Slither: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Slither: Collector's Edition

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
To the average movie goer James Gunn is the guy behind Guardians of the Galaxy, and the writer of Dawn of the Dead remake. However, before he was a big Hollywood director, Gunn had his starts in low budget horror. However, it was not just low budget horror, but the most schlocky and cheese ridden sub genre of horror. It was Troma films itself! Gunn has never been ashamed of his low rent roots, but has instead stated that is a fond memory and a blast of goofy fun in his life, even though he’s reached for the mainstream stars with his introduction to Marvel. Back before he directed the space epic, he tried his hand at directing a feature film with 2006’s Slither. A horror comedy that hearkens back to the age of David Cronenberg body horror and a good dose of Night of the Creeps as well.

The town of Wheelsy is your average podunk town in America. Church on Sunday, deer hunting whenever you can, and the ability to gossip about anything and everything. But the sleepy little redneck town has just been invaded by evil. A monster falling from the skies has latched onto the town rich guy Grant Grant (Michael Rooker, and yes his first and last name is the same, that’s not a miss spelling). Blending with Grant, this alien being seeks to do the thing that all malevolent alien species want to do, and that is take over the world with it’s disgusting slug like spawns. Little by little the sleepy little town of Wheelsy is infected and taken over by the hive mind of this malevolent being, and now it’s up to Chief of Police, Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), Grant’s wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) and a young girl named Kylie (Tania Saulnier) to save the town by wiping Grant/Alien and his disgusting rampage of terrorizing spawn off the face of the earth.

The plot for Slither is exceedingly simple. It’s your classic body horror film with a dash of good old Troma cheese thrown in for good measure. Grant and his spawn are looking at taking over the world, and our heroes are going to have to blow up, stab, crush and mangle there way to the head alien and stop it at it’s source. Sound familiar? Yup, it’s because that’s your typical body horror type of plot. Gunn revels in the disgusting and the macabre, showing all sorts of ooey gooey guts and slimy tentacles galore. There’s a distinctly low brow sense of humor to the film as well, winking and nodding at the camera while aliens ingest human bodies, and Nathan Fillion lending his typical boyish charm to the role (a pre Castle Fillion who was only a few years off of Firefly). Much of the humor actually keeps the film from being a little bit TOO grisly and disturbing, as without it Slither would really kind of gross even ME out (and this coming from a near immune to gore horror hound).

The inclusion of humor acts as a sort of bridge for the characters, allowing you to care about them and their plight, including a budding romance between Bill and Starla, as well as keep the ball rolling so that it doesn’t fall into your typical schlocky horror category. The gore and slimy nastiness is kept at level 10 the whole movie, but it’s never so obscene and disgusting that you feel it detracts from the adventure at hand. Gunn keeps the wit and the effects moving at a snappy pace, so that the simplistic plot never feels like a drag and the inclusion of a top notch cast really rounds out the trifecta.

Talking about cast, Gunn has gotten a great group of actors who really know what it’s like to have fun in a B movie. Nathan Fillion is always a treat to watch, and his charm pretty much carries a good majority of the movie. Elizabeth Banks is very obviously the “easy on the eyes” damsel in distress, and this was just before she broke out and became a decently famous star as well. Rounding out the cast is Jenna Fischer (best known as Pam on The Office) as well as Gunn favorite, Michael Rooker and Gregg Henry hamming it up as the jerk everyone loves to hate. It’s simple, it’s nasty, and it’s pure fun, and the cast is having a ball with B-movie cheese.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images




Video:

This is the first time that Slither has gotten a 1080p domestic release, as the HD DVD was 1080i from Universal, and the Canadian Blu-ray was 1080i as well. However, I was a little disappointed to see that this appears to be from the same 2006 era master complete with some of the flaws that the HD DVD had (although the DNR is gone from this particular master. Something which is a HUGE upgrade over the HD DVD). Colors are warm and earthy, with some really great detail and clarity in the daylight shots. Colors are bright and full of pop, The darks are solid enough, but they tend to get a little murky and washed out in shadows. Something that has plagued every release of the film that I’ve ever seen (and I’ve owned them all) due to the amount of heavy heavy grading that James Gunn applied to the film. It’s a good looking disc and a definite increase in quality over the Canadian Blu-ray and the HD DVD, and while I would have liked a new 2K or 4K remastering, this is a substantial upgrade over the formats we've had in the past.





Audio:

The audio mix gets a slight kick in the pants as well. The old HD DVD was only Dolby Digital lossy audio and the increase in fidelity and dynamic range IS rather noticeable. Dialog is crisp and cleanly replicated in the center of the soundstage, and the dynamic range is pretty impressive. What is really nice is the sense of immersion and directional cues that Gunn uses in his mix, as you can hear everything from the disgusting slimy slurp of the aliens crawling along the floor, to the soft sounds of human screams in the rear of the soundstage. Car crashes and gunfire have some weight LFE to them, and a few jump scares will get the subs a thumping for sure. Slither is NOT a wildly bassy film that’s been cooked hot, but there’s enough LFE to go around for everyone.

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Extras:

• Audio Commentary With Writer/Director James Gunn And Actors Nathan Fillion And Michael Rooker
• The Genesis Of SLITHER – An Interview With Writer/Director James Gunn
• The Other MacReady – An Interview With Actor Gregg Henry
• Audio Commentary With James Gunn And Nathan Fillion (From 2006)
• Deleted And Extended Scenes With Optional Commentary By James Gunn
• Visual Effects: Step By Step
• Slithery Set Tour With Actor Nathan Fillion
• The Sick Minds And Slimy Days Of SLITHER
• Brewing The Blood – How To Make Blood
• Bringing SLITHER's Creatures To Life
• Lloyd Kaufman's Video Diary
• Gag Reel
• Who Is Bill Pardy? Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Slither is pure cinematic B-movie cheese, and it’s probably one of the best horror/comedies that you’ve never seen. The special effects are solid, the casting is top notch, and James Gunn’s trademark humor infuses a cheeky sort of fun that is infectious. Much like The Evil Dead 2 I like to dub it one of my favorite “splatstick films of all time. The Blu-ray is a nice upgrade from the crummy looking HD DVD and the 1080i Blu-ray from Canada, and Scream Factory has really decked out the film with all the special features from the DVD as well as some new commentaries and featurette’s to make this a really kick butt collector’s edition (complete with reversible cover art with the original art on one side, and the new one on the other). If you haven’t seen it and love a good funny gorefest, then Slither is something you REALLY need to check out. If you know and love the film as much as I do, this collector’s edition is well worth picking up.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker
Directed by: James Gunn
Written by: James Gunn
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 96 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 1st, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Definite Buy

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never heard of this movie but after reading about it and watching the trailer, I am interested in checking it out.