Squirm

This was intended to be a frightful monster movie. Problem is, it's just not scary. Personally, I fail to understand what's so scary about worms in the first place. It doesn't help that the characters in the movie are all dumb rednecks that you'd like to see die in the first place. Well, at least this movie was turned into a good episode of MST3K (may it rest in peace) so the whole thing wasn't a total loss. One thing's for sure. You definitely shouldn't eat spaghetti while watching this film.

Squirm has a bad reputation. I was hoping this would be because of its B-movie status, but it turns out that its earned this reputation because of the fact that it's really, really boring. The first half of the movie drones on and on and since the characters are so poorly defined and uninteresting, Squirm leaves its audience begging for some worms to come along and swallow the cast up. Monster movies are a penny a dozen, but this one is at least somewhat original because worms aren't the most immediate of God's creatures to spring to mind when thinking of a creature to take the starring role. The prologue informs us about an accident involving electricity, and then the movie proceeds to show us what happened (and I really wish it hadn't). We then learn that electricity can make worms go insane, and after forty five minutes of tedium, a quiet fishing village somewhere in America becomes the victim of said lunatic worms, who proceed to eat the locals. We focus on two dull teens that go around trying to stop the invasion. At least that's what I think they were doing, in between bouts of boring me to tears. This film was directed by Jeff Lieberman, the same guy behind the severely disappointing woodlands slasher 'Just Before Dawn'. He seems to like forest environments, as this one too has a lot of scenes in a forest. Actually, in fairness it has to be said that the forest location is well used; but that's about the only good point I can think of for the movie. I guess the film's biggest problem is the fact that it never really gets going and instead of progressing, it just wallows in its insane earthworm idea and never amounts to anything above mundane. The acting performances are really shallow and don't manage to grab your attention enough to pull you into the film. Of course, you can't expect good performances in this sort of stuff; but still. The characters that the actors are trying to portray have nothing about them, and I would say that I was cheering on the worms; if it wasn't for the fact that they're hardly in the film. Squirm does have a kind of nostalgic feel, as it's not very gory like many seventies horror films, but nostalgia counts for nothing it's not done well. Overall, I wouldn't wish this film on my worst enemy.

Squirm is a low budget movie with bad actors, bad special effects, a boring story line, a ridiculous premise, and bad music. The acting is plagued by serious over-embellishment of southern accents, garbled speech, and bad timing. The makeup on the "worm man" appears like it could have been done by one of those halloween kits you could get at a supermarket. The writer's serious anti-Southerner bias makes even people who don't like Southerners cringe. Squirm's only value is that it makes good material to make fun of on Mystery Science Theater 3000, where they hilariously explicate the minutia of the problems with this movie.

In Fly Creek, a storm knocks down the power lines, transforming worms in mutant creatures. Mick (Don Scardino) travels from New York to meet his girlfriend Geri Sanders (Patricia Pearcy) and stays at her home with her mother Naomi Sanders (Jean Sullivan) and her sister Alma Sanders (Fran Higgins). On the arrival, Mick has a friction with Sheriff Jim Reston (Peter MacLean) and with Geri's neighbor Roger Grimes (R.A. Dow) that woos her. Soon they find that Fly Creek is infested of carnivorous worms that are devouring the inhabitants, but Sheriff Reston believes it is a prank of Mick. "Squirm" is a lame and laughable trash movie about carnivorous worms. The silly story associated to the poor performances and annoying accent makes this film terrible to see and hear; however it is cult for many viewers. But the gorgeous Patricia Pearcy makes it worthwhile watching. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "A Noite do Terror Rastejante" ("The Night of the Terror Crawly")

The 1970s was a truly great time for slipstream horror films that were really off the beaten path. Squirm is one such movie. Well acted by it's unknown cast, it also features good photography that captured the scenery of Georgia extremely well not to mention tight direction and very good effects. The infamous "worm face" sequence is truly unsettling but it gets even worse at the film's climax. If you have a phobia of creepy crawlers then this is not a movie for you. There are quite literally thousands of sand and blood worms oozing through this film and they are only made grosser via the close up micro photography of their mouths. Who really knows what was used in the sequence in the house at the film's climax. Regardless of whether it was masses or worms or thick brown pasta, the effect is truly impressive. Squirm is chock full of little unusual touches like the foreshadowing of the falling tree, the really strange Mother of the two girls who is seemingly going crazy (and meets a gruesome end) and the fact that this is one of those rare films in which the action takes place in less than a 24 hour period. The climax is tight and scary and over all the film is truly disquieting. It's the perfect place to begin a study of the anything goes horror films of the 1970s.

