whatmeworry's review
3.0
This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com: https://www.scifiandscary.com/carry-on-screaming-slither-review/
After the disappointment of the retro jungle adventure ‘The Ants’ last month, I’m please to say that August’s Carry on Screaming entry is a straight up rip off of ‘The Rats’ and therefore much more satisfying. ‘Slither’ replaces Herbert’s rats with giant, carnivorous aquatic worms, but aside from that there are a lot of similarities to the 1974 shocker. After last time’s giant ant confusion, I should point out that when I say giant I don’t mean ‘Dune’ or ‘Tremors’ style nasties. The worms in ‘Slither’ range from finger-sized to three feet long, but no matter what size they are they all have teeth. And eyes, which John Halkin goes on about A LOT for some reason.
Like ‘The Rats’ it feels very contemporary. There is lots of talk of unions disrupting things, along with groups protesting against explicit content on TV – 1980 being a time when the activities of Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers and Listeners Association were at their height. There is also mention of a royal wedding, which is a bit odd as the book came out in 1980 and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer didn’t marry until 1981.
Far more important than any of that, of course, is that the book features lots of people getting attacked by worms. In fact, the first sentence is someone getting attacked by worms. No build up, no preamble, just straight in there with the flesh eating creatures. Halkin never quite matches Herbert’s levels of creative nastiness, and in fact quite of a lot of the victims just lose a finger or two rather than dying, but there are still some memorable scenes. A swimming pool full of naked party goers getting chomped, a woman devoured by worms pouring out of the taps of her bath. In fact, in ‘Slither’ you can pretty much guarantee that if someone takes their clothes off they’ll end up as worm food.
Halkin’s hero through all of this is a TV cameraman, the guy who gets attacked right at the start, who believes in the threat of the worms even when no-one else does, and fights them to the bitter end. He’s similar to one of Herbert’s heroes in his straightforward determination, although the book does take a weird detour into fashion-design when he sets up a company making belts and other accessories from the iridescent skins of the monster.
All in all, ‘Slither’ is a pretty solid entry in the low rent British horror canon. It’s never as good as Herbert, but it’s often a lot of fun and I powered my way through it in a day.
After the disappointment of the retro jungle adventure ‘The Ants’ last month, I’m please to say that August’s Carry on Screaming entry is a straight up rip off of ‘The Rats’ and therefore much more satisfying. ‘Slither’ replaces Herbert’s rats with giant, carnivorous aquatic worms, but aside from that there are a lot of similarities to the 1974 shocker. After last time’s giant ant confusion, I should point out that when I say giant I don’t mean ‘Dune’ or ‘Tremors’ style nasties. The worms in ‘Slither’ range from finger-sized to three feet long, but no matter what size they are they all have teeth. And eyes, which John Halkin goes on about A LOT for some reason.
Like ‘The Rats’ it feels very contemporary. There is lots of talk of unions disrupting things, along with groups protesting against explicit content on TV – 1980 being a time when the activities of Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers and Listeners Association were at their height. There is also mention of a royal wedding, which is a bit odd as the book came out in 1980 and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer didn’t marry until 1981.
Far more important than any of that, of course, is that the book features lots of people getting attacked by worms. In fact, the first sentence is someone getting attacked by worms. No build up, no preamble, just straight in there with the flesh eating creatures. Halkin never quite matches Herbert’s levels of creative nastiness, and in fact quite of a lot of the victims just lose a finger or two rather than dying, but there are still some memorable scenes. A swimming pool full of naked party goers getting chomped, a woman devoured by worms pouring out of the taps of her bath. In fact, in ‘Slither’ you can pretty much guarantee that if someone takes their clothes off they’ll end up as worm food.
Halkin’s hero through all of this is a TV cameraman, the guy who gets attacked right at the start, who believes in the threat of the worms even when no-one else does, and fights them to the bitter end. He’s similar to one of Herbert’s heroes in his straightforward determination, although the book does take a weird detour into fashion-design when he sets up a company making belts and other accessories from the iridescent skins of the monster.
All in all, ‘Slither’ is a pretty solid entry in the low rent British horror canon. It’s never as good as Herbert, but it’s often a lot of fun and I powered my way through it in a day.
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