Slugs (1988)
“After I’ve dealt with these slugs, what do you say to we get naked and crazy?”
I remember renting this with a friend from the petrol station, that’s right petrol stations used to rent VHS’ in the 80’s, and loving it.
Why wouldn’t I? A preposterous plot involving flesh eating slugs and lots of blood and deaths.
Nothing seems out of place here for the 80’s but does it hold up or was I swayed by blood and gore?
So Slugs is set in standard small town USA where people keep turning up dead and left as a mushy mess.
Local health inspector Mike Brady suspects that it is slugs which naturally is ignored by the mayor and sheriff so off he goes to end this plague.
This is back when horror didn’t rely on some unbelievable teenage to sort out the mess every fucking time.
The film doesn’t try to be too clever. Giving just enough of an explanation to move the film along without you questioning what you are watching too much. Hint: Toxic waste dump.
Overall the acting is a mixed bag but those that need to do the job well do their job well enough and those that don’t will provide you with a chuckle.
One thing i never knew was that this is a Spanish film and some of the actors are Spanish themselves. I never noticed anything when I watched this over 25 years ago but I was starting to think there was something wrong with the audio sync on the Blu-ray.
There isn’t. Aside from the fact the film is in mono it’s the non-English speaking actors that are dubbed with varying degrees of sync-success. Nothing fans of Italian made horror fans aren’t used to.
Another quality transfer. The sound is clear and the picture is so good. Arrow give us the usual extras which include interviews with one of the Spanish actors and the special effects artist that gives some nice insight into how the film was made complete with behind the scenes shots of the effects.
For me this is something I’m interested so it was nice to see the foot-long slug with a giant fake finger for it to bite.
Does it hold up?
For me yes. It was as much fun to watch now as it was then. The effects are great, lots of fleshy, mostly eaten corpses with slugs bursting out of the carcasses. Oh it looks good every time it happens.
It isn’t just the dead bodies that are exploding. This wouldn’t be the 80’s if it didn’t have an over-the-top ending which Slugs has in spades.
Michael Bay would be proud.
The only let down for me is the music doesn’t fit that well and is a bit repetitive but other than that I enjoyed revisiting one of my favourite finds from my youth.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new restoration from original film elements
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original Uncompressed PCM Stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with Slugs author Shaun Hutson
- Audio commentary by writer and filmmaker Chris Alexander
- Here’s Slugs In Your Eye – an interview with actor Emilio Linder
- They Slime, They Ooze, They Kill: The Effects of Slugs – an interview with special effects artist Carlo De Marchis
- Invasion USA – an interview with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo
- The Lyons Den – an interview and locations tour with production manager Larry Ann Evans
- 1988 Goya Awards promo reel
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Wes Benscoter
- Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by writer Michael Gingold
