Slugs
Alternative Titles: Slugs, muerte viscosa; Mutations; Salingaria tou tromou; Slugs – Vorice d’orrore
Director: Juan Piquer Simón
Year: 1988
Starring: Michael Garfield, Kim Terry. Philip MacHale, Alicia Moro, Santiago Alvarez
Context:
Based on the novel by Shaun Hutson, the author would go on to say in an interview with thisishorror.co.uk that the “film isn’t great… but it’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen in my life” although the film makes several distinct changes leading Hutson to add in the same interview that the thrill of seeing his name on the big screen was almost enough for him to forgive “the film company for fucking up the book!”
It is rumoured that the written sequel Breeding Ground was also due to be adapted to the big screen but unfortunately nothing came about with this.
Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón is best known for the 1982 Spanish mystery slasher PIECES and to be honest on the face of it his involvement in this film is a strange one due to having not received a writing or directing credit in four years. However his participation came about as his regular production manager Larry Ann Evans had been reading the novel and promoted it as a viable opportunity.
The film itself stars Emilio Linder who had briefly worked with Simón on a couple of occasions, namely the films THE RIFT and CTHULU MANSION. While a rather bizarre fact about the film [taken from imdb.com] is that it was banned in the Australian state of Queensland until the regional Censorship Board was disbanded in the early-'90s.
Synopsis:
The townsfolk of a rural community are dying in strange and gruesome circumstances. Following the trail of horrifically mutilated cadavers, resident health inspector Mike Brady is on the case to piece together the mystery. He soon comes to a terrifying giant slugs are breeding in the sewers beneath the town, and they’re making a meal of the locals!
Review:
Water bubbles in an isolated still lake as a bickering couple argue in a small row boat. The young man, fishing, falls in while his nubile partner begins to panic when he doesn’t immediately resurface. This aquatic creature feature is, you’ve guessed it….Slugs: The Movie!
With the opening credits and the seemingly pointless lake scene over we are transported to the town of Lyons as a bunch of youths speed past the local down and out Ron Bell who pretty soon also succumbs to slimy critters thereby setting the scene for the films reasonably high body count.
Although be warned it is not only death that litters this film but also inconsistencies and dodgy dialogue, no better exemplified by the first interaction between our lead protagonist, town health inspector Mike Brady and the local asshole Sherriff Reese. Travelling in a cop car towards Ron Bell’s house, not only is there some bad humour but also not one but two occasions of our characters throwing items out of seemingly rolled up windows!
Once at the property the hilarity continues with a deputy, surely no older than 30/31 stating that the corpse was worse than anything he had seen in Vietnam….which had ended thirteen years previously. Hmm something doesn’t add up here but why let that get in the way of a good line. In fact in the extras, production manager Larry Ann Evans would even state that she informed Simón of some the script inadequacies but what the hell, this is entertainment.
Back to the film and the problems come thick and fast for Brady as both he and the town sanitation officer Don Palmer receive a call from a no doubt lonely grumpy old woman who is kicking off about the smell coming from a nearby sewer and on this our investigative team is formed and they begin on a slimy mystery.
Never one to let a bit of time go by without any action by the end of the first act things get kicked up a notch as an elderly couple are blown up and Brady’s finger nearly chomped off by a giant slug, leading them to think that maybe there is something going on.
So, when you suspect that slugs might be going around town bumping people off but you aren’t quite sure what to do – the logical thing is to go and speak to the local English chemistry or biology (it’s never quite established who he is or what he does) nerd Foley. The brains behind the brawn provided by the health and sanitation officers, Foley knows his shit and sets about investigating exactly what they are up against.
If all this sounds like there might be too much plot creeping in for your liking don’t worry because in SLUGS you are only ever a few minutes away from action or hilarity as more brutal and slimy slayings occur and no one is safe, from the business man just trying to seal a deal to the horny naked teenagers also just trying to seal the deal. All the while Brady is trying to tell everyone that slugs are behind all of this but his explanations just fall on deaf ears as first the Sherriff retorts “Killer slugs for Christ’s sake. What will it be next? Demented Crickets?” and much later Frank Phillips, the head of the water department responds to Brady’s demands to declare a health emergency with a reply of “You ain’t got the authority to declare Happy Birthday!” Classic stuff.
Perhaps the main highlight of the film however occurs in between these two pieces of dialogue gold as a council representative is at lunch and just about to finally secure a major land development sale only for the dinner and deal to be interrupted by something that would not look out of place in fellow 80s film STREET TRASH.
By now you probably understand that SLUGS does not really do subtlety or even pay much credence to build up as it hurtles towards its final climax as Brady and Palmer take matters into their own hands and decide to hunt down the slugs breeding ground and end this once and for all, no matter what the cost.
SLUGS is a fast paced entertaining piece of trash with humorous dialogue and lashings of over the top action and gore. If you only watch one gastropod movie this year…make it this one and make it the Arrow release.
Version Reviewed:
We watched an advance copy of the Arrow Video 2016 blu ray release. Featuring English only audio and subtitled for the hard of hearing the film itself looks and sounds great, unsurprisingly as the only blu ray release it is not difficult to see that this is the best presentation of the film out there.
Arrow haven’t stopped there however and have commissioned a bunch of new extras for this release. Starting with Here’s Slugs in Your Eye, an interview with Emilio Linder in which the actor tells about his enjoyment of working with director Simón and the relaxed atmosphere he cultivates on his sets. Later he tells an endearing story about his famous restaurant scene, but rather than discussing his definitive moment in the film, rather he indulges us with a tale of his love for actress Silvana Mangano, who he had the pleasure of meeting as she took a surprising cameo role for the restaurant sequence.
We also have They Slime, They Ooze, They Kill in which special Fx artist Carlo De Marchis talks about his work on the set, what worked the best and the obstacles which he faced. Unsurprisingly he also discusses the difficulty in directing and working with slugs – not the easiest as we can all imagine. Once again the interviewee only has positive words about the director even going as far as stating that “Piquer was as good as Spielberg”, strong words.
Further interviews include Invasion USA where the very thrifty but practical art director Gonzalo Gonzalo gives us some fascinating insights into the films production and is a joy to learn more from. Finally we have The Lyons Den in which production manager Larry Ann Evans takes us around the town of Lyons where the American exteriors (and some interiors) where shot. Despite bizarrely referring to Hutson’s original novel as an American book this feature is a fantastic tour of the locations used and the story behind them. Evan’s enthusiasm for the film is infectious and it doesn’t take long to be sucked into, and dare I say learning from, this informative little segment.
The disc also features a trailer and a couple of audio commentary options, the first with writer and filmmaker Chris Alexander and the second with the original novel writer Shaun Hutson. Hutson’s commentary is fantastic as he speaks about his writing process, his influences not to mention the many scenes in the film that are not even in his novel let alone changed. Hutson’s self-deprecating but humorous comments really make this a commentary worth listening to on subsequent watches.
