Review: Slithis (1978)
(aka Spawn of the Slithis)
Directed by: Stephen Traxler
Starring: Alan Blanchard, Mello Alexandria, Judy Motulsky
Written by: Stephen Traxler
Music by: Steve Zuckerman
Country: United States
Available on: Blu-ray (Code Red)
IMDb
Sometimes, when the universe aligns properly and the fates are generous, we are bestowed a marvel of creativity, something so pure, so untainted by things like expectations, technical competence, compelling storytelling, acting that resembles actual human behavior, characters with rational motivations, and scenes that only pertain to furthering the story and aren’t a three-minute discussion of bath robes. When all of those cosmic forces merge in the correct sequence, we are gifted something like Slithis, about a radioactive sea creature killing the misfits of Venice Beach, California.
On its surface, this is a standard rubber-suit monster movie. But once you peel back its unctuous layers, its true wonders unfurl. The film opens with a slow-motion scene of two nerdy kids playing frisbee while a whimsical interplay of flute and oboe populates the score. This upbeat tune continues even as the kids discover the horribly mutilated corpses of two dogs and give the bloody scene an aww-shucks-that’s-gross shoulder shrug. This opening volley of incongruity gives you a pretty good idea of what you’re in for.
From there, we follow journalism teacher Wayne (played by Alan Blanchard in a whole series of funky disco outfits and always smiling for some reason) and a rag-tag group that includes his wife Jeff (Jeff???) (played by Judy Motulsky, who’s always smiling for some reason), a scientist (played by J.C. Claire, who’s always smiling for some reason), and a boat captain (played by Mello Alexandria, who’s always smiling for some reason) as they set out to discover what the Slithis is and how to destroy it. This is a film populated by fucking oddballs acting like total weirdos all the time, just like in real life. But you get so many memorable moments from these people: When Wayne first meets the boat captain, who’s Black, he holds out his hand to shake and the captain responds with a hardy laugh, saying, “Good! Let’s shake like you white folks. None of that tricky n***** shit. It takes too long!” The police lieutenant in charge of the case is played with cocaine-addled pirate energy by Hy Pyke (Hack-o-Lantern). There’s a horribly disfigured scientist who initially discovered the Slithis, living in a seclusion in a golf ball-shaped house, dressing in fancy clothes and sipping cocktails like a cutting-room-floor Bond villain. There’s a sleazy older dude who takes his very young date to watch turtles race, which is I guess something people in Venice Beach did for fun in the ‘70s. There are two bums philosophizing about Australia’s role in the Vietnam War.
It’s the type of meandering, unfiltered personality stew that results when a screenplay has been written by someone for whom writing is not a profession or even a hobby and then perhaps not edited by anyone at all. Writer/director Stephen Traxler astutely understands that most human beings talk about nonsense for long stretches of time, so that’s what’s here. No one told him that dialogue should be economical, in service of furthering the story. I have a masochistic love for horror films populated by these sorts of unvarnished, lived-in tangents, and Slithis joins the company of flicks like Scared to Death (1980), The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976), and Jack-O (1995) that relish the non-sequitur.
The shooting and editing is equally unfocused, with the camera often panning away from things of interest to focus on someone going to the kitchen to get a beer, or continuing the same conversation between the same people but at different locations, or setting up a scene for a monster attack — such as when Wayne and the boat captain go to fetch soil samples from the Slithis’ home turf — but then allowing the scene to unfold without any of the expected drama. They just get their samples without incident and then presumably go home for a nice dinner.
All of this makes this sound like a monster movie without much monster. And yeah, that’s sort of the deal. There’s some occasional and fairly well-done gore, and the creature looks pretty decent for a flick with almost no budget. But Slithis is at its dullest when it’s just a giant reptile thing attacking people. The film’s real charms are found in the many, many, many winding trails and dead ends it explores during a journey guided by filmmakers and actors with only the vaguest notion of where they’re going or how to get there.
Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
