(15, 95mins) Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker, Tania Saulnier, Brenda James. Directed by James Gunn.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Slither resurrects the schlock horror monster movie with unabashed glee, pitting a community of hillbillies against an invasion of body-snatching molluscs.

To say that writer-director James Gunn's picture is preposterous would be an understatement, but the film embraces its lunacy with abandon, delighting in the gruesome demise of the cast and some sick and twisted leaps of imagination.

Todd Masters' make-up and creature effects are splendid, from the unfortunate character who literally explodes giving birth to thousands of slimy space slugs to the legions of meat-eating zombies that shuffle around town.

Lashings of gore are complemented by the film's demented sense of humour: Comic touches abound, from the sheriff pausing to activate his car alarm in the midst of a chase to the old-timer who stares at a host creature a shuffling mass of tentacles and oozing pink flesh, and quips it looks like something that fell off his unmentionables during the war.

The sleepy town of Wheelsy is a community of friends and neighbours, who always look out for one another.

When a meteorite crash-lands unseen on the outskirts, strange events take place: Pets go missing, livestock turn up horribly mutilated and wealthy resident Grant Grant (Rooker) begins behaving completely out of character, hoarding dead cats in the basement.

When local woman Brenda Gutierrez (James) vanishes without trace, Sheriff Bill Pardy (Fillion) and Grant's wife Starla (Banks) join forces to uncover the source of the dark force, which has besieged the town.

They find a deadly, voracious organism, which will stop at nothing to devour all life on Earth.

Perky teen Kylie Strutemyer (Saulnier) and town mayor Jack MacReady (Henry) are soon involved, desperately trying to avoid ingesting one of the parasitic worms, which reduce the human hosts to carnivorous zombies.

Slither doesn't disappoint when it comes to blood and entrails: One character comes to a devilishly sticky end and the final showdown is gross.

Banks and Saulnier add a feminine touch to proceedings, teaching the men a thing or two about courage under fire. Behind every man is a blood-spattered woman with a shotgun.