Slithis

Spawn of the Slithis (1978)

* (out of 4)

A small town comes under attack by some sort of sea monster, which appears to have been caused by a nuclear leak. Pretty soon pets and humans are going missing with only bloody limbs turning up. A group of friends set out to find the creature and destroy it.

If you've read Stephen Thrower's NIGHTMARE USA book then you know how wonderful it is. You'll also know that there are countless exploitation movies that are given the special treatment and this here is one of them. You'll have to check out the book to get all the details but this film was basically meant to be a throwback to the drive-in era of the 1950s when guys-in-costume monster movies were all the rage. By 1978 these types of films were certainly out of fashion but director Stephen Traxler tried to bring them back but sadly the result is rather bad.

There are all sorts of problems with this film but the biggest is the God-awful screenplay, which makes one major, major mistake. Yes, the biggest mistake is that the film is deadly boring. It really doesn't matter how bad you're horror movie is as long as you keep it entertaining but I'd say the majority of the people would check out of this one rather quickly. There are way too many scenes that feature people simply talking about stuff that isn't interesting and a lot of times it doesn't even have anything to do with the story. The film only runs 86-minutes but by the time it's over you'll feel as if you had just sat through all three GODFATHER movies.

Another problem is the typical stuff that you'd expect from a low-budget movie like this. This includes some rather bad performances, no real style and a rather sloppy looking picture. There are a few things that I liked with the monster being one of them. Again, you can read the book to get more history on the film but it's worth noting that elements of the suit were borrowed from other popular movies. The creature outfit isn't mind-blowing but for a low-budget film I thought it was good. It's really too bad he wasn't used in the film more and that they went for a kid-friendly PG-rated movie.

A true throwback film. Upon its release it was both a goofy homage to sci-fi monster flicks of the 50s and 60s AND a gory Drive-In exploitation picture. It's basic plot is about the title creature spawned by radiation. At first, Slithis attacks animals and then.....!

This is Stephen Traxler's only directorial effort, but he had a career behind the scenes including as a Production Manager. It's schlocky fun in retrospect. The 70s hair styles and clothes. The disco bits. The man in a rubber monster suit. The over the top gore with a bit of nudity - all in a PG film! That last note is worth elaborating on. When the film was submitted to the MPAA for a rating, it got an appropriate R. The producers took out some of the gore and the nudity and resubmitted it to get a PG. Did the cut version get released in theaters? Of course not! Wanting to be able to get the matinee audience, they simply released the R-Rated edition as "PG"!

After not having seen SLITHIS for many years, I caught up with it again at the New Beverly around 2007. They handed out copies of the "Slithis Survival Kit" and the crowd ate up the movie as enjoyable nostalgia (or, is it double nostalgia?). I even met a father and son in line who had gone to see the film on its original run together when the son was a mere child. Isn't that sweet - bonding over SLITHIS!?

Cheesy but watchable. Bad acting by some but not all bad. Has a nice microphone hiss in a few scenes which I enjoy. Nice opening shots of Venice, California. The lead girlfriend continues to get worse as a character the more the film goes, with awkward lines and shots. Has the typical Vietnam vets as street bums. Highly stereotypical and normal for films during this age. An odd play on various scenes with comedic music set to more awkward camera shots. The monster itself is pretty cool, also offering a hint of comedic action with its noises and walk. This film is really an interesting study of a America at the time frame filmed, more specifically California.

This film came out around the same time that "It's Alive," "The Incredible Melting Man," and "Bug," among others, were coming out. There was a whole slew of these cheesy B-Horror Flicks being released, and this one stands out in my memory as a fun time at the movies.

With a monster akin to the Swamp Thing, it had the horror aspect, with plenty of that late 70's, Russ Meyer-esque titillation thrown in for good measure. Not too heavy on plot, it makes up for it with what they believed at the time to be grossness. They did a fairly good job of it.

If you like B-Horror Flicks, you'll like "Spawn of the Slithis."

I had heard of "Spawn of the Slithis" for a number of years ever since I first heard of it from a showing on the CBS Late Night Movie, where I forgot to actually record and watch it. But thanks to its DVD release, I finally got to see it. I have to admit that my expectations were pretty low, hearing it was a really low budget movie by amateur filmmakers.

Actually, I didn't find the movie completely bad. For a rock bottom low budget, the movie looks a lot more expensive than you'd expect. The "monster suit" actually looks somewhat decent, and the movie is directed in a way that suggests the director had some previous experience directing movies.

Unfortunately, much of the movie is a chore to sit through. There are far less monster attack sequences than you'd think, with much of the movie devoted to endless scenes of the journalist character (who looks amazingly like game show host Bert Convy) going around and investigating. There are also endless conversations between characters, none of which is very interesting. It results in only a few minutes of slaughter and monster stuff.

In the end, I can only recommend the movie to aspiring filmmakers wanting to make their own low budget horror movie - the movie shows both what to do, but especially what NOT to do.