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The Slime PeopleRating:
Release Date: 14 August, 2001 Retail Price: $9.95 OUR Price: $9.95 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
The Slime People Reviews
An enjoyably bad ultra-low budget sewer monster movie
"The Slime People" are subterranean, spear-carrying, lizard-like, hunch-backed humanoids who come out of the L.A. sewers and take over with a deadly wall of fog (which helps to cover up the titular creatures for the most part, along with most of the film's "action" sequences). Reporter Tom Gregory (director Robert Hutton) manages to fly in through the fog when he learns what has happened to his hometown from Professor Galvin (Robert Burton) and his daughters, Lisa (Susan Hart) and Bonnie (Judee Morton). Gregory tends to be skeptical, but then the report about large, monstrous creatures roaming about the fog of the city and committing mass murder is confirmed by the media (plus Gregory sees them). Cal Johnson (William Boyce) is a Marine who provides this group with some needed muscle (and gives Bonnie somebody to fall in love with) as they try to take back the city from the Slime People, which has already defeated the U.S. Army, so they tend not to feel too threatened by this little group. Fortunately, Cal's Marine training does not stop him from taking Bonnie outside to be alone, at which point she is captured by the Slime People, because without that turn of events L.A. might still be controlled by sub-humanoids.
"The Slime People" is truly an ultra-low budget movie that is so bad it is somewhat enjoyable, a judgment codified by the fact that this was the 8th film ever to receive the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" treatment. Besides, the film is instructional, teaching kids that sodium chloride is table salt, which is often useful knowledge in fighting monsters. This was Hutton's only directorial effort, for obvious reasons, although he did go on to play roles in "Trog" and "Tales from the Crypt."
Passable DVD of grade-Z chiller
This is another of those sentimental favorite Saturday-afternoon cheesy monster flicks, though I have to admit it's probably rough sledding for the mainstream movie crowd. While not the monumental mess that bad film junkies hope for, there's still plenty of horrible acting and bizarre dialogue and plotting, and the Slime People themselves are pretty cool looking (even if you can see their pants underneath the suits). Fans of Zappa-style "cheepnis" won't be disappointed. On the downside, it's a bit talky at times, and the younger crowd raised on Bottin and Baker and CGI may find it boring.
Rhino's DVD is plenty sharp and the source print is very clean with only some very light, sporadic speckling visible. The beginning and end of the movie exhibit very-good-to-excellent tonal values and detail, although the middle third or so looks quite dark. It appears that it was filmed this way (there's lots of fog everywhere and apparently these scenes were shot day-for-night, if badly). Other scenes interspersed with the dark sections look just fine. My Video Gems VHS pre-record appears quite a bit brighter, though it's also too contrasty, very soft, and lacking in detail; generally far inferior except for the brightness issue. Rhino's transfer appears to more accurately capture the values of the source material, though this leaves some scenes almost unwatchably dark. Fans of this movie will probably bear with it, others may find it rough going. No trailer, just chapter stops like other Rhino/Acme releases. All in all not bad for the money, but not spectacular either.
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