I was first introduced to Slither during my freshman year of high school by my soon to be brother-in-law and fellow horror aficionado, and I immediately fell in love. It was equal parts repulsive and witty, paid homage to the famous bathtub scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Gregg Henry aka Mr. Mitchum Huntzburger himself (if you know, you know). My 14-year-old self couldn’t give enough and showed it to anyone and everyone who would sit still (or squirm) long enough to watch it. Even now, at 27, I can’t get enough of James Gunn’s underrated gem, but now, I watch it for a lot more than good writing and effects.

This stomach-turning and gut-busting (quite literally in the case of Brenda) piece of cinema serves as a giant representation of toxic relationships, as shown through the marriage of Starla and Grant Grant, played by Elizabeth Banks and Michael Rooker respectively. Gunn not only crafted a love letter to the B alien horror movies of the 1950s and 1960s but a great representation of the complex layers of abusive and toxic relationships.

Slither begins like many of its science fiction predecessors with two police officers on patrol on the outskirts of town, making small talk, while an unidentifiable object comes crashing through the sky and into the woods. We then cut to the next morning in the small town of Wheelsy where we are quickly introduced to our main characters including the entitled and foul-mouthed Mayor Jack MacReady played by the aforementioned Gregg Henry. In keeping with the grand tradition of small town idle gossip, we’re soon made privy to the relationship of Starla and Grant Grant by Nathan Fillion’s Police Chief Bill Pardy. Pardy, it seems, has been sweet on Starla since childhood; however, Pardy couldn’t compete with Grant’s promises of financial stability, so Pardy has simply watched from the sidelines and taken an endless parade of teasing from the force for years, including the brilliant line delivered by Don Thompson’s Wally, “I’m surprised you’re able to lift a mug, you’ve been carrying that torch for so long.”

Unfortunately, we’re also soon made privy to the truth of Starla and Grant’s relationship. Starla is speaking with a fellow teacher (played by James Gunn himself) about lesson plans when Grant interjects and whisks Starla away to the car, claiming her colleague was making suggestive comments. When the pair arrive home and are getting ready for bed, Starla rejects all of Grant’s sexual advances and guilt trips, and Grant’s possessive nature become more and more obvious.

Angry and dejected, Grant finds himself at the local bar and is quickly joined by the Brenda Gutierrez, who turns out to be the younger sister of his old girlfriend. After some small talk and large drinks (and a very inappropriate joke that tarnishes the entire scene), Brenda drags Grant to the same unnamed woods from early to show him where she declared her love for him by carving their initials in a tree. The two drunkenly and passionately kiss for a few seconds before Grant says he can’t go through with it because of Starla, much to Brenda’s dismay. Naturally, Grant stumbles back and discovers the alien egg from the opening scene that appears to covered in something akin to Nickelodeon’s Gak and upon further investigation unleashes an entire epidemic upon Wheelsy.

The next morning, Starla meets Grant downstairs, plays their song, “Everyone Woman in the World” by Air Supply, and apologizes for the night before, where no apology was needed. Starla simply told Grant she wasn’t in the mood but still feels the need to make things right simply because Grant made her feel so guilty the night before, showing the control her has over her. Before the two share an intimate moment off screen, Grant unbuttons his shirt to reveal a giant rash that he shrugs off as a bug bite. When Starla gets to school, she shares with another fellow teacher the story of her morning, and it shows how one good thing in a bad relationship can help someone rationalize all of the negatives, and it’s almost hard not to scream at the screen. You know he’s the villain. You know she would be so much better off without him. You also know she has to make that decision for herself.

Fortunately, as the film progresses, Starla does start making that decision for herself. As Grant begins to metamorpihize into the Yuzna-esque nightmare we see later in the film, Starla undergoes a metamorphosis of her own into a total badass heroine, beginning the night of Wheelsy’s annual tradition to kick of deer hunting season know as the Deer Cheer.

While Starla showers in preparation for the night ahead, Grant gets the urge to infect Starla but instead rushes out of the house tells her to go on to the bar, and using his very phallic tentacles, impregnates Brenda instead. He then literally locks his infidelity away in a shed, leading to one of the grossest scenes ever, but I digress. Starla decides to go by herself, dances, and reminisces with Pardy, and we see her finally regain some piece of her freedom.

