Slugs, also referred to as Slugs: The Movie (Spanish: Slugs, Muerte Viscosa, lit. "Slugs, Slimy Death") is a 1988 English-language Spanish naturalhorror film directed by Juan Piquer Simon, and co-written by Simon with Ron Gantman. Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Shaun Hutson, it tells the story of a small town whose locals are terrorised by aggressive carnivorous slugs.
Plot
In the fictional small town of Ashton, a degenerate low-life alcoholic named Ron Bell is eaten alive late one night by a large swarm of slugs in his living room. The following day, health inspector and sewer manager Mike Brady and Sheriff Reese head to Ron's home, preparing to deliver an eviction notice, only to discover his near-skinless body. Exploring the house, Mike finds multiple trails of slime leading from the basement, but he and Reese are unable to determine what exactly happened to Ron. Later that day, Mike and his friend and co-worker Don Palmer are called in to fix a blockage in the sewers, where Don discovers several animal carcasses stuck in the pipes.
Meanwhile, local gardener Harold Morris puts on a gardening glove which, unbeknownst to him, has a slug hiding within, which starts eating his hand. As he thrashes about in pain, Harold accidentally knocks over some of his chemical jars, causing a fire which ignites a tank of gasoline, resulting in an explosion that kills him and his wife Jean. Upon returning home, Mike is informed of the deaths by his wife Kim, a high school teacher. They then both discover a group of abnormally large and aggressive slugs in their garden. Mike gathers some of the slugs in a jar and leaves them with the school's science teacher John Foley for investigation. During his investigations, Foley witnesses one of the slugs attack and eat the class hamster. Elsewhere in town, the slugs attack and eat two teenagers, and Mike's friend David unknowingly eats part of a slug that was hidden in a salad made by his wife.
Mike and Reese are brought in to investigate the deaths of the teenagers the next morning, where Mike postulates that the slugs are responsible for the murders, only to be disregarded as crazy. Later, Mike is called over by Don, who has discovered that the locations of the murders line up with the layout of the town's sewer system. Don theorises that the slug's aggressiveness may be a result of chemicals being leaked into the sewer from a long-abandoned toxic waste dump that exists close by to the town.
Meanwhile, whilst dining at a restaurant, an unwell David begins profusely bleeding from his nose and collapses, before multiple blood flukes abruptly burst from his eye sockets. Having learned of the death and witnessed slugs crawling through the sink in his own home, Mike approaches the town mayor, begging him to cut off the downtown water supply so that the slugs can be dealt with, but is once again dismissed as crazy, causing him to leave in frustration. Later, at the school lab, Foley shows Mike a lithium-based arsenic that Mike hopes to use to kill the slugs in the sewers, which he has discovered are the slugs' place of origin. Mike convinces Don to join him in helping getting rid of the slugs, as Foley creates a large batch of the arsenic. That night, Mike and Don enter the sewer system and locate the slugs' breeding ground, but Don accidentally falls in and is eaten alive. Mike then climbs out of a nearby manhole and gets Foley to pump in the arsenic from a firetruck hose into the sewer, causing an explosive reaction that successfully kills all the slugs, despite causing serious damage to the rest of the town in the process. Mike reunites with Kim as the emergency services arrive, whilst unbeknownst to rest of the town, a singular live slug writhes ominously on a vent cover.
The film opened in the United States on 5 February 1988.
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 38% approval rating based on 8 reviews.[1]
Variety praised the "convincing special effects and make-up and snappy direction" and said it "has enough thrills and spills in it to keep youth audiences alert".[2]
Box office
The film flopped at the U.S. box office.[2] It opened in seven theaters in the United States and grossed $15,842 in its opening weekend.[3]
Awards
The film won a Goya Award for Best Special Effects by Gonzalo Gonzalo, Basilio Cortijo and Carlos de Marchis.[4]
Home video
Anchor Bay Entertainment released a DVD of the film in 2000. In 2011, Image Entertainment released a DVD of the film under the Midnight Madness Series. In 2016, British home video distributor, Arrow Films, released a special edition Blu-ray of the film, which contained a commentary track and interviews with several people associated with the film.
