I know there’s a lot of detractors out there who hated what James Gunn did to the Dawn of the Dead remake by giving zombies the speed they’ve lacked for decades, and in many ways it was a legitimate gripe.  A zombie purist though I may be, I found Dawn of the Dead ’04 to be unbelievably fun and a pretty solid horror film to boot.  Now as soon as I saw the first trailers for Slither (Review) and found it coming from the same guy who brought a decent horror remake to the screen, I was optimistic to say the very least.  In the end, I can’t say I was let down, not in the slightest, and sorry to sound like a broken record among all the other horror reviewers out there, but Slither really is one of the best horror movies to come out in quite some time.

I could go into describing the plot but, well, there isn’t really a whole lot to it.  It’s a movie about mutant slugs that come from a rock that fell from the sky and turn people and deer into acid-spitting zombies or gigantic pulsating wombs that explode in huge orgies of gore.  Tonally it is very similar to a cross between a 50’s monster movie and an 80’s splatter flick with a modern sense of humor, a mix that works extremely well under the circumstances.  Taking the often risky route of a comedy-horror film, Slither succeeds on every count.  Its mood and pacing echo films like Shaun of the Dead and Tremors (take a look at the name of the high school for all you graboid fans), taking their time to get the exposition going but once the horror comes, it’s nonstop and it’s pretty damn gruesome at that.  At the same time however, it’s a movie that maintains a wicked sense of humor, using the truly horrific moments to show the pure absurdity of the situation and wrench you about in such a way that they turn out hilarious.  Never before have I heard an audience laughing so hard at a dude being split down the middle by a giant tentacle.

…and speaking of which, did I mention this is also one of the goriest films in quite some time?  Well, it is.  Clearly honoring the great heyday of the 80’s splatter flicks as much as they do the good old fashioned 50’s sci-fi horror films, Slither maintains some of the grossest effects in recent memory.  There’s dead animals, bursting giant slugs that jump into peoples mouths, mass impregnations and cannibalism, and lest we forget one of the film’s most memorable images, “Something’s wrong with me!”  The fact that most of the non-slug related effects were done with makeup and massive puppets as opposed to overdosing on CGI effects is rather refreshing as well, also bringing about the throwback feeling that this film has.

So Slither might seem a bit light on plot sometimes, but in a movie about giant brain-infesting alien slugs that eat people and farm animals, does it really need to be The Godfather?  Slither is ultimately one of the most satisfying horror films in some time, mixing the classic horror feel that has been missing from genre films as of late with a great amount of campy fun and plain old fashioned laugh out loud comedy.  Bloody, funny, smart, just see Slither.