The night after the Deer Cheer, Pardy and company visit the Grant household in an attempt to interrogate Grant about Brenda’s disappearance after several neighbors reported seeing Grant at Brenda’s. Starla defends Grant claiming, “It must have been someone who looks like Grant,” and Pardy humors her, telling her that’s probably the case but to have Grant give him a call. Grant’s condition worsens, and after shrugging off Starla’s concerns yet again, claiming he’s spoken to their doctor, Starla gets fed up and takes matters into her own hands as she realizes she’s not crazy, and Grant’s ugliness is now becoming visible to the entire town, steadily revealing the hidden secrets of their marriage.

She begins by calling their doctor who says he hasn’t seen Grant in over a year (giving us a much appreciated voice cameo by Rob Zombie), and she breaks into the basement, finding a nest and a comical cataloged array of creatures in various states of decay. She immediately phones Pardy, but Grant walks in mid-call, accuses her of an affair, and begins to strangle her. Luckily, Pardy and the rest of Wheelsy PD arrive in time to save Starla and watch as Grant’s boneless arm crashes into a lamp as he awkwardly escapes in what is honestly one of the funniest scenes in the entire movie. This scene is also important because there’s no more escaping the truth about Grant’s abusive and controlling nature.

Over the next few days, Grant continues his transformation, which includes harassing the townsfolk of Wheelsy by stealing their livestock and terrifying them with his disgusting appearance. Pardy is finally able to find a pattern in Grant’s attacks by hilariously using octopus stickers to indicate each incident on the map. As Pardy and company set out to stakeout, Starla meets them at the station and pleads with Pardy to let her join the hunt and blames herself for everything happening. Starla is still beginning to transform into the previously mentioned badass, but there are a multitude of layers she must first go through, so it’s almost heartbreaking to watch her blame herself for everything about to unfold. Unlike earlier when she was discussing she and Grant’s passionate morning, we don’t want to yell at the screen; we want to help Starla realize she isn’t to blame and help her work through everything because it’s obvious she wants to move forward, as does Pardy who agrees to brings her along.

To best prepare for what comes next, I need you to go to your nearest supermarket and purchase some raw ground hamburger meat and novelty, plastic vampire teeth and splay it all out on the first readily available surface because that is the best comparison I have for the grotesque form of Grant Grant that makes his grand entrance. After slitting the throat of an unsuspecting cow and proceeding to drag it away, Starla tries to convince Grant to come back by telling him he’s sick, and they can work on getting him help. Grant responds by slicing a man completely in half and escaping into the woods, where he leads our heroes to Brenda. Again, Starla is left to deal with a complicated array of emotions while also trying to save the town she loves to again be shown Grant’s true nature.

The good news is Brenda is still in the barn from earlier. The bad news is Brenda is now a 1000 pound flesh balloon whose limbs and torso no longer exist, leaving her head as the only recognizable part of her being. Pardy tries to ask Brenda what happened but is met only by her requests for leftover roadkill and full-body spasms. For Starla, this means she is brought face-to-face with the woman Grant essentially cheated on her with, while he constantly questioned her loyalty. Things quickly go from bad to worse as things begin to come apart at the seams, and Pardy and Starla realize Grant purposely led them here in an act of vengeance, but it’s too late. Brenda explodes, leaving the gang covered in Grant’s alien offspring and viscera. Starla and Pardy also learn the only way to avoid becoming infected themselves is to keep their mouths shut. This directly correlates to Grant and Starla’s relationship as there are no consequences as long as Starla stays silent about the actual state of affairs in their home.

After losing most of our supporting characters, a new horror is unleashed: Grant can use the infected as a conduit to communicate with Starla. He turns most of the gang into automatons in an attempt to make amends with his wife while simultaneously demeaning her strength and defending his actions. After taunting Starla and claiming she isn’t strong enough to hurt him, she shoots Wally’s head clean off. From here on out, Starla takes no prisoners. She’s being surrounded by the personification of Grant’s lies. She’s hearing it form the mouths of the townsfolk who often salivate for this kind of gossip. However, she’s no longer standing idly by; she’s brutally murdering all of them.

