Squirm

Fly Creek is a small southern town best known for it's "antiques" and the Grimes Worm Farm. During one particularly hot summer, while Mick (Don Scardino) is on his way on a bus to meet new girlfriend Geri Sanders (Patricia Pearcy), they're hit by a whopper of a thunderstorm. Fly Creek's roads are flooded and they've lost power due to a downed power line that is still sparking. And that leads to a big problem. Because when the film's worms are stimulated by electricity, they come out of the ground, ready to bite, and there are millions of them!

As is obvious from the premise, Squirm is a nature-gone-wild film, a subgenre of horror that was particularly active in the 70s. It's a pretty good example of the genre, and the film is successful more often than not, as long as you don't start to question the plot too much. Overall, it's a 7 out of 10 for me. I almost gave it an 8, but the ending is a bit too clichéd, so I knocked off a point. I've only seen one of director/writer Jeff Lieberman's other films so far--Blue Sunshine (1976)--and that also had points taken off for a less-than-satisfying ending.

Squirm is at its best when it's wallowing in small redneck town weirdness. The Sheriff (Peter MacLean) is frighteningly unresponsive, a bit pleasantly campy, and he's also a paranoid troublemaker. The Grimes family, Willie (Carl Dagenhart) and Roger (R.A. Dow), are demented and creepy. The Sanders family seems oddly dysfunctional, and Geri's sister, Alma (Fran Higgins), demonstrates that Juliette Lewis wasn't the first Juliette Lewis. When all of this stuff is combined with Squirm's initial slow-burning horror aspects--including a relatively subtle amount of worms and a well-placed (both literally and in terms of the script) skeleton--it is good, almost sublimely so.

But things begin to go slightly awry when we get to the big extravaganza near the end. The characters have either died off or Lieberman simply abandons them. Having a lot of characters die off by the end is understandable and even laudable in a film like this, but it's too bad we couldn't have seen them longer and had more emotional investment in them. Simply abandoning characters isn't as excusable. Of course the attacking worm quotient increases as the film continues, and this is handled well physically (I can't imagine having to be a worm wrangler), but plot points surrounding the worms become sketchier and almost contradictory at times. That saps too much tension out of the ending, and instead we're primarily engaged by physical effects for their own sake, plus a wonderfully campy change in personality from Roger.

Squirm is definitely worth seeing for anyone with a taste for lower-budget 1970s horror, and at times is quite a gem. Just don't set your expectations too high (but really, who would for a film like this?)

Reading some of the negative reviews for Squirm, I can't help but wonder if some people tend to prejudge it just because its "one of those 70's bug flicks". I saw this movie at the theater when it was first released, and watching it now on video, it still holds up today as a very well made film.

The set locations were perfect for giving that "small town down south" feeling. And, though the acting by some of the locals left something to be desired, I thought the main characters did a very good job, especially considering the type of movie this was. The music score was terrific and gave the film some great moments. The photography was very good, and probably one of the best using low-light scenes with only candles. And the special effects hold up very well by today's standards.

O.K., I'll point out a few negatives. Some of the dialog is hilariously bad, and tends to stereotype "southerners". Of course, as with most of these types of films, the science doesn't hold up, but thats why its called "science FICTION".

In closing, I can highly recommend this movie to any fan of sci-fi-nature-strikes-back and horror movies. But please, watch it with an open mind- you'll enjoy it better.

Definitely not MST3K material.

This film gave me vivid nightmares as a kid. It has a scene where worms burrow under a guy's face. It was just on MST3K. It has a creepy song that plays over the opening credits (as Tom Servo puts it, It's evil little kid music). And DON'T, I mean don't eat spaghetti while watching this movie or within a week of viewing this film.

A vicious storm downs a power line near a very small Georgia town. It (somehow) drives all the worms crazy and turns them into vicious man-eaters! The town is cut off from civilization and the worms attack...

The plot is just silly (flesh-eating WORMS? Come on!) but the film never takes itself TOO seriously. A lot of the dialogue is very tongue in cheek, and there are LOTS of close-ups of screaming worms (news to me--I didn't know worms could scream). So it's really hard to take any of this seriously.

The acting is all pretty bad (even Jean Sullivan the one "name" in the cast) and the plot moves in fits and starts. And it does take a while to really get going. But when the attacks happen things really get going. There are some pretty good, if disgusting, special effects (one VERY disturbing scene shows worms burrowing into a guys FACE) and seeing literally MOUNTAINS of worms squirming around is kind of queasy.

It you take this film literally you're gonna hate it. But if you accept it for the low-budget, slightly campy film it is you'll probably have a fairly good time. Worth seeing at least once for the gruesome special effects.

I saw the PG rated one on cable which (I heard) is one minute shorter than the R rated one. Purportedly all that's missing is some minor nudity (some of which was in the PG one) and some swearing. All the gore is still there.

Intentionally campy nature-gone-wild film about killer mutant earthworms. Power lines come down during a storm causing thousands killer earthworms to surface and feast upon the locals. The story and characters are not all that compelling, but the film did have a ridiculous "Tremors" kind of vibe to it that was fun. I mean, how could you take seriously worms coming out of a shower head or digging their way out of a mans face? Those are both ridiculous scenes, but ridiculously memorable in the best sort of way. Don't expect suspense or thrills, but do expect some laugh out lout goofiness as well as some good creepy moments featuring massive amounts of actual slimy worms doing icky things.