Slither puts new spin on horror

April 3, 2006 —

Forget everything you know about zombie movies. While you're at it, forget everything you know about alien movies, and epidemic movies, and so on. Once you've successfully cleared from your mind all of the horror films you've ever seen, you might actually enjoy Slither.

This latest cinematic gross-out from James Gunn, the man who (seriously) wrote the Scooby Doo movies, cuts and pastes ideas from all sorts of movies we've already seen time and time again. The mere fact that Gunn is brave enough to combine zombies and aliens is not in itself enough to ensure a great movie.

Thankfully, the writing more than makes up for the plot. While Slither isn't on par with the wacky Shaun of the Dead, it certainly is more humorous than scary and possesses one of the greatest characters to ever grace a B-movie screen - the delightfully vulgar Mayor Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry) of the small town of Wheelsy.

But back to the plot. If you go into the theater expecting a Dawn of the Dead-type experience, then you'll be quite disappointed. The zombies are pretty much reduced to the background - they lurch around on screen while the living characters struggle toward the denouement. There are some genuinely creepy zombie related scenes, but for the most part this isn't a zombie movie.

And really, Slither is not a zombie movie - there are no zombies in it. Not in the traditional sense, at least. These zombie-like beings are really just human bodies controlled by little alien worms that crawl into the people's mouths and take over their brains. Sound familiar? It should. It's only been done about a thousand times.

However, there is one notable difference between the monsters in Slither and your average run of the mill zombie next door. I'm not going to say what that is. You'll have to go see the movie to find out. Keep in mind I only said "notable difference," not "crap your pants exciting difference." In no way am I saying to see this movie based on that.

In fact, don't go see Slither at all if you don't want to. If recycled plots and lots of gore aren't your thing, then go see Ice Age 2 or something more likely to entertain. But if you like horror movies, then keep this in mind: Slither may not be entirely original, but at least it isn't a remake of a movie from the 70s.

That is what was going through my head as I sat in the theater during the closing credits trying to decide if I liked Slither or not. Then a man walked by with his wife and I overheard him complaining. "Stupidest thing I've ever seen," he said. Obviously this man has never seen Dreamcatcher. Now there is a movie about alien worms controlling human bodies that you should avoid at all costs. And now that I remembered Dreamcatcher, I like Slither a heck of a lot more.