Castor’s Hallow’s Eve Duds – Slugs (1988)

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How is this for an advertising proclamation- “From the director of Pieces- it’s exact what you think it is”. Whereas Pieces was a disturbingly loitering slasher movie despite the missteps (for instance, the karate instructor interlude is completely capricious without any context and the stinger, while grotesque, is utterly nonsensical), his follow-up after MST3K’s quarry Pod People, is a colossal miscalculation.

Slugs is a laughably malodorous creature feature in which the most subglacial infestation is the cause for an body count epidemic. It shouldn’t be too strenuous to outpace the vermin here and a solid steel-toe boot could be the weapon of their demise. At least the film is never a symposium on the perils of toxic waste.

Juan Piquer Simon is still an incondite navigator of non-volitional chuckles via incongruous musical cues (e.g. When the ulcerated sheriff is driving to the site of a murder, the composition could be from T.J. Hooker or any spangly CBS police procedural from the epoch) or flagrant dubbing (the lip are pretty asynchronous during a dinner double date).

If this is a 80’s homage to Roger Corman B-movies, why does Simon tantalize the audience with a swimmer in her panties before curtailing it with a blood bubbles and a cut to the fatuous title Slugs- The Movie? Not to be confused with Slugs- The Coffee Table Novelization or Slugs- The Interactive Board Game.

Most of the victims are fatalities of their own hebetudinous stupidity such as a gardener who erratically axes off his hand before a trail of flammable liquid conflagrates the whole greenhouse. I’m not a enthusiast for films that can codified in the so-bad-it’s-good category and Slugs is primarily a stupefying embarrassment. On the other hand, it’s on par with the director’s repertoire.

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