Rojo
Slither
Slither. On the surface I would say this was going to be a crap film, but crap I wanted to see, and what do you know, it wasn’t crap and it was, but it was so oh so entertaining I rate it as one of the best horror films I’ve seen for ages. Why?
The crossing of genres.
This is the easiest cross I feel, horror and humour, but like crossing any genre it can be fraught with peril and it can and it can spark with greatness, thankfully this is the later not the former.
James Gunn is a talented writer, his feel for comedy is brilliant and he has a flair for the macabre mixing the two he has talent beyond the Ellie Roth’s of this world (I do respect Roth but I find his work blatantly over the top renditions of easy horror and contrived tales I deem lacking). Gunn’s feel for comedy has me wondering if he will reach beyond horror (writer of Dawn of the Dead) as I feel his wit could transcend the genre he has selected to make his name on. I use the example of his feel for writing to seg-way to Nathan Fillion.
The scene in the car when the mayor, girl, woman, and cop have managed to escape the zombies Bill (Fillion) calls into the station for help. The conversation with the apathetic receptionist (that all in the car can hear) suddenly turns to his mother and her toilet being backed up,
”it’s cause of what you did on Sunday in there”.
As he drives on he explains that the roots of the tree in her yard are the reason her toilet is blocked. In the middle of a crisis he is so into the woman sitting next to him that he takes the time to explain that the blockage wasn’t due to a vicious cable he had laid.
Fillion is brilliant in this film, his delivery of lines that could have been so off makes them so on, my examples.
“My easy going nature is getting sorely fucking tested”
“That bitch is hardcore”
“Well now that is some fucked up shit”
I understand when I quote lines from films they never seem as funny as they are on screen but when you see the movie and the actors deliverer them they are brought to life in a way that is far beyond slapping electronic black ink onto electric white paper they become moments that define he movie. When we add into this mix the disgusting-ness of the film, I mean the graphic detail and goings on (example the woman who is the womb for the slugs to begin with) and the rest of the gore it becomes a out standing horror flick.
Michael Rooker poor casting, Nathan Fillion is perfect casting. The rest are fine.
The idea is simple and great, the writing witty and full of great calls. Great horror movie.
Horror 8.5/10
Film 6.5/10
