This is a film that I've been meaning to watch for quite some time now, despite the fact that it garnered quite a number of negative reviews and had all the makings of a sub-par comedy horror. Slither takes place in the fictional southern town of Wheelsy, a place populated by a whole manner of strange and quirky individuals, rednecks, yokels and game hunters. However, the once "peaceful" town is thrown into chaos when a mysterious asteroid harbouring an extraterrestrial parasitic lifeform, crashes nearby and later infects one of the town's residents (Grant Grant, portrayed by Michael Rooker) with that lifeform - which has plans to devour the entire human race. As time goes on, Grant eventually degenerates into something less than human and begins a series of bizarre activities, such as consuming large quantities of meat and later killing local pets to satiate his growing hunger.

Fortunately, "help" is at hand with the town's sheriff Bill Pardy (played by Firefly's Nathan Fillion), who pretty much finds himself the only man able to put an end to Grant's reign of terror. There's some amusing characters in here too to keep things interesting, such as the Mayor of Wheelsy, a coarse foul-mouthed slack-jawed redneck, who has some of the more entertaining lines in the film and there's also a number of references to other films in the genre, the most prominent of which being John Carpenter's The Thing. But despite the fact that it was intended as something of a homage to the B-movies of the 1970s, Slither doesn't really do much for me. There's plenty of gore and dark humour to whet the appetites of fans of this genre, but it's definitely something that's more of an acquired taste. In a few years it's almost destined to become a cult classic. But if you're in to screwed up things or if you're a fan of bad movies in general, then give this film a try. I can't promise that you'll like it, but you might find something here that I didn't.
2½ out of 5