Character study of evil alien

More than just a tired redo of the flesh-eating zombie movie, “Slither” takes an ironic look at a familiar subgenre and manages to weave in enough laughs and original details to make it a fun way for any aficionado to spend 90 minutes. But where “Slither” really sets itself apart is in the character development of the alien who has come to consume all life on Earth.

During the first 15 minutes, “Slither” gives us the generic stock characters: the pretty girl, Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks); the rich but insensitive husband of the pretty girl, Grant Grant (Michael Rooker); and the nice guy who pines for the pretty girl, Sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). We also get to know the town of Wheelsy ? a gloomy place with residents so slovenly that, being turned into zombies represents a step up.

But things don’t get going until Grant’s wife turns down his advances and he heads out to the local pub to drown his urges in beer. A girl from his past, Brenda Gutierrez (Brenda James), lets him know she’s available, and the two head off into the woods together. Once there, Grant gets sidetracked by the sight of a giant slug (from outer space, of course) that spits some sort of needle-like creature into his gut. The thing worms its way up to Grant’s brain, and from then on, Grant ain’t Grant no more.

Whereas most movies would just have Grant turn into a monster and do his thing, “Slither” devotes an unusual amount of time to the character development of this alien. In fact, he’s fleshed out more than the heroes.

Grant returns home to find Starla feeling guilty about turning him down, and that’s how this billion-year-old alien loses his virginity. It’s so meaningful for him, he falls in love with Starla. He can’t even bring himself to impregnate her, and instead he spawns with Brenda. Which is lucky for Starla, considering giving birth to his “babies” means literally bursting open with thousands of slugs that squirm away and start trying to enter the mouths of animals, take over their brains and turn them into zombies under his control, all to help him eat everything on earth.

Meanwhile, now that Grant’s body is host to this alien, he starts to undergo a metamorphosis, turning into one of the most enigmatic, disturbing visuals in the history of the cinema.

And despite being an evil pile of goo, he’s still emotional. He has an inferiority complex about his appearance and carries a torch for Starla that he can’t seem to let go.

When this squid-looking creature begins slaying all the animals in town to feed his insatiable appetite, it’s up to Sheriff Bill and his bungling staff to stop him. (Hint: They don’t fare too well.)

The movie does have some frustrating aspects, including a slow beginning and characters who are almost too naive to tolerate and who give the enemy more than enough leeway to kill them (you’d expect a town filled with hunters to be a little more trigger-happy). But if this is your genre, this is a movie worth seeing.