Slugs: The Movie
A.K.A. “Slugs, muerte viscosa”
(1988) 89 Min.
Rated: R (Nudity, sex, gore)
Country: Spain/USA
Director: Juan Piquer Simón
Starring: Michael Garfield, Kim Terry, Philip MacHale
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
A rash of deaths are caused by a vicious new mutated type of garden slug. Only a health inspector can stop them!
Synopsis:
In small town, Ashton, a man walks his dog, goes into his house that is lined with eviction notices. The dog refuses to follow him. We see slugs in random shots. The man lies down on a couch with a beer and starts screaming.
Health Inspector Mike Brady (Garfield) is at a restaraunt with his wife Kim (Terry). They’re about to leave when they meet Don Palmer (McHale) and his wife Maria. Don works in sanitation. They go on their separate ways.
The next day Mike works with Sheriff Reese to evict the drunk man previously shown in the film. They climb through a window of the house and find his bloody corpse.
The sheriff mulls over the situation as the ambulance arrives to remove the corpse. Officer Dobbs is freaking out and talking about how the corpse’s eyes are gone. Mike goes back into the house to investigate further. Mike sees a trail leading down to the basement, but in the basement is a lot of rotting garbage so Mike retreats.
Back at his office Mike gets a call from a woman complaining that her sewers are backed up. He laments that it’s a sanitation issue but looks into it anyway with a house call. At the house Mike meets his sanitation friend Don who is going down into the sewer to check out the blockage.
Don inserts a rod into a pipe and draws out some plastic wrapping and other garbage, but finds that something is pulling on the rod and jerks it away from him. Don is surprised and walks away.
Mike goes and picks up his wife from work. She’s a teacher and her students call her “wicked bitch” behind her back.
Down at the local eatery that all the kids go to, the high school crowd gathers to discuss various things like the usual death of that one wino and how much they want to go to a Halloween party instead of doing Mrs. Brady’s homework.
Old obviously dubbed couple, Harold and Jean, discuss slug eggs on a plant while in their greenhouse. A slug makes it’s way into Harold’s glove and as he puts it on the slug attacks his hand. He has a hard time trying to take off the glove and resorts to chopping at his wrist with a small ax. Jean hears the racket and comes into the greenhouse, but by then somehow a fire has started and the fire reaches a random gas can and the entire greenhouse explodes.
Mike and Kim discuss the death of Harold of Jean. It’s all very casual and nonchalant. Kim talks about gardening and then Mike notices large slugs. One almost BITES Mike’s finger with tiny vicious fangs. Mike decides to collect the slug and take it to a scientist friend he has for further analysis.
We settle at the Watson household. Maureen is an alcoholic who is preparing a quick dinner for her husband David (played by Emilio Linder who also happened to be in a notorious MST3K film called Pod People). Maureen slices up lettuce for a salad and mistakenly cuts up a slug inside the lettuce. She serves this for her husband who eats it happily.
Mike and Kim finally arrive at the “British scientist’s” lab. John Foley, the scientist, tells them basic things like slugs mostly eat vegetables and they can procreate on their own. Mike asks about ones that eat meat and John tells him that slugs are small and the larger ones only eat things like worms.
Back at the Watson household, David Watson suddenly feels ill.
Randomly, at teenager Donna’s house. Her boyfriend Bobby enters the house while Donna’s parents are away. They begin to make love.
The movie shifts back to John the scientist. He’s busy cutting open a live slug. Meanwhile, somehow, a secondary slug is attacking one of the hamsters in a nearby cage. John essentially stares at the ordeal while not moving for a good few seconds.
Back at Donna’s house, Bobby and Donna are having sex. Bobby stops for a moment to get a drink of alcohol and he gets bitten by a slug on his foot. Donna gets out of bed and basically slips and falls onto a floor that is now carpeted with slugs. The slugs cover her body, drawing blood. She can’t escape or get up. Bobby tries to jump out a window but he also falls onto the slug-coated floor and essentially is doomed to the same slow slimey death as Donna.
