Slither (2006)

Summary: Starla’s marriage isn’t exactly going how she wants it and when her husband ends up “infected” with a space alien…it sure won’t get any better. Her husband has this need for raw meat and soon starts to infect everyone around him. Soon enough much of the town is infected with these zombie-like creatures and only start, the Police Chief and a few others are holding out. But they’re not gonna last long because we have a few slimy space aliens too and they’re deadly!           Overall: Let me start by saying…the film seems basically like a remake of “Night of the Creeps.” The basic plot and the creatures, etc. all say “Creeps” to me. However…the director recognizes this and in the extras on the DVD tries to point out it’s more based on “Shivers.” Sure maybe I buy that but don’t discount the “Creeps” copying.           The film has some good effects and at times, some decent one-liners. Unfortunately much of the dialogue doesn’t work though. The film wants to be funny…and isn’t. It’s all about the effects and that’s it.           Now you can tell that the film is all effects and no plot because all of the deleted scenes expand the plot points. They didn’t cut stuff solely for gore or inability to reach a good rating. They cut scene after scene after scene that advanced the plot. And that’s shame. The director claims that things were explained later on. And maybe in an “around about way” they were. But the film as its constructed makes you guess and assume at connections between characters. It makes you search and use mind-melding tricks to connect the dots. The deleted scenes would have majorly helped the story along. Example: One scene has Grant going into a grocery store, ordering meat, at one point ordering 14 pieces of raw meat. Then the next cut is him at home, unloading an amount of meat clearly exceeding 14 pieces. The deleted scenes show the continuation at the grocery store as Grant decides to clean the store out of all meat and realizing other humans also consist of meat and then later we see his obsession with meat as he start to develop a file cabinet system for the raw meat. Sure, we can assume the connection that the way Grant was going at the grocery store…he goes from 14 pieces to all. However the dialogue has him doing it in pairs: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 14…” So…we assume he’s increasing but not massive jump to “all.” However the deleted scenes show more of the connection and importance of the meat and the later need to eat humans too.           I could go on and on with examples but the film basically didn’t give us enough scenes of Kylie to justify her later importance. It never explained why Grant needed animals at first or even showing he was killing more than just cattle. And we never truly get the idea that there is chemistry between Bill and Starla. Sure we have some dialogue the two were once attracted to each other. But they seem more like acquaintances throughout the entire film and it doesn’t justify the ending, again. The director left the plot on the cutting room floor and claimed “slow-pacing” and even admits the 2nd half of the film remained “largely intact.” Well that’s where all the effects are. He cut the plot and kept the effects. And studio execs wonder why people have issues with their films.           Comparison: Night of the Creeps meets Squirm

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