Slither
It is an anonymous rock tumbling through the solar system, fragmenting and shedding layers as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and burns up, heading to Nowhere USA, specifically the two-bit town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, home to deadbeats, derelicts and no-hopers, with a few more successful ranchers living on the outskirts, the Grants, the Strutemyers, and the Castavets among them, their properties bordering the expansive woodland.
Grant Grant patient zero, drunkenly staggering through the woods, he is infected by the blob-like organism which emerges from the shell, mutating and driven to consume meat, to kill those who interfere with its alien purpose and to multiply, kidnapping a local woman whose disappearance triggers police chief Bill Pardy to mount an investigation, Grant’s wife Starla soon realising something is wrong and raising the alarm.
The debut feature of Superman’s James Gunn, it is now twenty years since Slither first made its way to screens, starting as a science fiction horror focused on the relationship of Grant and Starla (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer’s Michael Rooker and Brightburn’s Elizabeth Banks) but embracing comedy elements as it evolves and Bill comes to the fore, Serenity’s Nathan Fillion stamping his personality on the film.
The influences many, opening like Night of the Creeps before throwing Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, Society and even A Streetcar Named Desire (Starla!!!) into the blender, the white trash town with its annual Deer Cheer hunt and roster of familiar types and faces (Firefly’s Gregg Henry as out of his depth Mayor MacReady, Blood and Chrome’s Ben Cotton as Charlie, Battlestar Galactica’s Lorena Gale as Janene) is a place all too understandable as it is swamped by gloopy critters.
Lubricated by the trails of slime left by the swarming parasites in search of hosts, the pace is swift at only ninety minutes, Slither admirable in that the characters don’t dilly-dally when confronted by evidence of trouble in their backyards, immediately calling the authorities or fleeing, and in its preference for practical prosthetics for Grant’s ongoing transformation, always leaving his eyes visible, a tortured monster but one which remains sympathetic and understandable.
Considered a failure on original release yet demonstrating schoolteacher Starla’s lesson of “survival of the fittest” with its longevity, the new edition edition of Slither is approved by Gunn and director of photography Gregory Middleton and packed to bursting with new and archive features including interviews with Middleton, effects designer Todd Masters, editor John Axelrad and composer Tyler Bates whose score quotes Jaws and Predator.
Slither will celebrate its 20th Anniversary with a 4K Digital release from Friday 1st May and Special Edition Steelbook from Monday 18th May
