Spawn of the Slithis

So I was 10 years old when this movie played in the theater in Marshall, Missouri. And unlike any other movie that I had experienced there. During the climatic suspense parts of the movie there was a person who would burst out from the side of the screen in a gorilla costume and accost movie viewers at he front of the theater! That made it a night to remember. I think I saw Slithis 3 times during it's run. Sure it's cheesy...but it was entertaining.

This film came out around the same time that "It's Alive," "The Incredible Melting Man," and "Bug," among others, were coming out. There was a whole slew of these cheesy B-Horror Flicks being released, and this one stands out in my memory as a fun time at the movies.

With a monster akin to the Swamp Thing, it had the horror aspect, with plenty of that late 70's, Russ Meyer-esque titillation thrown in for good measure. Not too heavy on plot, it makes up for it with what they believed at the time to be grossness. They did a fairly good job of it.

If you like B-Horror Flicks, you'll like "Spawn of the Slithis."

I had heard of "Spawn of the Slithis" for a number of years ever since I first heard of it from a showing on the CBS Late Night Movie, where I forgot to actually record and watch it. But thanks to its DVD release, I finally got to see it. I have to admit that my expectations were pretty low, hearing it was a really low budget movie by amateur filmmakers.

Actually, I didn't find the movie completely bad. For a rock bottom low budget, the movie looks a lot more expensive than you'd expect. The "monster suit" actually looks somewhat decent, and the movie is directed in a way that suggests the director had some previous experience directing movies.

Unfortunately, much of the movie is a chore to sit through. There are far less monster attack sequences than you'd think, with much of the movie devoted to endless scenes of the journalist character (who looks amazingly like game show host Bert Convy) going around and investigating. There are also endless conversations between characters, none of which is very interesting. It results in only a few minutes of slaughter and monster stuff.

In the end, I can only recommend the movie to aspiring filmmakers wanting to make their own low budget horror movie - the movie shows both what to do, but especially what NOT to do.

Very very average campy horror movie. I did not have great expectations when I queued this movie up and watched the movie. But it definitely exceeded my expectations. Special effects/costumes were OK, but this movie actually had a very decent dialogue and somewhat entertaining characters. If you are looking for a state of the art, horror, movie with awesome special effects, this is not the movie for you. However, if you're looking for something decent and fairly entertaining, this might be a good way to kill a Friday or Saturday night. You will see a lot of plagiarism ripped off from Steven Spielberg's classic movie jaws.

High School journalism teacher Bert Convy Oops I mean Wayne Connors (Alan Blanchard) finally convinces his wife Jeff Connors played by the super foxy (Judy Motulsky) that some sort of sea monster is eating the stuffing out of the citizenry of laid back Venice Beach. Unfortunately, there is not a fish left in the sea, and a Slithis Monster has got to eat, so he continues to find food on shore including a quite tasty morsel Jennifer (Wendy Rastatter). Wayne enlists the service of nervous Dr. John (Dennis Falt) and fishing boat captain Chris Alexander (Mello Alexandria) "who's voice at times sounds like it was dubbed in from a Godzilla movie" they along with foxy Jeff set out to capture the very scary Slithis sea monster.

For a low budget movie the cinematography of Slithis is excellent, and really has a hippie dippy cool feel to it. Unfortunately, the script could have used one more scrub with lines like "the boat wasn't built for comfort or speed, reliability is the watchword" dispersed throughout. There are a couple of great Cameo's including a gear changing seen in the Police Chiefs ( played mirthfully by Alejandro Vass) office with droll police scientist Dr. Risling ( played by a real actor (Bill J. Stevens).

Slithis is definitely worth a watch with a solid acting job, at least movie of the week or sitcom guest star level, by Alan Blanchard who, by no fault of his own, may have been inhibited in his acting career by being a dead ringer for the aforementioned Bert Convy.