In a small New York town dead bodies start popping up left and right. That in and of itself is bad news, but making matters much worse is that the bodies are in grisly shape appearing to have been eaten away by something. Eyes are missing from sockets, flesh is chewed away down to the bone. What could be the cause? Rats? Raccoons? Some other small critter? Turns out it’s slugs. Yes, slugs.
This of course is the plot of the 80’s slimy creature feature Slugs. Of course.
Michael Garfield stars as Mike Brady, the town health inspector set on getting to the bottom of this strange epidemic. After getting bit by a slug in his front yard Mike begins to develop a theory that sounds crazy…at first. He captures the slimy insect and rushes it down to the science teacher at the local high school. Tests on the slug suggest something is different about this slug, something that isn’t normal. After some more digging Mike discovers that a large portion of the town was built over what used to be a toxic waste site. Construction on a new mall in the town has opened the site up releasing toxic gases into the sewer system which in turn has mutated the slugs into killing machine. Mike and the town only have one solution – blow them up!
Slugs is so much stupid fun. I watched this movie alone, but it would make for a great party movie with a bunch of friends. It has everything you want in an 80’s B-movie. You take something fairly common and harmless and turn it into a killing machine. The plot is ridiculous but they do enough to try and make sense of it all throughout that you end up thinking to yourself, “yeah, ok, this makes sense to me.” And best of all the film is packed with practical effects. Head explosions, bursts of blood, eyes popping out of sockets, skin being ripped away, you name it and it’s here. Oh and explosions. Lots and lots of explosions. Also I think they killed lots of real slugs. They definitely made fake ones too, but they used real ones and I’m pretty sure they just stomped all over them. I even checked in the credits and there was no message indicating that animals were not harmed. The 80’s!
Slugs was directed by Juan Piquer Simón – a director I happen to be quite fond of (read my review for Pieces, one of my favorite slashers of all time). On the surface Slugs is a huge step up from Pieces for Simón. It’s a much more polished film and you can see that Simón made great strides to improve as a director. Personally I still prefer Pieces and view it as the superior movie, but you can certainly see the improvements Simón made over the years.
Much like other Simón films Slugs features performances that are best described as bizarre. In a film like Pieces Simón worked with some talented actors, mainly Christopher George, Lynda Day George and Paul L Smith. Those are three actors that over the course of their respective careers appeared in a number of good movies giving good performances. But in Pieces their performances are different. I wouldn’t go as far as too say bad, but they’re not good either. They’re just weird. The performances in Slugs (and other Simón movies like The Rift) are exactly the same, it’s just that in Slugs none of the actors are really “name” actors. This probably has to do with the fact that Simón was a Spanish director who spoke little to no English. His crews were always a mix of Spanish and American actors that really weren’t able to communicate too well with one another. Combine this with the fact that Simón usually did one take and moved on and it’s easy to see how the performances came out the way they did. I don’t mind this at all though. I think it gives Simón’s films a certain charm and sort of works as his stamp.
Slugs is now out on Blu-ray from Arrow Video and it looks gorgeous. The transfer was scanned in 2K from the original 35mm print delivering a beautiful looking picture. I can’t stress enough how amazing it is that we have B-movies that look this good. What a time to be alive.
The release also has some wonderful special features:
•Audio commentary by writer and filmmaker Chris Alexander
•Here’s Slugs In Your Eye – an interview with actor Emilio Linder
•They Slime, They Ooze, They Kill: The Effects of Slugs – an interview with special effects artist Carlo De Marchis
•Invasion USA – an interview with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo
•The Lyons Den – an interview and locations tour with production manager Larry Ann Evans
•1988 Goya Awards promo reel
•Original Theatrical Trailer
•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Wes Benscoter
•Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by writer Michael Gingold
The interviews with Carlo De Marchis and Larry Ann Evans are especially good. Both Marchis and Evans touch base on how Simón directed actors and how he got the performances he did. Marchis, in discussing the special features, talks about how Simón exceeded in directing scenes heavy in special effects but struggled when directing actors. Evans attributes this to the language barrier between Simón and his stars. Despite the difficulties Simón may have had in this regard, both Marchis and Evans are quick to point out how relaxed and fun Simón’s sets were and how the cast and crew always felt at ease.
Slugs is fun, man. Lots and lots of absurd fun. It’s a creepy, slimy, crawly 80’s splatter fest. Highly recommended.
Slugs is now available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
