Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Slither’

Written by Scott Edwards

Small towns always have an appeal to everyone that has been stuck in the big city all of their lives. While the opposite is also true, big city folks are more likely to make the move to a small town than vice versa. Usually with a slower pace of life, small towns always seem like the best alternative, but when something goes wrong, they may not be equipped to deal with it, at least not on a big scale. It is hard to decide if this is the life you want to live, but once you visit, you are usually hooked and never want to leave again. 

Being the most sought after woman in town, Starla does not worry about any of the advances that come her way since she is married, but the same cannot be said about her husband Grant. When getting shutdown at bedtime once again, Grant decides to go and take a walk, but winds up at the bar where he meets young Brenda who has had a crush on him for many years. Taking a drunken stroll out in the woods, Brenda is ready to take her crush to the next level, but Grant is not yet willing to cheat on his wife. Shutting down the young woman’s advances, Grant spots something strange in the woods, a cocoon of sorts with a slug trying to crawl away. Poking the slug with a stick, Grant gets shot in the chest with a sharp burrowing creature that moves quickly through his body and finds its way to his brain.

Being controlled by something other than himself, Grant starts to redecorate the house with a nesting area for the new arrival. With a massive need for meat, he starts to eat up everything in the fridge and has to move to outside sources of protein before he can make it back to the store for more. While Starla knows that something strange is happening to her husband, she does not know how bad it really is. During the start of the annual hunting season party, Starla is stood up by Grant and ends up dancing with her old friend Bill who is now the Sheriff of the town. With the majority of the town at the party, the infected Grant goes to visit some easy prey in Brenda who is surprised as to what she receives from her new lover.

While nothing out of the ordinary ever happens in the town, Bill is called in on a missing person’s case and has to ask Starla questions about her husband’s whereabouts. While she does not know what could have happened, Starla opens the only locked door in the house to find Grant’s new breeding ground and tries to get Bill back before he comes home.  But as Bill arrives back at the house, he sees that Grant is not the man he used to be and his limbs are starting to grow...squid-ish. Now with Grant on the loose, Bill has to get a few men together to find the crazy husband and hopefully find out where Brenda was taken as well. As more reports of livestock being killed come in from the border of town, Bill thinks he knows where Grant will hit next, but what he discovers about how and why Grant has changed will change his outlook on the things to come.

Sometimes you need to sit back and watch a movie that is supposed to make you laugh, and Slither did just that.  With so much humor, it is hard to believe that there are some good horror aspects in it as well, even if they get twirled up into a ball of ever evolving horror homages to various sub genres. I must admit, I think the movie did a great job in keeping to one storyline and once the weirdness and mutations started, they stuck with it. With plenty of creatures and zombie people being infected by the parasite, I am still blown away by how the Sheriff kept it together and was able to devise a plan to win the day. If you don’t mind a little more humor with your horror, this is the perfect movie to get it from. Stay Scared.

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