Growing up, every lovely part of nature was a threat. Forget all the cuddly animal stories if you read the books of Guy N Smith there was no safe ground and everything from crabs, lynx’s, bats, locusts, alligators, snakes were all completely lethal. Just as you were recovering from these others followed suite. Rats were forever off the petting list thanks to James Herbert, there was no hint of a rescue from loving St Bernard dogs with a flask of brandy once Stephen King introduced us to Cujo and as for Slugs, well they were never nice in the first place really, especially not after Sean Hutson brought them more notoriety. Naturally the film world grasped the subject well before such box office terrors as Snakes On A Plane and all sorts of deadly animals got on the big and small screens, hell there is even one just about to come out about killer squirrels which is completely nuts (sorry) but there is little in the animal kingdom that has not been dressed up in shaggy dog costumes and paraded in front of the camera to terrify us.
American director Jeff Lieberman got in on the act in 1976 with his first feature Squirm. This was a year after David Cronenberg had nauseated the world with his breakthrough venereal parasite film Shivers and having just recovered from that this similarly titled feature was guaranteed to leave people squirming in their seats. For a first feature it is tension fuelled and after a bit of a clunky slow start adapt at piling on the shocks with some very memorable scenes. Lieberman was hardly a prolific director but in my mind it was his next film ‘Blue Sunshine’ that was the pick of his career in 1978 when LSD became literally lethal to a generation of Blue Sunshine takers whose hair fell out and turned them psychotic. Also of note but slightly overrated in my opinion was redneck backwoods slaughter film ‘Just Before Dawn (1981).
The redneck origins are all over the ‘filmed in Georgia’ Deep South set Squirm. Set in the small rural enclave of Fly Creek people are simple, liking nothing more than to fish, fall asleep at the bar, eat spaghetti and run bait farms (cue the worms). An air of sophistication arrives in town as a big shot antique dealer (actually a ginger geek) Mick (Don Scardino) arrives in town from New York to find some nice rural antiquities and woo Southern belle Geri (Patricia Sanders). His trip is not the easiest due to a massive storm causing havoc and bringing down all the electricity in the area and the pylons which are causing massive surges of power through the ground deep within the woods. As any scientist (involved in the science of making plot development work) knows, massive doses of electricity make worms angry and attack. These are no common garden earthworms either and unlike those ones that you used to cut in half and watch both sides go off their own separate ways (don’t deny it) these have two separate ends and one has teeth. How do you tell which end is which a question asked just in case you really are as dumb as some of the cast, well the ones with teeth bite you. Glad that cleared that up. Some horrible close ups provide detailed visual proof of this as the worms are getting zapped they are screaming angrily too ugh!
Things are not going well, for our loving couple who stop off for some ice (no electricity and its hot) to take back to the family who comprise of pot smoking sister and scatty mother. No less than 100,000 worms go missing from the back of the worm baiter’s truck that Geri has borrowed. Meanwhile in the diner Mick annoys the locals including redneck ‘don’t like city folk’ sheriff by finding a nasty worm in his egg milk (apparently a city name for a chocolate shake). Before long there is a skeleton playing hide and seek with our intrepid pair who decide to do a Scooby Doo and the worms are starting to get their bite on with the locals.
It’s a slow build up as stated but when you get through the quirky and it has to be said humorous melodrama of small town folk, the final reel will really make you squeal! They say that you should never work with children and animals and getting worms to act would be ridiculous but they do not need to do so here as the site of so many slithering and squirming (no other word for it) on mass is quite enough to repulse the hardiest of viewers. If you add to the fact that the film utilises an up and coming make up designer called Rick Baker to the production this should give you another clue as to how effective the results are. It is also worth mentioning that the film was edited by Brian Smedley-Aston so there really was some talent involved here.
The effects are quite revolting and the inevitable trapped in a house confrontation sees the place completely decimated by the nasty critters. I love the way they uproot a tree and knock half the place down and the somewhat losing the plot mother decides to leave the back door open to let a breeze in. It’s certainly not a film that involves any deep and meaningful thinking and it is one whose plot conventions you will have seen hundreds of times before. That is not to say that this is not a highly enjoyable watch and both a fun and a gross one too. It will leave you wanting to get rid of the slimy feel of it by taking a shower afterwards…. Ah actually no it won’t!
I vividly remember seeing this in the video shop windows both the box on Orion home video and the poster and them leaving a lasting impression at a time I was too young to actually view the film. When I eventually watched this some of the images were very disturbing and now all that time later they still are. If you suffer from helminthophobia, scoleciphobia or vermiphobia do not watch this film, if however you want a giggle at this 37 year old piece of art (ahem) it is well worth checking out especially as Arrow have lovingly given it the necessary hi-def, director approved restoration it deserves.
I approached the extras as ever after writing the above review and was kind of pleased on watching ‘The Esoteric Auteur’ segment where Kim Newman talks about the film and the director that we were very much on the same wavelength. The as ever enthusiastic critic talks fondly about the aforementioned books dealing with killer animals and then takes us on a giddy ride talking about an exhaustive amount of films dealing with the same subject and yes there are stacks of them. He also liked Blue Sunshine and Just Before Dawn and mentions Lieberman’s subsequent career which he says had him really resting on his laurels after minting it in as screenplay writer of Never Ending Story III before finally giving us a new but blink and you will have missed it genre effort Satan’s Little Helper (2004)
However the real treat is an Q & A segment filmed at a retrospective screening of Lieberman’s early films with him and main star Don Scardino. This starts with an ‘all you will hear is true,’ statement and believe you me there are some real surprise anecdotes in store about the film. I am not going to spoil them for you but considering the no real name no star cast of Squirm you should hear about the ones that got away and were not suitable for the movie. These and the tales on the set about the worms themselves and how they manipulated things for some of the scenes make this compulsive viewing and really add depth to the film.
All in all it has to be said (and feel free to groan) it’s great that Arrow have unearthed this classic!
Pete Woods
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