Post a Comment On: Horrorthon

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From Aintitcoolnews, "Was able to get myself recruited into a screening of SLITHER last night in Burbank and am happy to report that R rated horror is back with a vengeance. This is the James Gunn movie (I was a big DAWN OF THE DEAD fan, but think this is his first directing assignment) that got buzz after Comicon last year and now seems to be fairly close to finished. I say fairly because the effects aren’t done and well, the existence of a test screening must mean someone feels there is work to be done. Either way, I am excited to say effects or not the movie delivers in a gory and twisted one two punch that shed a glimmer of hope on the 2006 horror docket.

The story doesn’t seem to have changed from previous screenings other “reporters” have seen so I will keep the summary short: Alien spore lands in a small town and takes over the body of Grant Grant (yes, Grant Grant – played ingeniously by Michael Rooker). Infected Grant then goes around spreading disease to part of the town and eating the other half. Those few left unharmed (Grant’s wife played by Elizabeth Banks, Serenity’s Nathan Fillion as a town cop, a teenage girl and the mayor played by show stealing Gregg Henry of DePalma fame) have to stop Grant before the infection gets beyond the town and starts to affect the world.

Based on the red band trailer you guys posted a few days back, I expected gore and blood abounds. I hoped for sick humor, and found myself smiling in the midst of squirming in my seat. I half thought gore and humor only ever came together in C movie cheese, but was happily proven very wrong. The gore stylings of the 80’s have obviously grown up a little bit. Mr. Gunn obviously knows his horror and you can feel him having fun with the genre. There are dark country songs instead of horror music, and detailed prosthetics (instead of just computer effects) that are cringe worthy in a complimentary sense.

The movie does take its time getting to the meat of it all (no pun intended for anyone else who saw the film). True, for the first time in a long time I actually cared about the characters by the time they died, but couldn’t there be some killing going on behind the “getting to know the town” moments? And with so much attention paid to the gore visuals, there is a car crash in the movie that looks surprisingly weak.

This will be a DVD for the collection and I’m excited to be with my friends in the theatres when its finally released to get to see their reactions."