Dither

Where are all the superheroes? (Unmarked Spoilers)

Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) is the chief of police in Wheesly and has been carrying a torch for his childhood friend Starla (Elizabeth Banks) for years. Starla is a schoolteacher molding young minds like Kylie Strutemyer (Tania Saulnier). Starla’s also married to an older, wealthier, and less attractive man named Grant Grant (Michael Rooker). The lives of everyone in town are changed forever when an asteroid lands nearby.

What emerges from the asteroid is something that I can only describe as a space vagina that shoots a spike that infects Grant with an alien parasite. Grant’s body subsequently develops two alien wangs growing out of his chest, which he uses to impregnate Brenda Gutierrez (Brenda James) in a scene that’s more than a little reminiscent of rape. Brenda ends up blowing up until she resembles a giant breast with her head as the nipple, and Grant’s spawn are these penis-shaped worms that turn people into zombies. Freud’s head would explode if he ever saw this movie.

Slither was the debut of writer/director James Gunn, and outside of its off-kilter humor, it’s quite different from his later movies. For one, it’s thus far the only film he’s directed not to be a superhero movie. Though it may take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, given the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) has one of the worms from this film. The protagonists are also much saner and morally upright than in his subset films.

After Kylie saves Bill from an infected deer, he thanks her but lets her know that their positions will be reversed when he retells the story. He also joins in on the speculation that Starla only married Grant for his money. While that betrays a mild sexist streak, he’s still shown to be an honest cop. Starla’s gold digger suspicions seem unlikely given the genuine love she shows him. Kylie is a total final girl, which is a little jarring in a pretty subversive horror movie.

The film’s events happen during hunting season, which is a major source of revenue for the town. Despite being a jacka*s, Mayor Jack MacCready (Gregg Henry) has enough integrity to be hounding Bill about solving the case, not covering it up. Bill, meanwhile, is the type of character you’d expect to turn into a one-liner spouting badass, but while not incompetent, he never does anything that impressive. Slither also blends sub-genres by being an alien invasion, body horror, and zombie apocalypse movie all in one. 

An early version of the script had Kylie dying, which certainly would have been shocking. But I’m kind of glad they didn’t do that because the poor girl goes through the wringer in this movie. First, Kylie’s attacked by an alien worm in the bath. Then her infected mom spurts blood right in her face. She’s too late to save her sisters. She gets trapped in a truck surrounded by worms and her zombie family. Kylie is a top contender for someone having the worst time in the movie. Though the competition is certainly fierce.

I’m kind of surprised that this and not Super was Gunn’s first film. The reason for that is Super seems like it was designed to be made on a relatively small budget while Slither is much more ambitious, for lack of a better word. It kind of had to be to get the makeup and creature special effects as good as they are in the film, and they are quite good.

Either way, this was a great first effort. As with all of Gunn’s films, the casting was perfect. There are some genuinely unsettling moments while providing several funny moments as well. It is very gross, which isn’t going to be for everybody, but I recommend watching the movie if you can stomach that.