Editorials
Unearthing 30 Years of Gross ’80s Horror ‘Slugs’
As slimy and pest-like as slugs may be, they don’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of many. Unless, of course, they existed in the height of toxic waste mutation horror during the ‘80s. In the small town at the center of this underrated cult classic, typical garden variety slugs turn carnivorous, and after a string of gruesome deaths, it’s up to health inspector Mike Brady to discover the cause. If anyone will even believe him, that is. The premise sets up the promise of a fun ‘80s creature feature, but in the hands of director Juan Piquer Simon, the director behind the one of the goriest films of the ‘80s in Pieces, Slugs becomes something so much more twisted and gory. Released on June 5th, 1988, the Simon’s magnum opus nature-attacks feature, based on a 1982 novel of the same name, holds up well 30 years later thanks to memorable deaths and ooey gooey practical effects.
More straightforward narratively than Pieces, Slugs fits right at home with the likes of The Blob or Alligator, and other nature-attacks type creature feature of its kind. There’s no real method of madness to the slugs path of destruction, they’re simply animals made deadly by human thoughtlessness. But while it lacks that extremely bizarre nonsensical aspect that Pieces had, it makes up for with Simon’s penchant for glorious gore and weird character acting. In other words, it’s every bit as fun as Simon’s previous work.
That’s because you could count on Simon to get creative with the death sequences. Thanks to the toxic waste that the slugs picked up in the sewers (forget about logic here), their slime now has a paralyzing neurotoxin that makes it easy for them to devour their prey alive. Which is great, because slugs aren’t very fast. But more importantly, it makes for some gnarly flesh-eating sequences. Since slugs themselves aren’t inherently scary, Simon was sure to play on the fears of tainted produce, which lead to one of the best scenes in the film:
While the film sticks to the source novel somewhat close, Simon takes artistic liberties and adds in a few death scenes and flourishes. As a Spanish-American production, there’s a few scenes of obvious dubbing, and the character decision making skills are lacking. The dialogue is pretty terrible, in an unintentional sort of manner, “You don’t have the authority to declare Happy Birthday!” There’s also no named actor or actress here to effectively market the film either. All of this to say, that Slugs never really took off like it should have.
Despite an over the top, explosive finale, literally, the film ends with a wide-open cliffhanger for the return of the carnivorous slugs. It clearly never came to fruition, which is a shame, but it would have followed the sequel novel Breeding Ground, another gooey schlock fest that I would have loved to see in Simon’s hands.
It’s understandable that Slugs has slowly emerged as a more underground cult classic than overt fan favorite. It’s the sort of silly ‘80s schlock with not so great acting and a plot that’s pretty goofy. Yet, in Juan Piquer Simon’s hands Slugs has a lot of zany charm and oh, so much glorious gore. For fans of Pieces, and films that really showcased the golden era of practical effects, Slugs shouldn’t be overlooked. Especially with a crowd.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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