Before he became synonymous with superhero movies and joined up with DC to head their cinematic universe, James Gunn humbly emerged from Troma Entertainment, the birthplace of everyone’s favorite New Jerseyite, the Toxic Avenger! Between all this superhero stuff, Gunn’s directorial debut would be a bit different, a horror-comedy about alien worm monsters that attack a sleepy southern town populated by a quirky cast of characters who really don’t want to get wormed.

Our main characters here are Grant Grant (not a typo) played by Michael Rooker, and his wife Starla Grant, played by Elizabeth Banks. Before you ask, yes, it actually is an important plot point that there is a massive age difference between those people and it partially sets up the conflicts between their characters. Speaking of worm monsters, the basic plot here involves Grant Grant getting infected by one of these worm monsters, where it slowly changes him in an incredibly disgusting way reminiscent of The Fly. Slither’s most interesting feature may be how open it is with everything that influenced it, wearing all of that on its sleeve, which I really appreciated. The inspiration for lots of moments is obvious, with some references to 80s horror movies, comedies, and even manga/anime series (I 100% guarantee that Gunn read Parasyte and loved it). As a horror comedy directorial debut, I don’t have a problem with that, especially because the characters and writing are otherwise quite good. The characters feel like real, albeit quirky, people who are experiencing a bizarre situation, and their relationships are fun and interesting, grounding even these absurd sequences.

Absurd is putting this mildly though, as the sheer amount of over the top gore and body horror was enough to warm my heart. The lovingly rendered explosions of flesh and gore were truly inspirational, and some effects sequences were so awesome that I don’t want to spoil them at all. While Gunn has largely moved beyond this type of movie, it’s still a fun reminder of how enjoyable silly space monster movies can be. If you can stomach it, you can watch it on Tubi, for free!