Slither

It’s slime time. From the scatter-shot mind of James Gunn, writer of the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake, comes a monstrously funny alien-invasion-zombie-horror-comedy. Tongue firmly in cheek, Gunn affectionately harks back to ’50s sci-fi, ’80s schlock horror and the corporeal disgust of Cronenberg’s ‘Shivers’ as a South Carolina hick town descends into anarchy when an alien creature’s flesh-burrowing spike transforms  businessman Michael Rooker into a slimy, tentacular squid-beast with a craving for raw meat. Then pink phallic slugs explode from the distended stomach of another victim and wriggle into people’s mouths, turning them into flesh-craving zombies. Rooker’s trophy wife, laconic cop Nathan Fillion, the town’s foul-mouthed mayor and sparky teenager Tania Saulner fight a spirited rearguard action. You may be tempted to read the victims’ insatiable hunger as a comment on America’s epidemic obesity; or you may be too busy laughing or vomiting to bother with such thematic niceties.