10) Slither
Before Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither was probably the best work in James Gunn’s filmography. Any fans of his hit sci-fi caper who haven’t already done so should definitely go back and check out this gross-out masterpiece.
In a splurge of B-movie excesses, monster flick gore and alien invasion intrigue, Slithers sees a race of parasitic slugs that possesses human hosts attack the people of a small southern town – led by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks, both of whom are great value.
On the slug side of things, their first victim is Banks’ character’s husband Grant Grant (Guardians’ Michael Rooker), which results in a repulsive yet darkly funny romance. And, well, that’s all we can really say without spoiling too much of the unpredictable narrative.
On the surface, Slither is gleefully disgusting and you’ll have to watch through your fingers at points. Yet, underneath that it is a clever, subversive ode to the genre that will keep you enthralled just as much as it keeps you repulsed.
9) What We Do In The Shadows
Another horror comedy director who went on to work for Marvel is Taiki Waititi, who’s helming next summer’s sure-to-be blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok. Before then, though why not try his incredibly different last film – an extremely low budget vampire mockumentary, starring and co-directed by Flight of the Concords’ Jermaine Clement.
What We Do In The Shadows follows four ancient and out-of-touch vampires living together in a mansion in New Zealand. Chiefly, the film derives its many laughs from blending the flat-share comedy with vampire tropes e.g. the housemates have meetings about leaving drained corpses about the place. It also gets a lot of mileage from how the gang are mostly a bit rubbish at being vampires (apart from the legitimately terrifying Nosferatu-like Petyr).
The incongruity of the premise, then, is what makes What We Do In the Shadows one of the smartest and most entertaining of the glut of vampire movies in recent years. It’s good to be reminded sometimes that, though they might be undead, vampires aren’t so different from us.
