Watching "Slither," the film sort of slimes its way up behind you as you're watching it and hits you with a long slimy tentacle of out-of-the-blue fun. It also gives you some hope that there are some original ideas coming out of Hollywood. Sure, the parasite from outer space turning everyone into zombies and trying to destroy the Earth plot has been used before — but when did said parasite have a conflict of interest because he was in love?
It seems that a nasty parasitic alien has landed in a peaceful Midwest town where all soda is called Coke and people are just plain nice. It takes over the body of Grant Grant (not a typo), the only not-so-nice guy, and starts breeding in the nastiest way you can think of. It eventually births a gaggle of slugs, which jump into peoples' mouths and turn them into creepy zombies — all with the sort of tongue-in-cheek comedy that keeps you laughing yourself out of barfing.
The survivors of the sluggish onslaught are the town mayor, Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry); the teen in the bathtub, Kylie Strutmeyer (Brenda James); Grant Grant's wife, Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks) and the recently promoted town Sheriff, Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion).
The movie itself isn't overly clever but the actors are of an unusual quality in this kind of horror movie, keeping the deadpan jokes working and the one-liners popping. Fillion, of the sorely missed Firefly television show, is exceptional as the classic midwest guy just trying to get along. His delivery of some lines — not repeatable in this family newspaper — is priceless.
If ever a movie came out of left field, it is "Slither." But somewhere between Starla telling a giant slug version of Grant Grant that they can work this problem out, and Pardy being attacked by a zombie/mind controlled blood-covered deer, you give up on trying to guess where the plot is headed and just enjoy the ride. The whole film is simply to weird to dislike. It's as if someone took that strange 80's horror film you saw at 3 in the morning one night and gave it a budget and actors.
Like director James Gunn's previous low budget Troma films, the point is to be grossed out. If "Slither" wants to give you something a bit odd, a bit funny, and a bit different at the same time then what is there to complain about?