She and Pardy get separated in the carnage, but the two later meet up, along with one of Starla’s students, Kylie, who serves as a way to quickly create exposition and a background story for the alien race, who are only here on to infect the entire human race; to put it bluntly, each person is used to either breed or feed. When Pardy and Kylie drive up on Starla, not only has she saved both herself and MacReady, but she is savagely decapitating one of Wheelsy’s denizens who is gurgling out Grant’s words as she loudly and primally screams, promoting MacReady to say, “The bitch is hard core.” Gone is the dismissive Starla from earlier. This Starla has tapped into all of her anger and sadness and has turned them into tools for her survival.

Pardy is able to get in contact with Shelby the dispatcher (played by Jenna Fischer) at the police station and asks her to contact the CDC; however, the slugs have made their way into the air vents, and Shelby is soon showered in a sea of red, pulsating infection, which leads to the gang being t-boned by a car on their way to the station.

After the crash, an unconscious Starla is carried away by Grant’s minions, and Pardy helps Kylie escape the wreckage while MacReady is carried away screaming. Pardy and Kylie make it to the station, only to discover all of the lines are dead, and Pardy is attacked by a killer deer and saved by Kylie. The pair then follow the horde of infected back to the Grant’s.

Starla wakes up in her bedroom in the same nightgown she was wearing the morning she and Grant shared to Air Supply and surveys the situation, where she realizes she’s absolutely trapped and back to her beginning. This feeling is only amplified by the disjointed chorus of voices calling to her from downstairs, telling her to come fulfill her “wifely duties.” Like I said before, this Starla is hardened, and this Starla is fighting back, so she removes the bristles from the silver pointed hairbrush on her vanity and tucks it into the side of her underwear, not only reclaiming her life but reclaiming her sexuality for herself. Meanwhile, MacReady awakens in the basement, surrounded by breeders. As he tries to make his escape, he opens the door, gets a neck full of tentacle, is thrust down the stairs, and begins feeding on the arm of one of his citizens.

As Starla makes her way downstairs, she’s met to the sounds of Air Supply. Upon further inspection, she realizes Grant has wallpapered the remains of their house in pictures chronicling their relationship. He’s even covered the mirrors, which represents him not wanting to face the truth of their marriage and his actions. Instead, he simply covers up the truth with pictures of only the good parts of their relationship in one last attempt to manipulate Starla.

Starla finally arrives to Grant’s lair where the townsfolk are joining Grant to create a giant alien skin monster to causally take over the solar system and inhabit all living beings. Starla tells Grant she’s in an adjustment period and sweet talks him into a false sense of security, much like Grant did to Starla, then when his guard is down, she stabs him with the handle of her hairbrush. The voices begin chanting all kinds of derogatory names at her as she crashes into the stereo system, ending their song for good.

Pardy and Kylie arrive to the house and meet MacReady who asks Pardy to kill him, and Pardy obliges without hesitation. Pardy attempts to throw a grenade into Grant, but his attempt is quickly thwarted when Grant’s tentacle slaps it from Pardy’s hand, and Pardy is quickly thrown into the yard. Grant wraps Pardy up in his appendage but is only able to sink one tentacle into Pardy before Pardy connects the other to a propane tank, destroying the being for good.

Kylie and Starla rush to Pardy, and the three step over the bodies of their former friends and family to leave the house and attempt to make it to the hospital in the next town over. The film ends with a long shot of the three walking down the street with the corpses of Wheelsy littering the surrounding streets and fields, allowing Starla to start over away from the control of Grant as their entire foundation (both of their relationship and their actual home) are finally destroyed.

Slither is so much more than a horror comedy set to a killer Red Dirt country-esque soundtrack. It’s a metaphor for a woman escaping the toxic relationship that kept her prisoner for over a decade. Unlike Grant’s, Starla’s transformation is beautiful and cheer-worthy, however gory it may be. She goes from a woman who feels the need to make amends with the husband who was unfaithful to her to a woman who impales creatures with a stop sign in the middle of the street. She completely reclaims herself. Sure, Pardy may ultimately be responsible for the the kill shot, but he never wouldn’t have gotten there without Starla’s bravery. Underneath the biting one liners and vomit-inducing effects, we’re shown the complicated aspects of a toxic relationship and how Starla completely perseveres, and that feeling shouldn’t be alien to anyone.

Alienation Vs Alien Nation : A Look at the Toxic Relationships in SLITHER