‘Slither’ strikes right tone with B-movie style

In theaters

SLITHER, written and directed by James Gunn, 96 minutes, rated R.

Ever since the mid-1950s, when B-movie classics such as “Them!,” “Tarantula” and “The Deadly Mantis” proved there’s nothing financially itsy-bitsy about big bugs gone berserk, Hollywood has delivered its share of creature-features, from such insect-infested shockers as “Beginning of the End,” “Earth vs. The Spider” and “Invasion of the Bee Girls” to the more recent “Tremors,” “Starship Troopers,” “Mimic” and “Eight Legged Freaks.”

Now, the deadly bugs have come creeping again, this time in the form of burrowing, throat-dwelling space slugs with a rather aggressive agenda. They appear in James Gunn’s “Slither,” a slimy, postmodern homage to the B-movies of yesteryear that features scores of the slithering creatures taking over the forgotten town of Wheelsy.

It’s easy to see why this town has been forgotten. Located in a slice of rural America that’s perfectly scary even without the bugs, Wheelsy’s townsfolk are mostly foul-mouthed, bourbon-soaked, mullet-wearing hillbillies two steps removed from the shallow end of the “Deliverance” gene pool. They like to shoot their deer and belt out their karaoke hits almost as much they like to knock back their share of beers.

When a meteorite slams into Wheelsy, the town’s chief of police, Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion of “Serenity”), is too bored to notice; he’d rather sleep. But when the wealthy Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) stumbles upon the meteorite in the woods and the slug that was inside takes over his body as its host, soon everybody has no choice but to notice, starting with Grant’s wife, Starla (Elizabeth Banks). She sees changes in her husband that are a wee bit alarming, such as when he opens his shirt and two barbed tentacles punch through his chest and rush straight toward her.

On the run, Starla meets up with her old flame, Bill, who still carries a torch for her, while her husband infects the rest of the town with his demon seed (one woman he breeds with literally becomes the size of a house as she prepares to give a rather painful, side-splitting birth to millions of slugs). What ensues is well-done, mindless fun, filled with enough gross-out gore to thrill any fan of “Fangoria,” but also just enough camp humor to keep the movie appealingly light.

Though it doesn’t take its subject seriously, it’s having too much fun for that, the movie works hard to capture the correct B-movie tone, which is crucial to its success. The film also pointedly pilfers from many other films, particularly Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” whose influence is realized as each infected person becomes a member of the walking dead and is more than happy to chow down on a neighbor’s entrails.

As with so many zombie movies, table manners have no place here; why should they, when fresh intestines are on the menu? Gluttony, however, can and does bloom in “Slither,” and what it builds to is one savage little garden.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, directed by Ang Lee, written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, 134 minutes, rated R.

Ang Lee’s celebrated drama begins in a picturesque nowhere of tall mountains and big skies, where cowboys and cattle roam, the air is clean, and the only stone wall here is the real thing, with nothing political muddying the mortar.

It’s 1963, it’s Wyoming, and what’s even bigger than the sky is what is about to build between the two young men standing beneath it, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). When these two meet in the vast reaches of Brokeback Mountain, they are unprepared for what is about to hit them – love – as well as all of its ramifications.

Over the course of more than two decades, Lee follows their relationship, which takes a dramatic shift one drunken night when they surprise themselves by having sex. Next day, Ennis reveals what will prove a lifelong internal struggle. “I ain’t no queer,” he says. “Me neither,” Jack responds.

Regardless of what they are, there’s no denying what they feel, which is more complex and meaningful than any label they could attach to themselves, or the world could pin on them. What matters in “Brokeback” is that nothing will change who they are, not Alma (Michelle Williams), the woman Ennis marries and sodomizes who bears his two daughters, and not Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the wealthy Texas woman Jack marries who bears his son.

This beautifully measured film, with its mounting passion, halting emotions, societal pressures, and devastating personal demons and frustrations that eat away at the fringes until they consume the center, is as much a love story as it is a tragedy.

Bigots and homophobes will continue to vilify it, some will fear it, and others will dismiss it because of its subject. It’s that unfortunate truth that suggests that some mountains, Brokeback or otherwise, remain just as insurmountable today as they ever have. And that fact is Lee’s coup de grace.

Grade: A-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.