Slugs (1988)

Killer slugs on the rampage in a rural community.

Director:

Juan Piquer Simón (as J.P. Simon)

Writers:

José Antonio Escrivá (as Jose A. Escriva), Ron Gantman (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Garfield, Kim Terry, Philip MacHale

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Garfield	...	Mike Brady
Kim Terry	...	Kim Brady
Philip MacHale	...	Don Palmer
Alicia Moro	...	Maureen Watson
Santiago Álvarez	...	John Foley
Concha Cuetos	...	Maria Palmer
John Battaglia	...	Sheriff Reese
Emilio Linder	...	David Watson
Kris Mann	...	Bobby Talbot
Kari Rose	...	Donna Moss
Manuel de Blas	...	Mayor Eaton
Andy Alsup	...	Officer Dobbs
Frank Braña	...	Frank Phillips
Stan Schwartz	...	Ron Bell
Juan Maján	...	Harold Morris

Storyline

People are dying mysteriously and gruesomely, and nobody has a clue what the cause is. Only health worker Mike Brady has a possible solution, but his theory of killer slugs is laughed at by the authorities. Only when the body count begins to rise and a slug expert from England begins snooping around does it begin to look like Mike had the right idea after all.

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Plot Keywords:

male nudity | alcohol abuse | pollution | eaten by an animal | small town | 

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Taglines:

They ooze. They slime. They kill.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Spain USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

5 February 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Slugs

Filming Locations:

Lyons, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dister Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was banned in the Australian state of Queensland until the early-'90s when the Queensland Censorship Board was disbanded.

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Goofs

When the man grabs a slug from the garden that had bitten him and puts it into the jar, his hand is free of blood despite having had been bitten and covered in blood in the previous scene.

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Quotes

Kim Brady: Did you hear? About Harold and Jean Morris?
Mike Brady: Nope, why?
Kim Brady: They're dead.
Mike Brady: Ah, come on now...
Kim Brady: Yeah, I heard it on the news. There was some sort of explosion in their greenhouse. They were both inside.
Mike Brady: Wha-Wait a second, how'd this happen?
Kim Brady: No one knows.
Mike Brady: Ah, Jesus. They were nice people. I liked them a lot.
Kim Brady: I know, I did too.
Mike Brady: [long pause as Brady looks down at the garden] So what are you doing out here anyway?

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Connections

Featured in Svengoolie: Slugs (1996)

User Reviews

Not original in any way but has its own uniqueness

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.

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.

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.