MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: SLITHER (2006) Scream Factory 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook Review + Blu-ray Screenshots

SLITHER (2006)

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: Region-Free

Duration: 95 Minutes 50 Seconds

Rating: R

Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1), DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0, Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p 4K Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Don Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Jenna Fischer, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Tania Saulnier

Director James Gunn's Slither (2006) is set in the small town of Wheelsy, South Carolina where an alien parasite arrives by meteorite, crashing into a nearby wooded area. It's local yokel Grant Grant (Michael Rooker, Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer) who first stumbles upon it while out in the woods one night with the local bar trollop Brenda (Brenda James, Dorothea), cheating on his schoolteacher wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks, The 40 Year-Old Virgin). He and Brenda happen upon the remnants of the meteorite, investigating a slime trail, which they follow, revealing the blobby looking parasite, which after after being poked with a stick shoots a stinger at Grant, which strikes him in the abdomen, it burrows its way into his body and into his brain, where it begins to take over Grant's mind. Grant quickly falls ill and slowly begins to transform, first looking a little rashy and lumpy, before transitioning into a slimy, tentacled creature, instilling him with an insatiable hunger for raw meat. None of the local pets are safe as Grant sets up an impromptu nest/slaughterhouse in his basement. The transformation begins to manifests as a rash on his face and chest, telling his wife it's simply a bee sting, but soon he develops a pair of sex-tentacles that emerge from his chest, impregnating bar-trollop Brenda with his alien sperm. She becomes a grotesque incubator for his slug-like offspring, which are unleashed on the small town inhabitants, crawling into their mouths and taking over their minds. Those they infect become hive-minded zombie drones with a craving for human flesh, all under the control of the now grotesquely tentacled Grant Grant.

Ever since I caught Slither at the cinema twenty years ago I've thought it was a blast, a mid-budget b-movie that delivers of the gore and the goo in spades, with the Grant Grant monster looking sort of like the Lovecraftian creature from Stuart Gordon's From Beyond (1986). The movie itself is riffing on several beloved sci-fi/horror classics, I can see the DNA strands from The Blob (1988), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), the body-horror Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), and a lot of shared elements from Fred Dekker's cult-classic Night of the Creeps (1986), which anyone with even a cursory knowledge of that 80s sci-fi/horror classic will no doubt recognize as being an influence, the story of a parasite infused meteorite causing havoc in a small town, with legions of slimy slugs who like to crawl into people's mouths and take them over - the influence is pretty undeniable, even if Gunn seems to gloss it over. That said, I'm fine with some 80s b-movie theft, it's long been said that good artists borrow and that the great artists just outright steal. But c'mon, poor Fred Dekker has pretty much been in movie jail after directing the disastrous Robocop 3 (1993), so maybe lets give him his flowers, even the post end credits sequence references the last scene from Night of the Creeps!

Anyway, Michael Rooker is a local guy done good Grant Grant, a big fish in a little pond, a bit of a cocksure asshole for sure, even before the parasite sting, but he truly does come across as someone who still loves his wife, he makes a mistake stepping out on his wife, but Rooker makes it apparent that the character does love Starla (Banks, Cocaine Bear), even after he begins losing control to the alien parasite you can see him fighting his the alien urge to impregnate her with his alien offspring, he does a hell of a job conveying those emotions in later scenes layered under heavy make-up effects. Starla, a smalltown beauty, certainly seems like she hooked-up with the older Grant for security, not for love, but she also remains true, even though it's clear she has a thing for Sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion, TV's Serenity), who once had a fire burning for Starla. When things start getting weird and it's clear that Grant is not the man he once was that flame is re-ignited. The stellar cast also includes Greg Henry (Body Double) as Mayor Jack MacReady, a truly smug small town asshole played for laughs. Gunn has always written interesting characters and this one is front-loaded with fun personalities that not only keep the laughs coming, but offers a some interesting character quirks and depth as well.

The sci-fi/horror gore is plentiful, lots of ooze, slime and bloodshed, the Grant Grant monster is ever evolving with multiple tentacles, mounds of lumpy flesh, and a hideous toothy grimace. The whole things is a fantastic practical creation enhanced by VFX. The hive minded slug creatures are fun, too, a few scenes look a bit too digital, this was twenty years ago after all, so they are ever so slightly dated looking at them now, but they're still pretty creepy. The scene of the alien-slug impregnated Brenda literally bursting at the seams like a too-full water balloon is gleefully nutso, she embarrassedly asks the posse that discovers her in a barn to kindly feed her a bit of possum carcass to eat - she's just so hungry for meat. It's a fun flick, a great mix of humor and gooey sci-fi alien terror, loaded with practical special effects that hold up on rewatch. Gunn made a terrific flick with this one, his directorial debut, and while it didn't exactly set the box office on fire as memory serves, but things worked on pretty well for Gunn, and the flick holds up rather well now.

