Squirm
After a devastating storm hits the small town of Fly Creek, downed power lines send worms into a blood-thirsty frenzy. The unsuspecting citizens have no idea what is in store as countless hoards of worms invade their town.
To say that I have a hard time taking this film seriously would be an understatement, but its not the premise of killer worms wreaking havoc on a small rural town. No, I can thank the good folks at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 for introducing me to this movie. Right away I missed those three silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. I tried to put that aside as I watched this without the hilarious comedy, which was difficult needless to say.
Mick (Don Scardino) is visiting the rural town of Fly Creek in search of antiques, merely an excuse to visit his new friend Geri (Patricia Pearcy). He quickly finds that his city-boy look and demeanor is not welcome, as he is accused of playing a practical joke by the Sheriff when he finds a worm in his drink at a local diner.
Mick and Geri try to convince the towns people of the imminent worm threat, but like most sane and logical people, they brush it off. After all, how much devastation could worms cause? Quite a lot, incidentally, according to the film. The worms in this film aren’t regular earthworms you see dried out on the side walk. These are seaworms and sandworms, terrifying creatures that actually do have pincers and can bite, or even orchestrate the destruction of a house by working together to tip over a tree.
One of the better scenes in the film is when the worms start to ooze out of the shower head when they water is turned on. Regardless if you think worms are scary or not (the answer should be not), this would still be a very frightening thing to behold as you stand exposed in the shower– a continuous rain of worms all over your body.
The good moments such as worms spilling out of the chest of a man, or the aforementioned shower scene are few and far between. It is honestly just hard to take killer worms seriously.
Despite being somewhat tongue in cheek, this creature-feature struggles to portray a real threat. Even at the height of the climax when Mick finds Roger (R.A. Dow) in the woods after worms burrowed into his face, a crazed Roger simply throws a piece of plywood on top of him and tosses a few sticks on him, hardly the stuff of horror.
The acting is pretty bad here, which is understandable considering most of the towns people were actually regular citizens with no experience whatsoever. The professional actors who are in this over-do their roles, especially the role of Geri. The accent is taken to the point of a cartoonish degree, and most of the performances are eye-roll worthy.
Another thing that is noticeably bad is the editing. Almost mid-sentence the scene cuts to something else at times. A lot of the scenes are choppy, with no fluidity. It is a low-budget horror film, so there is a degree to which it can be forgiveable, but it just makes for a bad film.
Video
Squirm is presented in 1080p 1.85:1. The transfer is surprisingly clean, with little to no blemishes or scratches. Even in the darker scenes of the last part of the film, I was surprised at how clear I could make out the detail.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS Master Audio Mono. The sound mix here is great, blending the score well with everything else. The sounds of the worms are particularly noteworthy, probably the creepiest thing about the worms themselves.
Special Features
Shout! Factory doesn’t let us down with special features on this disc. We are going to see:
Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Jeff Lieberman
Right off the bat, Jeff Leiberman blasts MST3K for not ‘getting’ that the movie was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. The rest is some pretty interesting information about the scenes and where they came from. Particularly interesting is the list of actors that were almost in the film, including Kim Basinger, Sylvester Stallone, and Martin Sheen.
New Interviews with Jeff Leiberman, Actor Don Scardino and Special Effects Artist Bill Milling
A Tour of the Locations with Jeff Leiberman
Theatrical Trailer
TV and Radio Spots
Still Gallery
Considered a cult classic by some, Squirm doesn’t quite live up to the horror status. It is treated exceptionally well by Shout! Factory, and fans of the film will no doubt want to pick up this release.