Sayonara Cinema

A meteorite has crashed in the woods of a small town in the northwest. When town mogul Grant (Michael Rooker) discovers the object, a small creature within infects Grant and starts to mutate him into a horrible new entity. He impregnates one of the town locals, who explodes with slithering slugs bent on taking over the minds of whoever they can latch onto. As the townsfolk are transformed into a swarm of like-minded zombies who all share the same thoughts, it becomes the sole responsibility of the police chief (Nathan Fillion of FIREFLY and SERENITY fame) to put an end to the invasion before it can spread beyond the town’s city limits.

Director James Gunn, who also wrote the screenplay for SLITHER as well as the 2004 adaptation of DAWN OF THE DEAD, turns to the communist-camoflaged invasion films of the 1950s for much of his influence and themes found here, and continues to push the splatstick boundaries set by Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. All of the trademarks set by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE BLOG and their ilk can be found here, from the “attack” from the sky on smalltown USA, to the “red” coloring of the invaders, and the mindwiping hive mentality that is inflicted on otherwise individually thinking minds.

The highlight of the characters ensambled here is the police chief, played by Nathan Fillion with the same wiseass-smirking gunslinging bravado as his character of Mal in FIREFLY and SERENITY. From these two performances, it would seem that Fillion has a very limited acting range (which is not to say he is a bad actor), but what he pulls off is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch, and with a few more similar roles could enjoy the same bad-ass character reputation of Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell.

SLITHER is not without its faults though. For the short ninty-minute running time, it takes a little too long to get to the “slithering” part of the film. For a film that only wants to be sci-fi B-movie for the new millennium, there is unneccessary character development and relationships set up, with no real payoff. However, the last forty minutes of the film are an absolute blast, both literally and figuratively, and worth the somewhat plodding buildup of the first half of the movie.

This is easily worth a rental, and maybe in a cheap buy considering the insane amount of extra features on the disc, for those looking for a gross-out sci-fi/horror/comedy. Be warned though, this is rated R, and considering the subject matter, it is only a matter of time before an “unrated” version invades the home market.