Mucus And Mayhem

At the risk of dating myself, I was around at the time when renting movies(um..both VHS and BETA thank you very much) came about. My friends and I would rent every weekend and we would almost always rent horror movies. We enjoyed scaring the crap out of ourselves with titles like, Dawn of the Dead(the original), Scanners, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the timeless classic Halloween. Good times.

Horror movies within the last 20 years have been mostly terrible. Studios have catered to the almighty PG-13 demographic, and really taken the teeth out of the horror genre. Not to mention the completely unnecessary sequels spawned by what seems like the dozens. Finding the good horror movie these days that doesn't pull any punches is rare indeed. Most are just teens being killed without actually seeing anything too graphic, except the obligatory female underwear/bikini scene and lots of innuendo about what actually caused her untimely demise. Simply put - I want some gore, swearing, and unapologetic nudity for it's own sake. Please.

Yesterday my brother and I went to see the movie Slither. Billed as a horror comedy, this film stars Nathan Fillion(FireFly) and Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). The formula is one that has been used forever, in fact the beginning of the movie reminded me almost exactly of the classic The Blob and the 1988 remake. Small town, invasion of something creepy, small group surviving the horror. The difference is that this movie is written far better that others of this type, and due to an R rating has volumes of gore and lots of people swearing at eachother. The one thing that separated this from usual fare it that it's quite funny. I found myself more than once laughing out loud. Fillion is naturally funny and anyone who's seen FireFly or Serenity can attest to that. His role as the town sheriff and protaganist is the focus of the film, and rightly so, he's a funny guy. Simply put, this film took it's R rating a ran with it. My brother left the theatre and called the film ridiculous. Ridiculous in the best way possible. If you liked Tremors you will really like this film. The comedy and horror are balanced well. The story begins formulaic, but eventually takes some interesting liberties with established horror themes. This movie is what all horror films should aspire to be, FUN. Check it out if you get the chance.