Slither (2006)

Slither is what happens when a filmmaker with a wicked sense of humor and a genuine love for creature features decides to crank the volume on everything: the scares, the laughs, and the gloriously disgusting imagination. James Gunn keeps the story moving with brisk, confident pacing, letting the small-town setting feel cozy just long enough before it curdles into a carnival of body-horror and B-movie homage that’s as creepy as it is funny. Nathan Fillion brings an easy, likable swagger that grounds the madness, while Michael Rooker commits so hard to the grotesque transformation that you can’t look away even when you want to. Fair warning: this one is proudly, enthusiastically gross and sexually/violently graphic, but if you can handle the splatter, it’s a wildly entertaining ride with a surprisingly big heart beating under all that slime.

Slither is trying to be a loving, gross-out mashup of classic creature features and small-town comedy, with James Gunn leaning hard into gooey practical effects and B-movie energy. The problem is the tone can wobble between sharp genre fun and juvenile, redneck-leaning crudity, so if you’re not on board with that kind of humor, it’ll feel like the movie is mugging for attention while people are turning inside out. It’s also extremely graphic body horror, not “spooky” horror, so if parasites, bursting, and wet, squelchy transformations make your skin crawl, this is a hard pass. If you do like your sci-fi horror loud, slimy, and knowingly dumb in places, it’s got real charm, a solid cast, and effects that still impress.