slugs

By 1988 , after countless movies about mutated sharks , crocodiles , ants , bees, and just about any other animal you care to mention , the whole 'nature vs. mankind' genre was really running out of steam. Slugs is a perfect example of filmmaking at the end of its creative tether.

Slugs begins in your average American city....well it's not quite so average. It's really a twisted, turned upside down image of every other city in the world. The only responsible and worthwhile

citizens are all public servants , while everyone else seems to be an alcoholic. Anyone anywhere in the world can tell you that any chance this movie had of being plausable flew right out the window there. I for one have seldom had prompt , intelligent, or courteous service from the government....but lets move on. Everyone else in the movie from college kids to the elderly is always drinking no matter what time of day it is. To top it all off , theres a whole bunch of mutated slugs below the city hungry for human flesh.

Things start innocently enough with an old wino and an extremely irritating old couple getting chomped by thousands of the bloodthirsty little slimeballs. But soon well liked and important people like the Mayor start dropping like flies. It's all up to the local health inspector , the high school science teacher, and the local sewer technician to save the day. With this many public servants working together , I thought the combined red-tape and apathy would drag out Operation Killslug over about seven years , but luckily for the town they decide to actually act quickly. It's not a moment too soon , with the slugs killing horny teenagers and innocents alike.

It probably looked like a good idea on paper , but without decent character actors (not to mention characters) the laughs wore thin fairly quickly. It did have some pretty good gore scenes though. My favorite was when the greedy real estate agent ( who's wife is yet another alcoholic) eats a salad full of slug eggs. A couple of days later he embarrasses guests at a business luncheon by internally exploding ! Baby slugs crawl out of his guts and eyesockets. I didn't really like this movie all that much because I'm usually more partial to Alligator or Empire of the Ants style nature fights back movies. At the end of the day the tiny slugs just weren't threatening enough for a horror movie , nor did it have the comic appeal of a Great White or a Bloodsurf. Still , if you catch it on late night t.v. like I did the other night , give it a try. No doubt it will beat whatever's on the other channels hands down.