slugs

The '80s were a pretty forgiving era for horror movies. Computer graphics hadn't really made an impact yet so slimy prosthetics and latex molds lent everything a tangibly gooey fan appeal than resulted in some classic creatures features (The Thing, Tremors) and a whole lot of guilty pleasures. Slugs (1988) certainly falls in the latter category, built around a classic nature-run-amok scenario that isn't so far removed from enjoyable schlock like The Killer Shrews or The Food of the Gods. Director Juan Piquer Simon (Pieces) works from the novel by Shaun Hutson, providing some ridiculously squishy set piece scenes surrounded by standard small-town hysteria straight out of a '50s drive-in double-feature.

Health Inspector Mike Brady (Michael Garfield) begins to suspect that something isn't right in his quiet community after a number of bodies turn up completely stripped down to the bone. When he gets nowhere with the mayor, who's focused on a big real estate deal, Mike teams up with a local sewer rat to discover the source of the suspected contamination...which turns out to be a infestation of carnivorous slugs! Now Mike must stop these slimy invaders before they reach the water supply and spread to the rest of the world.

Slugs - or Slugs: The Movie as it's officially titled - makes for a corny good time for the first half hour or so, setting up the impending threat with a variety of gory death scenes, the most notable being a pair of horny teenagers consumed post-coitus right on the bedroom floor. There there's the guy infected with slug spores whose eyeballs pop out of his head during an important business meeting. Get the idea?

When Slugs focuses on its titular creatures and spreads around the fake blood and mucus, it's a gory bit of cheap '80s filmmaking that delivers just what the VHS box promises. But as the plot oozes towards its third act, Simon seems to run out of ideas (or money) and settles for a bland and unimpressively staged finale set in the town sewers. Add in some equally unimpressive dubbing (most of the interiors were shot back in Spain) along with lots of time-killing conversation scenes and you've got a creature-feature that asks its audience to suspend their disbelief...and their patience.

But Arrow Video presents a Blu-ray package with so many fringe benefits, it's easy to forgive and forget the film's foibles, starting with an impressive new restoration from original film elements. This is accompanied by two audio commentaries (author Shaun Hutson and Shock Till You Drop's Chris Alexander), four new featurettes (a location tour and individual interviews with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo, actor Emilio Linder and SFX artist Carlo DE Marchis) plus trailers and a fully illustrated collector's booklet.