Nathan Fillion

The Slime Flies in ’Slither’

High spirited monster flick gets it mostly right

Evil has arrived in the small town of Wheelsy in the form of a meteorite carrying deadly cargo. Using tentacles to infect the town’s richest man (Michael Rooker), this all-powerful alien visitor soon transforms itself into a slug-like beast/man, using thousands of smaller slugs to invade and turn the townsfolk into meat-loving zombies.

Facing danger from all sides, it’s up to the town sheriff (Nathan Fillion, "Serenity"), his childhood crush (Elizabeth Banks, "The 40 Year-Old Virgin"), and a teenager (Tania Saulnier) to save the world from certain doom.

Written and directed by James Gunn — the guy who wrote the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake — "Slither" takes us to the hick town of Wheelsy, S.C., where man’s precarious dominance over the planet is challenged when an alien-infested comet crashes in the forest.

As the extraterrestrial infection quickly spreads, the townsfolk turn into the aforementioned slug-birthing, slime-spewing, semisquid zombie mutants, and a likable-if-oddball cast of characters suddenly finds themselves charged with saving themselves, their town and the entire planet.

Nathan Fillion (star of "Firefly" and "Serenity") plays Police Chief Bill Pardy, a hometown boy with otherworldly troubles and an unrequited love. Elizabeth Banks ("Spiderman," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin") plays Starla Grant, a woman who finds her reverence for the sacred bonds of marriage put to the ultimate test. Michael Rooker ("Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer") plays Grant Grant, Starla’s husband and a man metamorphosing into something that looks like the inbred step-cousin to Jabba the Hut.

Here, Fillion is ever the excellent leading man, tossing off wry one-liners with the kind of easygoing charm that made him a hit in the space western "Serenity." If there’s any justice in this world, he’ll find himself a big-screen fave in the future.

Meanwhile, Rooker does an admirable job giving a heart to the hideous man-beast who may find himself compelled to eat the neighbors’ dogs but still deeply loves his beautiful wife. (You’ll never listen to the Air Supply song "Every Woman in the World" the same way again.)

Killer slugs, squidlike mutants, goo-spewing zombies — the monster factor here is so multifaceted it’s hard to keep track of who’s turning into what and why. Still, this is Gunn’s first time directing a feature and he deserves kudos for giving us a fast-paced film that delivers yucks and yelps as it both celebrates and sends up the horror genre he so clearly loves.

And a last note to serious film fans: Wait until all the credits have rolled for a final bit of slithery fun.