Humor creeps into slimy 'Slither'

Surprising characters give weight to flick headed for a 'slugfest'

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 31, 2006 at midnight

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Here are some of the folks who shouldn't bother to see Slither, a supremely gross and often-funny horror film about an invasion of slugs from the depths of space:

• Anyone who insists that movies follow a totally logical course

• Anyone who despises movies that seem to have been assembled from ingredients already seen in other movies

• Those who don't like sickening sights, say a man being split in half and glancing downward in shock as his innards run out of him

OK, forewarned is forearmed.

Now, for the rest of you sleaze merchants, here's the skinny: Slither may not be a comic classic and it does have a kind of low-rent, spare- parts quality, but director James Gunn - who has obviously watched Night of the Living Dead - throws the movie's ingredients together at a high enough velocity to create new interest.

Moreover, the humor (though not surefire in every instance) helps make the movie more enjoyable, especially if you like to watch crawling, blood-red slugs climb all over everything or if the thought of giant tentacles springing from the chest of slithering creatures quickens your pulse.

The creatures penetrate the stomachs of their victims, some of whom swell to the size of balloons in a Thanksgiving parade. The sight of an afflicted teenage girl (Brenda James) is something to behold, a veritable big-screen behemoth.

And if you like slime, Slither will push you down the slippery slope to big-screen pleasure. You also probably won't be surprised to learn that Gunn has plied his trade at Troma Entertainment, a company that specializes in off-the wall horror with a drive-in flavor.

The movie begins when Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) is overtaken by aliens, much to the dismay of his pretty young wife (Elizabeth Banks). The local police chief (Nathan Fillion) finds himself tossed into the middle of the proceedings. He has a crush on Banks' character, and he must fight the alien invaders.

After the creatures take over Grant's body, he begins to change. He swells to giant size, grows a set of crooked but razor-sharp teeth and begins shooting tentacles all over the place while oozing buckets of slime.

He's Jabba the Hutt with a skin disorder, and you'd do well not to let him near the family pets.

Gunn engineers the movie so that it builds toward many fully exploitative moments, and he includes characters - the loudmouthed local mayor (Gregg Henry) - who provide comic relief. Fillion's character adds occasional ironic asides that should keep anyone from taking things too seriously, even as the horrors multiply to include zombies who munch on human flesh.

No point dwelling on any of this. Slither is a goof on B-movies, but it contains enough jolts to give you the jitters. And for pure revolting gross- outs, it's the best film to come along in quite some time. It may even make you sick. For the movie's intended audience, that's a good thing.

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