Slugs (1988 film)

Last updated
Slugs, Muerte Viscosa
Slugs-film-poster.jpg
Spanish theatrical release poster
Directed by Juan Piquer Simón
Screenplay byRon Gantman
Juan Piquer Simón
Based on Slugs by
Shaun Hutson
Produced byJosé Antonio Escrivá
Francesca DeLaurentiis
Juan Piquer Simón
StarringMichael Garfield
Kim Terry
CinematographyJulio Bragado
Edited byRichard Rabjohn
Antonio Gimeno
Music by Tim Souster
Production
company
Dister Films
Distributed byDister Group (Spain)
New World Pictures (United States)
Release dates
5 February 1988 (United States)
16 September 1988 (Spain)
Running time
89 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageEnglish

Slugs, also referred to as Slugs: The Movie (Spanish: Slugs, Muerte Viscosa, lit. "Slugs, Slimy Death") is a 1988 English-language Spanish natural horror film directed by Juan Piquer Simon, and co-written by Simon with Ron Gantman. Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Shaun Hutson, it tells the story of a small town whose locals are terrorised by aggressive carnivorous slugs.

Contents

Plot

In the fictional small town of Ashton, an alcoholic named Ron Bell is eaten alive late one night by a large swarm of slugs in his living room. The next morning, health inspector Mike Brady and Sheriff Reese head to Ron's home, preparing to deliver an eviction notice, only to discover his near-skinless body. Exploring the house, Mike finds mutilple trails of slime leading from the basement, but he and Reese are unable to determine the exact creature responsible for the murder.

Later that afternoon, local gardener Harold Morris puts on a gardening glove which, unbeknownst to him, contains some of the slugs, which start eating his hand. In the ensuing chaos, Harold accidentally knocks over some of his jars of chemicals, causing a fire which ignites a tank of gasoline, resulting in an explosion that kills him and his wife Jean. Mike, upon returning home, is informed of the deaths by his wife Kim, a high school teacher, when they both discover a group of abnormally large and aggressive slugs in their garden. Mike gathers some of the slugs in a jar and leaves them with the school's science teacher John Foley for investigation. During his investigations, Foley witnesses one of the slugs attack and eat the class hamster, as, elsewhere in town, the slugs attack and eat two teenagers, and Mike's friend David unknowingly eats part of a slug that was hidden in a salad made by his wife.

Mike and Reese are brought in to investigate the deaths of the teenagers the next morning, where Mike postulates that the killings are a result of mutant slugs, only to be disregarded as crazy. Later, Mike is called over by Don, who has discovered that the locations of the murders line up with the layout of the town's sewer system, and theorises that the slug's aggressiveness may be a result of chemical leakage from a long-abandoned toxic waste dump that exists near to Bell's home.

Meanwhile, whilst dining at a restaurant, an unwell David begins profusely bleeding from his nose and collapses, before multiple blood flukes abruptly burst from his eye sockets. Having learned of the death and witnessed slugs crawling through the sink in his home, Mike approaches the town mayor, begging him to cut off the downtown water supply so that the slugs can be dealt with, but is once again dismissed as crazy, causing him to leave in frustration. Later, at the school lab, Foley shows Mike a lithium-based arsenic that Mike hopes to use to kill the slugs in the sewers, which he has discovered are the slugs's place of origin. Mike convinces Don to join him in helping getting rid of the slugs, as Foley creates a large batch of the arsenic. That night, Mike and Don enter the sewer system and locate the slugs's breeding ground, but Don is killed after he falls in and is eaten alive. Mike then climbs out of a nearby manhole and gets Foley to pump in the arsenic from a firetruck hose into the sewer, causing an explosive reaction that successfully kills all the slugs, despite causing serious damage to the rest of the town in the process. Mike reunites with Kim as the emergency services arrive, whilst unbeknownst to rest of the town, a singular live slug writhes ominously on a vent cover.

Cast

Release

The film opened in the United States on 5 February 1988.

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 38% approval rating based on 8 reviews. [1]

Variety praised the "convincing special effects and make-up and snappy direction" and said it "has enough thrills and spills in it to keep youth audiences alert". [2]

Box office

The film flopped at the U.S. box office. [2] It opened in seven theaters in the United States and grossed $15,842 in its opening weekend. [3]

Awards

The film won a Goya Award for Best Special Effects by Gonzalo Gonzalo, Basilio Cortijo and Carlos de Marchis. [4]

Home video

Anchor Bay Entertainment released a DVD of the film in 2000. In 2011, Image Entertainment released a DVD of the film under the Midnight Madness Series. In 2016, British home video distributor, Arrow Films, released a special edition Blu-ray of the film, which contained a commentary track and interviews with several people associated with the film.

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References

  1. ↑ "Slugs (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 Besas, Peter (April 5, 1988). "Film Reviews: Slugs". Daily Variety . p. 13.
  3. ↑ Greenberg, James (February 10, 1988). "Fresh Pics Stir Up National Boxoffice, But 'Nam' Still Tops". Variety . p. 3.
  4. ↑ Besas, Peter (April 5, 1989). "'Women On Verge,' 'Rowing With Wind' Lead Spain's Goyas". Variety . p. 10.
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