The weirdest thing about “Slither” is not so much that James Gunn made it. It’s more that the writer/director of this schlocky, unashamed B-movie went on to make a trio of “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and “The Suicide Squad”, before being installed as the head of DC Studios and bringing “Superman” back to the big screen. How many of Hollywood’s biggest names have alien worms on their resumés?
Violent, gory, and often played for laughs, “Slither” was always an outlier among the big-budget blockbusters and torture porn that dominated the mid-’00s. But, rewatching the film 20 years later (March 31 was the actual anniversary), Gunn’s fingerprints are unmistakable, from the highly quotable dialogue to the quirky soundtrack lifted from the outer reaches of Gunn’s eclectic music collection.
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But screenplays were never his final goal. “I never wanted to be a screenwriter,” he said in the 2017 interview included on “Slither”‘s new Blu-ray re-release. “It’s a really terrible occupation, because you create something that you love and then someone else does the final draft. I think of directing a film as the final draft of writing the screenplay.”
That said, Gunn never intended to call the shots on “Slither”, either. The plan, instead, was to sell the script and direct superhero movie “Super” (which he eventually made in 2010 with Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page), but producer Paul Brooks persuaded him he was the man for the job.
“Slither” is set in the environs of Wheelsy, South Carolina, in the wake of a meteorite impact that brings an unwanted visitor to town. A billion-year-old worm (the “Long One” is one of our favorite aliens that look nothing like humans) has designs on conquering planet Earth, and starts out by possessing repetitively named local businessman Grant Grant (played by Gunn regular Michael Rooker).
The movie follows a familiar “horror on the streets of a small town” blueprint, as the Grant/worm hybrid and their slithery offspring gradually take over the unsuspecting townsfolk. There are undeniable echoes of the original 1950s versions of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “The Blob”, while some horror fans even accused “Slither” of plagiarising 1986’s “Night of the Creeps” after the trailer was released.
But the way of the Gunn ensures that “Slither” is also its own rather icky beast. Once Grant2 is infected, he develops a very nasty skin condition (so much more than “just a bee sting”) and an uncontrollable addiction to meat.
He then uses a pair of tentacles that emerge from his chest to impregnate local woman Brenda (Brenda James), who he promptly locks away for the duration of her three-day gestation. Fuelled by a diet of possum and other local fauna (“I’m so hungry!”), she swells to an unnatural size — “Like a big boob with her head as a nipple,” according to Gunn — before Grant’s progeny tear her apart and embark on a rampage across Wheelsy.
There’s something a little different about these particular parasites, however. Once they’ve entered your mouth and taken up residence in your cerebellum, they unite their victims in a Borg-style collective. But although resistance is similarly futile, their goals are less about assimilation than worshipping the obsessive Grant’s wife, Starla (Elizabeth Banks).
At one point in “Slither”‘s final act, these otherwise meat-hungry zombies even pause to brush her hair in a twisted display of affection — something you were never going to see in “Hostel”, “Saw” or any of the other horror movies of the era. That said, you could say the same about “Slither”‘s police station-based skirmish with a bloodthirsty deer.
“In all of the movies I’ve made, there’s this balance between the completely grounded and down-to-earth, and the completely over-the-top,” Gunn said. “[There are] broad characters that have broad characteristics, that talk very naturalistically. [We shoot] the film in a very realistic way, but it’s about something completely ludicrous.”
It’ll be no surprise to anyone familiar with Gunn’s later filmography that “Slither” is pop culture literate from its opening frames, in which a meteorite on a collision course with Earth homages “The Thing“.
Gunn also squeezes in a nod to his Troma past (“The Toxic Avenger” can be seen playing on a TV screen early on) and a blatant callback to “A Nightmare on Elm Street”‘s famous bathtub scene (simply substitute a brain worm for Freddy Krueger’s famous claws). Characters from “Tremors” (Earl Bassett Community School), “The Thing” (RJ MacReady Auctioneers & Funeral Home), and “Videodrome” (Max Renn’s Guns & Ammo) are referenced around town.
“Slither” also marked the first outing for the repertory company of actors Gunn has hired again and again throughout his career. “Firefly” and “Serenity” star Nathan Fillion (who’s had at least a cameo in all of the director’s subsequent movies) pops up as the town’s chief of police, while Gregg Henry (Peter “Star-Lord” Quill’s grandad in “Guardians of the Galaxy“) plays cinema’s most unelectable mayor since the guy in “Jaws”.
And then there’s the aforementioned Michael Rooker, the “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”, “Days of Thunder and “Cliffhanger” star Gunn rediscovered after several years away from Hollywood’s frontlines. He’s since become the director’s lucky charm, most notably as Ravager leader (and Star-Lord’s surrogate dad) Yondu Udonta in the first two “Guardians” films.
But Yondu’s blue paint job was nothing compared to the make-up ordeal Rooker endured on “Slither”. While many of the worm effects were created digitally — 20 years on, the limits of the film’s $15 million budget are occasionally exposed — the actor spent many of his shooting days buried under layers and layers of uncomfortable prosthetics.
Rooker was frequently in pain, whether it was caused by machinery from one of the prosthetic appliances digging into his neck or dislocating his shoulder while waving around one of Grant’s newly grown tentacles. Rooker was such a trooper that he continued working for another four hours after sustaining the injury.
But was it worth the agony? Although studio Universal had wanted to skip critic screenings, Gunn managed to persuade them otherwise, reasoning that some positive reviews might sell a few extra tickets. That part of the plan worked — “Slither” is 87% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes — but audiences proved to be harder to convince, as the film failed to make back its budget at the box office.
Still, along with “Super”, “Slither” proved to be an effective sales pitch for Gunn, who has defied the odds to transfer his unique brand of humor, pop culture awareness, and posse of favorite actors to both the Marvel and DC universes. Not bad for a silly movie about killer worms from outer space.
“Slither” gets a 4K digital re-release on May 1, with Visions Home Video’s new 4K Steelbook available from May 18 in the UK, and June 30 in the US.
