If there’s something strange, in your town’s sewers. Who you gonna call? Mike Brady! Starting off our Creepy Crawlies Month is a film many people have heard of, but doesn’t seem to get the recognition it deserves. Based on Shane Hutson’s novel, also titled Slugs, the 1988 film Slugs is a horny and practical gorefest that starts in the fast lane and doesn’t let up. On top of being incredibly entertaining and bloody, it’s socially poignant. While it just seems like a ‘regular’ tale of a town being taken over by slimy invaders, the slugs act as a conduit for climate change and the inevitable downfall due to our throw-away trash culture.
Director Juan Piquer Simón, who directed the slashic Pieces, competently delivers this slithering saga with few frills. It would be hard to say Juan Piquer Simón has a distinctive style in Slugs, his direction does feel rather aimless. Typically, that should be an issue, but it’s the story, special effects, and visuals that propels Slugs into the annals of cult cinema. Slugs is in no way a boundary-pushing genre film, rather, it understands what it is and feeds into that like slugs to a house plant.
As stated, Special Effects Makeup Artist Carlo De Marchis and Special Effects Head Basilio Cortijo bring the brunt of the brutality in Slugs. You can feel the passion behind their work, with each practical effect looking bigger and badder with each kill. This is where a potential issue could arise for some viewers. Juan Piquer Simón doesn’t always direct cinematographer Julio Bragado in ways that show the practical effects in the best light. Some practicals look excellent in one shot, and then a second cut reveals a worse-looking angle for the same effect. It didn’t affect my 4.5 star rating on Letterboxd, but it is something that some genre fans might not be too fond of.
Storywise, Slugs is straightforward. Deaths are popping up in this small town, and someone starts to suspect a specific entity as the cause of the deaths. No one believes the person, and, well, you know the rest. Where the story shines is the social undertones the story takes. It questions the actions, implementations, and authority of bureaucracy and how inaction is, by proxy, action. When we find out what created these malicious mollusks, it feels all too timely. Climate change may not have been the hot-button topic in 1988 that it is today, but it’s all too clear what Shaun Hutson, Ron Gantman, José Antonio Escrivá, and Juan Piquer Simón were trying to say. And what better way to drive home your point than killer slugs?
Slugs is a creature feature that’s out of this world, a fun, bloody, and [again] horny film that checks all the boxes it needs to. As someone who loves slugs, I find it nice to see them getting the spotlight for an hour and a half. But first, we have killer slugs…then what? Demented crickets? Rampaging mosquitos? I think we need a Slugs extended cinematic universe.
