANTS TO MAKE YOUR FLESH CREEP : James Gunn’s ‘Slither’ [7/10]

If there are such things as alternative universes, it seems a safe bet that in at least one of them a 35-year-old Canadian named Nathan Fillion is Hollywood's biggest movie-star. In our reality, however, Fillion – who's resembles a taller, younger, beefier, slightly better-looking Sean Bean – has yet to make that elusive leap to the fabled 'A-list.' His passport to the big time was supposedly Joss Whedon's breezy Blakes 7 rip-off, Serenity – a picture which delighted science-fiction fans worldwide, but somehow failed to connect to the wider moviegoing public on its release last summer.

Less that a year later and we again find Fillion as the charismatic, self-deprecating, laid-back, wisecracking lead in another relatively low-budget, 'genre' piece: the wild, gross-out comedy-horror Slither, written and directed by James Gunn (the Troma graduate responsible for the scripts of 2004's ropey Dawn of the Dead remake, and also both Scooby Doo pictures). As with Serenity, the marketing campaigns were eyecatching, the critical response favourable, advance word bubblingly positive… and, once again, the great North American moviegoing public refused to 'bite'.

Slither was effectively DOA at the box-office with takings of less than $4m, making it unlikely to recoup its reported $15m budget – although it may yet be saved by 'overseas' takings and what should be a lucrative afterlife on DVD. Fillion, meanwhile, has the less-than-appetising prospect of White Noise 2 to look forward to – though he may be consoled by the fact that Harrison Ford (the actor with whom he's most often been compared) was already 35 when Star Wars belatedly rescued him from his status as 'carpenter to the stars.'

And, as Bruce Campbell will eagerly attest, there are many worse fates in life than 'cult movie star' – especially if Fillion continues to find material as savvily-written as Serenity and Slither. As indicated by their choice of title, Gunn's movie aims rather lower than Whedon's ornately-dialogued space-opera. This is a deliberately cheesy, riotously enjoyable rock-the-house B-movie in the noble tradition of Tremors – Gunn's debt to which is explicitly (though subtly) acknowledged in one of his countless throwaway in-jokes.

Indeed, Slither represents something of a trap for film-critics, as it would be very easy to go into inordinate length listing all of Gunn's influences and references. Suffice to say that originality isn't his strong suit: Gunn's tactic is to take his chosen genre's most well-established cliches and deliver them with full-blooded tongue-in-cheek gusto – or rather 'dis-gusto,' as he delights in subjecting the audience to grisly, stomach-churning visuals whenever possible.

The pretext for this is a classic critter-invasion plot: a meteorite lands near a redneckish Carolina town; a globulous alien takes over the first person unlucky enough to encounter it (reliable b-movie stalwart Michael Rooker); Rooker slowly transforms into a bright-red, tentacled thingy. Said thingy then 'impregnates' the hapless Brenda (Brenda James), who eventually 'births' a legion of worm/slug creatures whose slithering assault on the townsfolk poses a major problem for foul-mouthed, short-tempered Mayor MacReady (Clark Gregg, who gets all the best lines and milks them for maximum effect) and chief of police Jack Pardy (Fillion).

After a somewhat slow-moving start, Slither rapidly clicks into high gear once the worm/slug beasties are unleashed and seldom lets up – as befits a picture which clocks in below 90 minutes, even including a lengthy end-credits sequence (capped with a somewhat superfluous coda that isn't really worth hanging around for). The special effects are convincing (though this clearly isn't a megabucks major-studio enterprise), the actors are uniformly game, and Gunn gives them plenty of amusing, hard-boiled dialogue to chew on. There's also a pleasingly cockeyed irreverence on view, not to mention an anti-religious subtext to many of the gags – an element which perhaps wouldn't be quite so evident in a movie funded and shot south of the 49th parallel in what the papers euphimistically refer to as 'the current climate.'

Neil Young
17th May, 2006

SLITHER : [7/10] : Canada (Can/USA) 2006 : James GUNN : 96 mins (BBFC timing)
seen at Cineworld cinema, Sunderland, (UK), 14th May 2006 – public show