Editorials
Happy 10th Anniversary to James Gunn’s ‘Slither!’
10 years ago today, James Gunn (co-writer and director of Guardians of the Galaxy) unleashed his horror-comedy masterpiece Slither upon the world, and nobody went to go see it. Sitting at a mighty comfortable 86% on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 136 reviews) and a 69 Metacritic score (based on 27 reviews), Slither should have been at least a modest success for Universal Pictures, but audiences were either turned off by the comedic aspects of the film or the grossness of it (and it is plenty gross). The film would only gross $7.8 million domestically on a $15 million budget (the worldwide gross was a measly $5 million), making it a flop for the studio. Since then, it has become a fairly popular cult film that remains as one of the best horror films of the 2000s.
From Slither’s Wikipedia page:
Paul Brooks, president of the film’s production company, Gold Circle Films, said the company was “crushingly disappointed” by the gross. Universal distanced itself from Slither‘s poor box office performance, citing their distribution of the film as merely part of a deal with Gold Circle. The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Slither‘s performance “might have killed off the horror-comedy genre for the near future.” Producer Paul Brooks offered this explanation about why Slither failed to catch on with filmgoers:
I think that because it was comedy-horror instead of pure horror is where the problem lay. It’s the first comedy-horror in a long time, and maybe the marketplace just isn’t ready for comedy-horror yet. It’s difficult to think of other explanations.
That’s pretty harsh. Slither certainly didn’t kill the horror-comedy, but it proved that audiences had no desire to see something like that. It was hardly the first horror-comedy to come around in a long time though, since Shaun of the Dead came out just two years prior and it did alright. It wouldn’t be until Drag Me to Hell was released in 2009 that a horror-comedy would actually see decent box office numbers, and that was probably only because that film’s trailer marketed it as a straight horror film. This would end up hurting that film, since audience members probably didn’t appreciate the Looney Tunes humor, and the film saw steep declines in box office numbers in the coming weeks (though it still made a profit).
The first trailer for the Slither conveying exactly what the film was about and balanced the horror and the comedy fairly well, but it probably didn’t do much to entice audiences to come out in droves. It’s difficult to successfully pull off the comedic elements in a horror film in 90 seconds, and Slither is a prime example of this issue. The second trailer (below) used its humor a bit more effectively, but we’ve talked about how horror-comedy can be a hard sell with mainstream audiences before. Hell, this movie seemed to be a hard sell for horror fans too. Where were all of you when Slither was released? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m legitimately asking. What turned you off of Slither?
It would be appropriate to call Slither ahead of its time. Had it been released today, it may have been more of a sleeper hit, though it is impossible to say. Boasting the talents of (at the time) relatively unknown stars like Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) and Elizabeth Banks (whose most recognizable role at that point was her scene-stealing turn as Beth in The 40-Year-Old-Virgin), they would be able to give Slither the necessary star power it probably needed at the time. Michael Rooker, as the sympathetic villain Grant Grant, may have even pulled in some viewers because of his role as Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead, though that may be a bit of a reach.
Taking direct cues from David Cronenberg’s Shivers, 1986 horror-comedy Night of the Creeps (Gunn also states that Cronenberg’s The Brood was a big influence), and even a little bit of Society, Slither was essentially an homage to Troma Entertainment, which is where Gunn began his career as the writer of Tromeo and Juliet. Interestingly enough, Gunn also wrote the scripts for Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed for Universal Pictures before making his way over to Slither. It should be noted that he also wrote the script for Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, so that probably had more to do with him get Slither off the ground than the Scooby-Doo movies (though I will admit that I enjoy those films too).
I was working at an AMC Theatres when Slither opened on March 31, 2006, so I dragged my sister and then-boyfriend to go see the film with me (for free, so its partially my fault that the film made no money). I immediately regretted taking them. I adored the film, but neither of my movie buddies were fans. It was “too gross” and I was told that I would “never be forgiven” for bringing them to it. My sister has since come around on the film and even purchased it at some point down the road. I have no idea if the other one has similarly changed his opinion on the film, but I digress. I saw it and loved it, and that’s all that matters!
What are your thoughts on Slither? Were you one of the small few who managed to catch it in theaters during the four weeks it was available to see back in 2006? Or did you regrettably miss it only to catch it later that year (or years later)? If you were late to the game, Tweet an apology to Universal Pictures or even James Gunn, Elizabeth Banks or Nathan Fillion! Track down the production crew and apologize to them! Let them know that you are aware of your mistake and you’ll make it up to them somehow. I say this in jest, of course, but only slightly. Share your fond memories of the film in the comments below, and let us know your thoughts on Slither!
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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