Audio/Video: Slither (2006) makes it's North American 4K Ultra HD debut from Scream Factory, presented in 2160p Ultra HD widescreen (1.85:1) with HDR10 WGC color-grade, sourced from a 4K scan from the 35mm Interpositive approved by Writer/Director James Gunn And Director Of Photography Gregory Middleton. The source looks terrific, very clean with no blemishes, film grain is intact, and the Dolby Vision HDR10 enhanced colors look solid throughout, never running too hot, it's a pretty restrained use of the WCG. The 4K offers some nice moments of fine detail and texture in the close-ups, and the practical gore and slimy creature effects looks wonderful in 4K as well. I think the digital effects look better with the WGC, more defined black and dialed in contrast go a long way to making their implementation more seamless. This is a very dark film, black are deep and inky, with shadow detail lacking just a bit in my opinion, which I would attribute to source limitations, more so than any encoding/transfer flaw, as I always remember this looking a bit murky during darker scenes, even at the cinema.

Audio options include a Dolby Atmos remix, on both the UHD and the Blu-ray, as well as English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1, surround mixes. The film benefits from a dynamic sound design, creating some nice spatial orientation, with crisp dialogue. The Atmos remix adds additional depth to the Tyler Bates (Doomsday) score, as well as some wonderfully gooey and slimy sounding special effects. The DTS tracks are also solid, particularly the surround mix.

This 2-disc set is loaded-up with extras both new and archival. Archival extras carried over from the original DVD release include the Audio commentary with James Gunn and Nathan Fillion, 8-min of Deleted and Extended Scenes with optional commentary by James Gunn, the 5-min Visual Effects: Step by Step featurette, the 5-min Slithery Set Tour with actor Nathan Fillion, 10-min The Sick Minds and Slimy Days of Slither, 3-min Brewing the Blood – How to Make Blood, the 19-min Bringing Slither’s Creatures to Life, 9-min Lloyd Kaufman’s Video Diary, 9-min Gag Reel, 5-min Who is Bill Pardy? featurette, and the 1-min Theatrical Trailer.

Then we get the extras from the 2017 Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray, these include an Audio Commentary from writer/director James Gunn and actors Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker, the 30-min The Genesis Of Slither - Interview With Writer/Director James Gunn, who speaks enthusiastically about the movie, his time with Troma and addressing if his Troma days influenced the film. Gunn also talks about what a trooper Michael Rooker was for putting up with the physical tortures of being in those heavy creature make-ups, and initially writing it to sell, not to direct. He also gets into balancing down-to-earth naturalism and the more fantastical elements, how at its heart its a story about disillusionment with marriage, as well as why he cast Elizabeth Banks, Rooker, Fillion, and Henry, and what they brought to the film. Also from the Blu-ray is the 8-min The Other MacReady - Interview With Actor Gregg Henryk, who speaks about his role, giving credit to the writing for already establishing the Mayor's character without hum having to do much improv on set, recalling working with the cast, the makeup process, and reciting a few choice lines from the film that he enjoys.

New to this edition are four new video conference-style interviews, first up is the 17-min We've Got Worms - Interview With Director of Photography Gregory Middleton. In it he discusses how he landed the gig, which was pitched to him as a love letter to the '80s, shooting in rural British Columbia, and scouting locations with Gunn. He also talks about the cast, having to trim some of the special effects and the scope of the film based on it's budgets, which apparently shrunk during production, and how some restrictions can actually help sharpen the film. Also discussed is the Brenda/Barn sequence, his approach to editing VFX scenes, and the importance of sound mixes. Next up is the 13-min Feed The Fear - Interview With Editor John Axelrad. He gets into his big break into editing with the film Boogeyman, which caught James Gunn's attention, Gunn's approach to collaborative editing, and his own approach to editing. The 12-min Just A Bee Sting - Interview With Special Make-up Effects Designer Todd Masters gives an appreciation of the script, the use of subtext, balancing budget with what looks cool, and how the parasites were made from sex toy material. The last of the new extras is the 15-min What's Gotten Into You - Interview With Composer Tyler Bates, who talks about conducting a 130 piece orchestra in Brataslava for the film, challenges of working in foreign country, what he would have done differently, and his ideal way of working on score.

The Limited Edition 2-disc Collector's Edition UHD/Blu-ray SteelBook features new artwork by The CRP Group with a glossy finish. It's fine, it honestly didn't set my world on fire, I didn't hate it but I had my way I would have preferred the Justin Osborne artwork from the 2017 Blu-ray or the original movie poster artwork, if I am being honest.

Special Features:

Disc 1 - 4K UHD + Audio Commentaries

- NEW! 4K Scan From The 35mm Interpositive Approved By Writer/Director James Gunn And Director Of Photography Gregory Middleton

- Presented In Dolby Vision And Dolby Atmos

- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director James Gunn And Actors Nathan Fillion And Michael Rooker

- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director James Gunn And Actor Nathan Fillion

Disc 2 - Blu-ray: Feature Films + Extras

- NEW! 4K Scan From The 35mm Interpositive Approved By Writer/Director James Gunn And Director Of Photography Gregory Middleton

- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director James Gunn And Actors Nathan Fillion And Michael Rooker

- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director James Gunn And Actor Nathan Fillion

- NEW! We've Got Worms - Interview With Director of Photography Gregory Middleton (17:23)

- NEW! Feed The Fear - Interview With Editor John Axelrad (12:44)