Watch Spawn of the Slithis For Free

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Spawn of the Slithis (1978)* (out of 4) A small town comes under attack by some sort of sea monster, which appears to have been caused by a nuclear leak. Pretty soon pets and humans are going missing with only bloody limbs turning up. A group of friends set out to find the creature and destroy it.If you've read Stephen Thrower's NIGHTMARE USA book then you know how wonderful it is. You'll also know that there are countless exploitation movies that are given the special treatment and this here is one of them. You'll have to check out the book to get all the details but this film was basically meant to be a throwback to the drive-in era of the 1950s when guys-in-costume monster movies were all the rage. By 1978 these types of films were certainly out of fashion but director Stephen Traxler tried to bring them back but sadly the result is rather bad.There are all sorts of problems with this film but the biggest is the God-awful screenplay, which makes one major, major mistake. Yes, the biggest mistake is that the film is deadly boring. It really doesn't matter how bad you're horror movie is as long as you keep it entertaining but I'd say the majority of the people would check out of this one rather quickly. There are way too many scenes that feature people simply talking about stuff that isn't interesting and a lot of times it doesn't even have anything to do with the story. The film only runs 86-minutes but by the time it's over you'll feel as if you had just sat through all three GODFATHER movies.Another problem is the typical stuff that you'd expect from a low-budget movie like this. This includes some rather bad performances, no real style and a rather sloppy looking picture. There are a few things that I liked with the monster being one of them. Again, you can read the book to get more history on the film but it's worth noting that elements of the suit were borrowed from other popular movies. The creature outfit isn't mind-blowing but for a low-budget film I thought it was good. It's really too bad he wasn't used in the film more and that they went for a kid-friendly PG-rated movie.

I love a 'so bad it's good' movie just as much as the next movie geek but, this 1978 "gem" is just all round bad. I had the misfortune of catching this in a theater back in '78 and let's just say it hasn't gotten any better with age and it's still so bad that 70s nostalgia just doesn't help. The movie tells the story of a school teacher who (for whatever reason) is trying to solve the mystery of some animal mutilations and later human murders around a Venice California cove. The police think it's a serial killer or a cult and forensics can't seem to tell animal bites when they see them. He discovers that a leak from a nearby nuclear plant created an organic sludge called "Slithis" (never explained) which takes on characteristics of what it absorbs and it is now a humanoid fish monster craving food. From it's awful dialog to it's even worse delivery of that dialog (an actor playing a police chief seems to think he's playing a bad guy on a Sid and Marty Kroft show.), Slithis is mind numbingly bad. Half the films shots are in slow motion for no reason, including the opening scene of a fat kid playing Frisbee, which means it's scant 80 minute running time would be less then an hour without them. The Slithis creature costume is okay but it looks like a pudgy Creature From The Black Lagoon and the human eyes are just too nice and blue to illicit fears. And as a horror film, fear is something this completely lacks. From the easily telegraphed attack scenes, where most of the carnage is off camera, to the tone , which goes from serious to oddly whimsical at times ( What kind of film where they trying to make?), Slithis can't generate any suspense or tension whatsoever. There is some blood but, with a PG rating, Slithis is rather tame and there are only a few attack sequences as the film is very talky for an 80 minute creature feature. An awful film that somehow has garnered a bit of a reputation but, after revisiting it, I can only guess it was from lack of availability as the film has very little to recommend even to fans of bad movies.

When I first saw this movie I went to a midnight showing of it to a theater that was a walking distance away from my home, I was 14 at the time and back then the streets were a bit safer but I was so freakin' scared that I had to call a friend to come pick me up. Starting with the opening scene where the creature goes inside a home and kills the couple living there, I've seen movies involving home invasions but there was something about this one that had me with my feet off the floor. I don't know if I saw it again today it'll have the same effect on me, the parts I remember now seem to be cheesy as hell but it really managed to leave a lasting impression on me.

What a flick! I bought this one just for the front cover - it was in the 25 cent special bucket at a local pawn shop. This video was worth every one of the 25 cents I paid for it, and I'm guessing the producers lavished at LEAST 26 cents on the filming of this masterpiece. Looking for cheesy, overblown, low budget, backyard trash on film? Look no further!