Slugs: The Movie (1988) Review:

Juan Piquer Simon is a director who doesn't have much to brag about. The majority of his films have been relatively bad and show no true sense of authenticity. Yet for a movie like this, even though it still isn't a great movie, it seems like a little more time and care went into producing it.

Mike Brady (Michael Garfield) who kind of looks like a
cheap Mel Gibson knock-off actor/stunt double

Based on a novel with the same name by Shaun Hutson, Slugs is about a breed of killer gastropods that acquire an appetite for human flesh. Those are the main characters here. The actors that play their parts are ok but they are nothing to be remembered by. This movie has almost the same characteristic as Fright Night but nowhere as entertaining. The lead role belongs to a town man who suspects that there is a specific reason to why people are being killed in such horrific manners, and nobody believes him.

The acting isn't that good either. Yes they act, but there are times where it's weird and doesn't sound normal to say. There are two parts to the death scenes. One part is good, and the other, improbable. The improbable part is that many times during death scenes victims will struggle and won't be able to resist the power of the slug. People get dragged away, while others get pulled down; are the slugs really that strong? I doubt it. These slugs are supposed to be supernatural so they have to have some other mutation besides teeth.

This is about as animated as the movie gets....the rest are
all REAL slugs!

The good part to the death scenes is that there is plenty of blood. No doubt will gore hounds get their fill. And although the scenes are predictable, it’s still good to watch. What surprised me the most was the volume of slugs that were used for the movie. And it's not like they were prop slugs either. This was live footage of hoards of slugs! Some of these scenes were inside houses too; could you image the mess that had to be cleaned up afterward? I'm sure people are fine with cleaning up fake blood, but real slug ooze? Not sure.

The sound that was added to the slugs was a nice addition too. Much of it sounds thick and gooey, just how slugs should sound! The sound and special effects department must've worked hard for this because this was the strong element of the film. And that's good too because after all, this is a horror flick! Tim Souster, the composer of the music, had a good feel for what he was doing too. It actually retained some pitch from what used to be 1950's horror movies with its constant base line of brass and screaming string instruments. Not really effective in creating fear, but nostalgic to say the least.

This is one of the very few films that director Simon did with a little more effort. The dialog is weird but the sheer magnitude of live slugs that were used should grab the viewer's attention quite nicely.

Points Earned --> 7:10