SQUIRM. A horror movie about killer worms. Supposedly so bad that MST3K saw fit to make fun of it. Another great movie ruined by the creative minds behind this show. Will this movie ever be taken seriously again? I hope so, since I think this is still effective for a PG movie. A fallen electric cable charges the swamps of Georgia, sending the giant nightcrawlers in the mud into a frenzy. They begin to attack people and only Mick, a visiting city boy, and his local girlfriend can stop them. While a plot like this will be laughed at while reading it, worms can work well as a horror device. They are distant cousins of maggots, so provide instant queasiness. SQUIRM features lots of jarring closeups of worms with "jaws" help to create an extra unease. The acting is not too bad, giving the film some sort of credibility. Don Scardino is the perfect geek turned hero and I loved the actress who played kid sister Alma, as she created a truly memorable character. The special effects of worms crawling through a man's face are astounding not only for their competence, but for appearing in a PG film! The final minutes of the film, set in the dark house with few candles to ward off the worms, are eerie and work well. Unfortunately, some of the scenes of hundreds of worms are obviously rubber hoses, which didn't do it for me. SQUIRM, at times, feels like a leftover film from the 1950's The monsters are hardly ever seen until the end, leaving SQUIRM filled with so many scenes of romantic intrigue and investigation into a skeleton found on a farm that it's hard to keep one's eyes open at times. But I still love SQUIRM. It is a truly unique film and even though many people will not want to take a movie about killer worms seriously, they will be surprised at how effective some of the scenes are.

This exceptional killer worm flick marked the auspicious and impressive debut of great, shamefully unsung B-horror picture writer/director Jeff Lieberman, who followed up this slimy winner with the outstanding homicidal hippie acidhead landmark "Blue Sunshine" and the wickedly subversive, gender role reversal wackos-in-the-woods "Deliverance" variant "Just Before Dawn," plus also blessed us with the nifty 80's direct-to-video item "Remote Control" and the recent funky hoot "Satan's Little Helper." This skin-crawling delight rates highly as the best, creepiest and most deftly executed of the many revolt-of-nature fright films that were hugely popular and fashionable throughout the 70's. A whole lot of wriggling worms, juiced into a lethal, carnivorous, mankind-devouring frenzied mass by an electric cable downed in a fierce rain storm, nosh on the sleazy, boorish, hideously unfriendly local yokels which populate a drab little Georgia backwoods armpit hamlet. The premise sounds pretty awful, but Lieberman's hardy, adroit direction, wittily well-observed script, occasional dollops of wry black humor that sardonically poke fun at the plot's inherent absurdity (skeptical good-for-nothing sheriff Peter MacLean first hears about the vicious invertebrates while ravenously eating a teeming plate of spaghetti, a truly inspired spoof of the famous "Psycho" shower sequence has worms instead of water seeping out of the shower head), and a welcome dearth of pompous, heavy-handed moralizing which tends to mar several similar nature-runs-amuck eco-scare tales (e.g., the horrendously portentous "Frogs") make a world of difference, thereby converting the unpromising plot into a most pleasant surprise indeed. Moreover, the worm attack set pieces are disgustingly convincing and thus quite jolting (the horrific highlight occurs when vile redneck degenerate R.A. Dow has his face feasted on by the grody flesh-eating buggers), the refreshingly unmacho, but still resourceful Don ("He Knows You're Alone") Scardino as the bright, bookish, hopelessly out-of-his-element college educated New York city boy hero and ravishing redhead Patricia ("Cockfighter") Pearcy as Scardino's sweet, smart, fetching Southern belle girlfriend give nicely appealing performances, Joseph Mangine's crisp, evocative cinematography vividly captures a tangibly grungy and uninviting shabby small stickville town gone to seed atmosphere, Rick Baker's stand-out, often startling special make-up effects are typically first-rate (a post chewed-up Dow, dubbed "Wormface," makes for a notably ghastly sight to behold), there's a beautifully eerie opening credits sequence (the odd, austere children's song played during the credits is positively haunting), and the all-around sound acting is up to snuff. All in all, this honey really makes the grade as a genuinely frightening and very satisfying terror treat.

Liebermann's debut may looks ridiculous on paper (a plague of lethal worms?!?) but it's much more interesting and better than you'd suspect. Apart from the outstanding shlock- effects, the best aspect about the film is the genuine location of a typical American small-town. Liebermann chose for a nasty looking Georgia swampland, inhabited by unfriendly people with darn ugly accents. During an immense storm, the electricity lines hit the swampy grounds and cause for the worms turn mental. 'Squirm' starts out a little slow, with only some atmospheric music and neat set-pieces to enjoy during the first hour. But your patience is rewarded with several terrific and convincing shock-effects afterwards. In one of his earliest films as a make-up designer, Rick Baker immediately proves he's a professional artist. The acting is hard to judge since the Georgian accents are so tough to listen to at times. I particularly liked Jean Sullivan in the role of overly worried mother. It looks like she's trying to give a certain depth of oppressed paranoia to her character. Squirm surely isn't a brilliant film but horror fans can't really afford to miss it since it's a creature feature curiosum! Killer worms!!!

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.

One of my favorite horror flicks in this 1970's anomoly about electrified killer worms on a blood rampage in a small Georgia town. The worm effects are by the great Rick Baker, responsible for the effects in many notable productions such as KING KONG (1976), VIDEODROME(1982) and others. The main characters are constantly on the lookout for the hungry worms and the backwoods setting adds some chills as the entire environment is unfamiliar to most viewers. I would highly recommend this one...like I said it's a strange little flick that has been highly underrated, but i guarantee that if you see it, you'll probably enjoy it.