(aka Slithis)
Think Jaws, with a gill man.
We have the crusading reporter — even if he’s just an ex-reporter, teaching Journalism to High School students — who has uncovered the greatest story ever, only he can’t convince anyone that there’s a big, murderous creature on the loose, committing one atrocity after another.
And, yes, particularly not the authorities.
We know how this is going to end, with the hero and friends trying to stop it. They even go out into the bay in a small boat after it.
For all that this was a super-low budget film, the creature suit doesn’t look bad at all. We don’t see much of it, which is one of those wise decisions for any monster no matter how good it looks. But it really helps something this cheap.
There’s a fair amount of talk (even if the ending proves quite active), a plentiful supply of gore, and a lot of interiors which seem to have that brightly-lit TV series look.
The creature’s origins are rather interesting, although not terribly believable. Even if one accepts the idea that a radiation leak can somehow create living sludge (the Slithis of the title) the suggestion that it could evolve into a man-like amphibious creature in a matter of months is a touch absurd.
This also means that this sludge monster is pretty much invulnerable to everything from bullets to knives. Although you’d think that, if your living slime sprouted arms and legs, it would also need to develop some of the things that would makes it vulnerable, like a heart, veins and a skeletal system. As the Slithis readily absorbed the characteristics of other creatures you’d think it would develop the same organs they had.
While this might explain why it developed so quickly, it still leaves lots of unanswered questions, for example, how could some totally unique, spontaneously created being absorb the characteristics of beings that would have nothing in common with it — not even DNA. Or, for that matter, how would something made entirely of mildly radioactive sludge be able to stand?
On the whole, you’re better off trying not to think too deeply about this. In fact, this is not a particularly profound film, so any amount of thinking about it would just get in the way.
But it is reasonably well made, without the usual grainy look or dreadful sound quality we associate with cheap film. Whatever you may think about the premise, this is a competent production and far better than you’d expect from a film with this bad a reputation.
Although it is slow. Very slow.
Perhaps it could be summed up by saying “I’ve seen worse.” Which, admittedly, in my case doesn’t say much. After all, I’ve seen The Thing Below and Revenge of Doctor X and others just as bad. But for a super-cheap, B-Movie, Drive-In style creature feature, you could easily do worse.
Mind you, it’s not hard to do better.
So watch it at midnight, with sarcasm, low expectations, and lots of popcorn.
Just make sure it’s really good popcorn…
rivets on the poster 