10 Sci-Fi Movies One Step From Perfection
5. Slither Takes Too Long To Get Going
James Gunn’s 2006 horror comedy Slither flopped upon
release, leaving the former Troma director back making indie films such as 2010’s
low-budget Super until Marvel came calling with a little-known older property
for him in the form of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The Nathan Fillion-starring
throwback to the gory glory era of eighties horror comedies didn’t deserve to fail
at the box office, with the flick representing one of cinema’s last stands for
practical effects work until 2016’s The Void. So how did it end up on this
list?
Well, the film takes its time to populate the story with a believable, funny, and likeable cast of small-town characters before the gruesome infection which plagues Michael Rooker’s antagonist begins picking them off one-by-one. In fact, it takes a little too much time doing so, with the first third of the flick—the pre-gross out alien part—dragging, only for almost every character to end up dead before the credits roll regardless.
It’s not enough to ruin the film, but the movie rarely makes its way onto rundowns of the greatest horror comedies of all time and with its dragging opening act and bleak closer, it’s not hard to see why.