Nathan Fillion

It’s good, unclean horror fun

In contrast to recent hardcore gorefests, "Slither" adds laughs to the expected spectacle of exploding heads and oozing entrails.

The recent run of successful hardcore horror pictures is broken somewhat with "Slither," which is much more a horror-comedy than an edgy exercise in mayhem.

Horror lite: A horror comedy about an alien invasion in a small town, where the sheriff (Nathan Fillion, from "Firefly") combats hundreds of outer-space slugs. The jokes don’t sit especially well next to the grotesque make-up effects. Rated: R rating is for violence, language Now showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett 9, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Meridian, Metro, Woodinville, Cascade Mall I mean, don’t worry: There’s plenty of oozing guts and exploding skulls. But this film indulges in old-fashioned notions such as heroes to root for and comic relief.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much beyond its indulgences. "Slither" (not a remake of a 1973 comedy by the same title) settles for easy jokes and wild make-up.

The story is basic it-came-from-outer-space 1950s-style horror. A meteorite lands in sleepy Wheelsy, S.C., and disgorges an alien visitor into the body of a wealthy jerk (Michael Rooker).

After consuming enough red meat to block Lance Armstrong’s arteries, he becomes a flailing, slithering "Squid Man," unleashing hundreds of small slugs looking for human hosts. His confused wife (Elizabeth Banks) and the small-town sheriff (Nathan Fillion) join forces to combat the invasion.

There’s something about the jokey atmosphere (the infectee’s wife asks him why his face is grotesquely deformed, and he says it’s "just a bee sting") that doesn’t sit well with the hideously elaborate special effects. When a freakishly ballooned woman is discovered in a barn, the make-up is so horrific that the laughs stick in your throat.

Writer-director James Gunn previously wrote the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead," which was a strongly constructed zombie picture played straight. More relevantly here, he also cut his teeth writing for Troma Pictures, the low-budget Z-movie outfit specializing in laff-riot horror movies.

"Slither" has laughs, and a cast that can deliver them. Nathan Fillion, star of TV’s "Firefly" and its big-screen spin-off "Serenity," has perfected the art of square-jawed, deadpan comic heroism. Elizabeth Banks proved her mettle in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "The Baxter," and she’s an appealing heroine. And Gregg Henry is always up for playing a fatuous mayor, which is exactly what he is here.

Too many of the jokes are a variation on someone seeing an impossibly disgusting spectacle and then saying something like, "Well, you don’t see that every day." It gets old after the 10th time.

It will be interesting to see if the horror audience wants to go back to this kind of horror-lite after the exhausting heaviness of "Hostel" and "The Hills Have Eyes." They will if they need a good unhealthy laugh.

Elizabeth Banks, Nathan Fillion and Don Thompson in "Slither."