The next day the bodies of Donna and Bobby are packed up by the ambulances and the sheriff is on the scene taking notes.
Don Palmer talks to Mike and after some research discover that the area they’re living around was once a toxic waste dump.
David Watson, having somewhat recovered from feeling ill, goes to a meeting. The meeting is in regards to signing some papers to allow development on the outskirts of town. Right where the toxic waste dump used to be. David, however, starts to feel ill. He complains of a headache. The two other people at the meeting say that they’ve decided to sign the papers on the project (a new shopping center!) and just as David proposes a toast to their new venture, his nose bleeds into his drink. He falls on the floor convulsing and worms explode from his bloody head.
Don and Mike are called in to look at the situation at the restaurant where David died. Despite David not even touching his food, the sheriff is inquiring on whether or not the food is infested with worms. Mike takes the specimen jar of worms with him.
Scientist John Foley explains to Mike and Don that the specimen they found inside of Mr.Watson was a blood fluke that can only be found inside slugs. He goes on to theorize that the slugs are breeding in the sewers. Don and Mike begin to hatch a plan. Mike is determined to convince city officials of the dangers that these man-eating slugs pose.
Mike heads to warn Mr. Frank Phillips. He pleads with the water to be cut off from the south part of town since the water is contaminated. Phillips tells Mike he’s crazy and says he’d first need to get a request from the mayor. Mike heads out of the office, determined to get the mayor’s request.
The mayor himself is busy talking to the two people earlier who plan to have documents signed on the new development in town. Mike bursts into the meeting telling the mayor there’s an emergency and that there are slugs in the water system. The mayor doesn’t listen and is far more interested in signing the papers. They brush him off and Mike leaves defeated.
Mr. Phillip’s secretary finds her boss dead in the bathroom covered in slugs.
Meanwhile Dr. Foley has experimented with killing slugs using a lithium-based arsenic which explodes when exposed to moisture. He proposes they get all the slugs in one section of the sewer and pour in a batch of the explosive concoction.
Mike gets Don to help him and sends his wife to stay with her mother for the time being. Dr. Foley makes huge batches of the explosive liquid and they all get ready for their plan.
It’s Halloween and the teens in town are having a party in the forest. One teen rebuffs her boyfriend’s advances and he wants nothing to do with her. The girl walks off and gets attacked by another teen in a mask. He tries to sexually assault her and she pushes him off. She then runs and falls into the sewers where she is attacked and killed by slugs.
Don and Mike look in the sewers and find the slugs. They drive the slugs in hoards using a cut wire which electrocutes the slugs and causes them to move.
Don and Mike come upon a vat of water where the slugs are supposedly in. Mike opens a plug of water which pours more water in, but throws Don in as well. Don is swimming and getting killed by slugs. Mike attempts to help, but to no avail. Don gets devoured by slugs.
Mike gets out of the sewer and with Dr. Foley’s help they pour the explosive into the water. Lots of explosions occur all over the city as the sewers are filled with fire. Mike and Dr. Foley are relieved, but also saddened at the loss of Don. Emergency crew arrives on the scene to put out the fires and the camera pans over to a slug on a sewer grate, still alive and slithering as the film ends.
Review:
Slugs is extremely silly and chock full of excessive gore. There’s a lot of dubbing and overacting, but it’s still entertaining. The writing is as good as you can expect for a boring made for TV horror movie, but the blood and guts really pushes into an entertaining film. The “You Have to Believe Me”-type plot is really just an excuse to showcase the effects.
None of the acting is especially memorable and everyone involved seems to be aware they’re in a cheesy monster film, nevertheless the special effects budget must’ve been decent or at least had talented people involved as there is blood and explosions aplenty.
This film is for someone who would like to watch a silly cult film that has a low production value. Don’t expect to be scared. Grossed out, maybe. There’s plenty of slimy black slugs and bright red bursting corpses in this film to amuse a seasoned horror fan.
