Available at Amazon.com
Written and Directed by
James Gunn
Cast
Nathan Fillion ………. Bill Pardy
Elizabeth Banks ………. Starla Grant
Gregg Henry ………. Jack MacReady
Michael Rooker ………. Grant Grant
Tania Saulnier ………. Kylie Strutemyer
Don Thompson ………. Wally
Xantha Radley ………. Uptight Mom
Brenda James ………. Brenda Gutierrez
Jenna Fischer ………. Shelby
Currently available.
Running Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
Rated R
The Movie
Listening now to these blatant imitations of various American singers and songwriters is like looking at embarrassing old photographs. I hadn’t really found my own voice. However, you might be able to tell which records I had in my collection. I certainly learned quite a bit while shamelessly attempting to copy Randy Newman, Hoagy Carmichael, John Prine, Lowell George, The Band, and many others. It was just part of my apprenticeship.
-Elvis Costello (on his early recordings)
While Elvis Costello may have very little to do with monster movies, it can be said that this concept is universal. Artists of any medium start by aping various aspects of what they like, until they find their own particular niche.
And this brings us to Slither. Slither marks the directorial debut of James Gunn, writer of such varied films as Tromeo and Juliet, Scooby Doo, and the Dawn of the Dead remake. (It could be argued that he did the bulk of the directing for Tromeo, but there is a world of difference between making a Troma film, and helming a movie with a multi-million dollar budget.) While watching Slither, it becomes obvious that Gunn is a big fan of Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, and Frank Henenlotter. What doesn’t become clear is the nature of Gunn himself as a film-maker.
Essentially, Slither starts off combining the premises of Shivers (where people are controlled and vaguely zombified by wormlike belly parasites) and The Thing (where a mercurial alien creature crashes to earth and hideously mutates its hosts). Then it adds a Bruce Campbell style hero and two versions of the final girl.
What we are left with is cinematic pastiche that would make Tarantino blush. The movie is all over the place, awkwardly trying to balance terror and whimsy. The film presents itself as a gory light comedy, but then sweet-looking young children get killed. Slither tries too hard to be too many things, and ends up being merely cutesy and uneven.
Part of the problem is that Slither is satisfied in imitating drive-in movies, but doesn’t take the extra step to become one itself. Don’t get me wrong; there is a ton of gore and a high bodycount. However, the cardinal rule of the drive-in (anybody can die at any time) is not obeyed. Slither makes it painfully obvious who is going to live and who is going to die. Plus, there is less than a second of exposed nipple, and perfectly good breast opportunities are squandered.
It isn’t all bad though. Slither is far from a terrible flick. It clips along at a good pace, and provides an entertaining 96 minutes. It has a nice blend of practical and CGI effects. Though there are misfires, some of Slither‘s jokes are pretty funny. It features Gunn’s wife, the irresistible Jenna Fischer.
And hey, he ripped off some pretty good movies.
The DVD
If you are a fan of this flick, you couldn’t ask for anything more. Here is what you get:
Deleted scenes (with optional commentary by Gunn)
Visual Effects step by step (where key effects scenes are shown in various stages of completion)
Slithery set tour with Nathan Fillion (where the star of this film and TV’s Firefly ambushes various folk with is camcorder)
Extended scenes (with optional commentary by Gunn, including a bit where he admits to stealing the worms from Shivers)
Who is Bill Pardy? (a couple of minutes of Fillion’s running gag of “I’m Bill Pardy” followed by a couple minutes worth of improved Nathan Fillion roasts.)
Gag reel (about eight minutes of flubbed lines and the like)
The sick minds and slimy days of Slither (a “making of” featurette)
The Gorehound Grill: Brewin’ the Blood (a three minute lesson on making stage blood)
Feature commentary with director James Gunn and actor Nathan Fillion (self-explanatory)
Bringing “Slither’s” creatures to life (an extensive look at some of the complicated creature effects)
Lloyd Kaufman’s Video Diary (eight minutes or so of the Troma patriarch preparing for his role of “sad drunk” in Slither)
It’s all fairly entertaining and sub-titles are provided. Nothing to complain about here.
