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Slither

B-movie shoots for camp and gross-outs

By TOM MEEK | April 5, 2006

3.0 Stars

This pleasing B-level gore fest (no relation to the 1973 flick staring James Caan) is an unintentional hybrid of Larry the Cable Guy and Stay Alive as it pits rednecks against zombies. The sleepy veil over deer-hunting capital Wheelsy gets blasted off when a meteor strikes and turns bumpkin tycoon Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) into an oozing, Jabba the Hutt–esque land squid. An infestation of red slugs ensues. Director James Gunn (who’s penned such winners as Scooby Doo and the Dawn of the Dead remake) shoots for camp and a high gross-out quotient. He scores the latter, but much of Slither, like Shaun of the Dead’s cannibalization of George Romero’s revenant franchise, feels borrowed — most notably from David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975). Rooker has a good time brooding under the layers of latex, Elizabeth Banks fills the heroine-in-distress role as Grant’s wife, Nathan Fillion plays her Dudley Do-Right, and Gregg Henry is the potty-mouthed mayor.

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