Slither (2006)

Directed by James Gunn. Starring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Tania Saulnier, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Don Thompson, Brenda James, Jennifer Copping, Haig Sutherland. [R]

A slimy, gross-out horror-comedy homage that’s fun in fits and starts, but too uneven and uninspired to really work as a whole. A meteorite crashes deep in the woods of a small Southern town, bringing a squiggly, slug-like extraterrestrial parasite with it that’ll gladly jump down an unsuspecting dupe’s throat and “infect” the victim with its hive mind designs (and the munchies for raw meat). Contains a few entertaining performances and several humorous scenes of gore and grotesqueries (stretch marks end up being the least of James’ ballooning hussy’s concerns), but no matter the tongue-in-cheek attitude, it’s simply too beholden to the art of homage (almost to the point of plagiarism) to ever take it to the next level, borrowing from the likes of Shivers to Night of the Creeps and numerous breeds of small-town horror-cheese and splatstick schlock in between. Directorial debut for Gunn, who got his start with Troma Films, and he throws a few nods their way (including giving the company’s co-founder, Lloyd Kaufman, a cameo); Gunn also cameos himself, along with his then-wife, Jenna Fischer.

65/100