Slithis (1978)

Slithis (AKA Spawn of the Slithis) is a low-budget American sci-fi/horror movie released in 1978. A slime monster from the deep is on a killing rampage in Venice Beach, California.

At first it was just dogs. It was seeing a mutilated dog that first got high school journalism teacher Wayne Connors (Alan Blanchard) interested. The police think it’s some weird religious cult. Then it’s the turn of a couple living near the canal. They’re pretty badly mutilated. The police still think it’s cultists. Wayne smells a story and in the murder house he finds something odd. It looks like mud but Wayne takes a sample and gets his chemist buddy Dr John (Dennis Falt) to analyse it.

It turns out to be weird stuff. Both organic and inorganic. And radioactive. Dr John speculates that it might have something to do with a leak of radioactive waste from a nuclear plant a few years bak, and it might have some connection with some biochemical experiments that a scientist attached to the nuclear plant was working on. The scientist was working on a substance he called slithis, a substance with some very strange properties.

There’s another gruesome killing. Wayne is more and more convinced that these are not cult killings. He’s sure that slithis has something to do with it. And based on what a wino tells him he witnessed near the canal Wayne thinks it’s some kind of slithis monster.

Wayne eventually figures out that he’s not going to get any help from the authorities so he’ll have to confront the monster, with some help from fisherman Chris Alexander (Mello Alexandria) and from Dr John. Wayne’s wife Jeff also helps out. No, I don’t know why she’s called Jeff.

There’ll have to be a showdown with the monster and it will take place on the monster’s home ground, the sea.

While there are touches of 70s paranoia this is basically a 1950s monster movie. A monster created by radioactivity is of course classic 50s monster movie stuff but the whole tone and structure of the movie is very 1950s. It’s a 50s monster movie with 1970s environmental concerns added to the mix. Fortunately it doesn’t bludgeon us with a political message. It makes a point about the environment quickly and effectively and then gets back to its real business - providing us with entertainment.

It’s the mix of 50s and 70s sensibilities that makes the movie work. We have a journalist hero who enlists the aid of a scientist and they can’t convince the authorities that there’s a real threat. The monster was created by radioactivity. The monster is played by a guy in a rubber suit. That’s all pure 50s stuff, but then a lot of the action takes place in the seedy underbelly of California and there’s a lot of blood and gore, both of which are very 70s features.

The guy in a rubber suit stuff works surprisingly well. The monster looks weird and a bit gross.

Writer-director Stephen Traxler wisely doesn’t try for anything overly ambitious in the way of special effects. He just didn’t have the money. He goes for cheap effects which work.

It’s just a bit slow early on but the pacing gradually picks up and the movie does deliver the goods when we get to the mayhem.

The acting is passable enough. Hy Pyke in a small part as a cop gives the hammiest performance you’ll ever see. It doesn’t quite fit the tone of the movie but it’s fun to watch.

There’s no sleaze in this film. The producers wanted a PG rating and (surprisingly in view of the gore) and they got it.

Slithis turned out to be a big money-maker (in fact it apparently made millions which was pretty good for a movie that cost $100,000) but sadly Stephen Traxler didn’t get to see any of that money. Not getting paid was one of the hazards of low-budget movie-making in those days.

Slithis has had a few home video releases. I believe there’s now a Blu-Ray. My copy is the German DVD which includes both the German-dubbed version and the original English-language version. It offers a good 16:9 enhanced widescreen transfer.

Slithis has its problems and it has some pacing issues early on but overall it’s a lot of fun. A good old-fashioned monster movie that doesn’t try to be too clever. It would have been great to see this one at a drive-in. Watching it at home with plenty of beer and popcorn is probably an equally enticing proposition. Highly recommended.