Squirm/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Squirm

I had originally seen Squirm on MST3K about 10 years ago but I decided to rewatch it and see if it was as funny as it originally seemed to be with all the humor that was thrown its way from the running commentary by Crow, Tom Servo & Co. After taking another look I can't say that Squirm is a masterpiece, but for its low budget and subject matter, I'd say its the Citizen Kane of the killer worm Eco-Terror sub-subgenre. Its definitely funny even on its own, but its also got enough natural charm to dismiss the more obvious hokey aspects. The film was directed by Jeff Lieberman who also made the cult classic Blue Sunshine which I loved.

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The story is set in the small town of Fly Creek, Georgia where the main form of excitement is antique shopping. Mick (Don Scardino), a bookish guy is traveling to meet his new girlfriend Geri (Patricia Pearcy) who lives there. When the bus Mick is on hits a flood caused by a massive storm, he decides to take a chance and go through the woods to get to Geri's house. When he finally arrives, things start to go bad, REAL bad. The storm has knocked down many power lines which have struck the ground turning innocent worms into mad, hungry killers! Pretty soon, people begin turning up dead as the worms make their way into town, creepily crawling into people's unsuspecting lives. Mick and Geri are caught in the middle of a killer worm frenzy as they try to investigate why this is happening. Meanwhile, Mick has made an enemy of the town sheriff (Peter MacLean) and a goony farmer named Roger (R.A. Dow) who has a thing for Geri.

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The killer worm FX are definitely the best thing about the movie. Theres one great scene where the worms attack Roger and actually get under his skin and stretch it like silly putty thanks to the genius of FX Artist Rick Baker. Very cool. Theres also many sequences featuring an ocean of worms that look like an enormous amount of moving hamburger. The actors do a good job as well given the outrageous and downright silly plot. They really played it as serious as they could and made it better than it had a right to be. Squirm isn't a movie that I could rave about, but if you love the Eco-Terror subgenre, its certainly one you should check out at least once.


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Peter Roberts is the co-founder/editor-in-chief of the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb) and contributor to the GCDb's sister site Furious Cinema. A Massachusetts native, he is an avid film fan that has been immersed in the world of entertainment and pop culture his entire life. He is a professional digital media designer and educator.

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