'Slither' review by Captain Raptor
For all people complain about them, Hollywood executives do sometimes learn their lessons and adapt. Exhibit A: after the risky appointing of Joss Whedon to helm Avengers Assemble paid off in both critical and commercial dividends, Marvel have elected to appoint another cult writer/director to make one of their upcoming movies; namely one Mr James Gunn. Being an enormous fan of his 2011 subversive superhero comedy Super, I sat down this weekend to watch his directorial debut Slither.
Slither is, at heart, a composite of about 30 other different horror movies. Most obviously it's riffing on The Blob, Alien and the Romero zombie flicks, but if you look closely enough you can see that most of what's here is from somewhere else (I counted Shaun of the Dead, Psycho and Evil Dead, amongst others). It blurs the line between inspiration and plagiarism at times, but there's enough wry humour and inventive gore that I don't begrudge it my approval. The first twenty minutes of the film are completely devoid of humour, just about held together by an impressive performance from Michael Rooker as the Patient Zero of a parasitic alien invasion, but slowly the film picks up the pace and gets funnier as it goes along. The characters have as much originality in them as the rest of the film does, and it's a blessing that Gunn managed to obtain the ever-fantastic Nathan Fillion to play the lead role or else things really would have fallen apart. He charms his way along as he always does, and it's a treat to see him in a role where he's more explicit than his normal TV persona (plus, as a Browncoat, it's immensely comforting for me to hear him speak in a Southern accent again).
The really irritating thing about Slither is how run-of-the-mill it is. Super subverted your expectations left, right and centre, and Nathan Fillion has a tendency to add an air of self-awareness or parody to whatever he's in, but Slither is pretty much just your average B-movie. There's a decent supply of funny moments, and there are flashes of boldness here and there (the creatures kill children and dogs like nobody's business, one of the entertainment industry's big faux pas), but the film's just too damn predictable and familiar. The usually first-rate Elizabeth Banks is pretty much flaccid here, although that may just be due to her poorly written character, because we can't all be Nathan Fillion and dazzle no matter what script is put in front of us. Visually, the film is very appealing, both in the simple but effectively repulsive design of the alien creatures (and the remains of their victims) and in the dark, dingy small town setting that did manage to create some faint atmosphere.
Slither is neither as funny nor as shocking as a good horror comedy should be. It's funny in parts, the action is competently handled and it's a lot of dumb fun, but ultimately it is far weaker than the sum of its parts. I think its greatest value might have been to gain Gunn the experience he would later use to make Super, but Fillion still hits every note and if it's worth watching for anything then it's Michael Rooker's performance. It's definitely enjoyable and I wouldn't call it a poor film per se, but there's other films in a similar vein that are more worthy of your time.
