By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Grant Grant is a man totally in love with his wife Starla. But one night Starla is not in the mood to be intimate with him. frustrated he goes to a bar and meets old girlfriend Brenda. They go to a field but any sex is interrupted when Grant sees an unusual object in the grass. It stings ihom in the chest and he stumbles home. Little does Grant know he has been infected with an alien parasite that slowly begins to transform him.
Long before he became the father of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the God of the DC universe, James Gunn was but a simple filmmaker who brought us Slither. It was a comedy horror that starred Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion in a story of an alien attacking a small town. It is grotesque and gory but there is a sense of humour at the heart of the movie which is really a love story. In fact you could say that poor Grant’s love for Starla cannot be overwritten by his new alien persona. There is nothing Grant can do once infected but to follow his new urges. Part of him is still human because when Starla decides to be intimate with him, he refuses, knowing tendrils that pop out of his stomach will kill her. He does not want any harm to come to her. But he has a rival for her affections in the form of sheriff, Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). He never understood why Starla married Grant and still holds a candle for her.
Over the following days, animals disappear and Grant finds himself back at Brenda’s house. unable to help himself he pumps her full of parasites and kidnaps her. Grant is chased by the police and is caught stealing a cow however he is now some sort of blob with tentacles.The more he eats, the faster he transforms. He evades capture and the posse finds Brenda in a barn swollen beyond all recognition sharing Grant’s same hunger for raw meat and plenty of it. She explodes spewing out hundreds of slug creatures that infect the posse and begin to take the townspeople over.
Every person turned reflects Grant’s emotions and Starla is central to them. He has become a gestalt, a creature that is one with his mind and work in unison. Their one overriding thought is his love for Starla. Some of the infected are absorbed by Grant to expand his being until he takes over the planet.
With the number and speed of the slugs, this will not take long. Grant makes his nest while drawing willing victims to himself for absorption. Starla faces him and it is clear that she is still his one true love. Pardy tries to kill him with a grenade but fails. Determined to get rid of his rival once and for all, Grant spears him with a tentacle but Pardy manages to push the other into a propane cannister. As the gas fills Grant, Starla shoots him destroying him in an explosion which causes the rest of his gestalt to die on the spot. But virtually the entire populace has been destroyed with just a few survivors.
Michael Rooker is great as the infected Grant and his attack on Brenda is uncomfortable to watch especially as he does it in front of her toddler son who is in a play pen. The alien slugs take over anyone without discrimination whether it be man, woman or child so the threat is very real. The scenes of the posse hunting the alien blob Grant as he kills a cow are well done and funny to watch.
In other articles on this site we look at victims of werewolves like Uncle Ted from Bad Moon who when transformed no longer distinguish between stranger and friends. Here despite his transformation, Grant never loses his love for Starla. It remains foremost in his mind. Despite his fate, Grant is a prime example of the power of love in the face of anything life throws at you.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 