Squirm

Dir: Jeff Lieberman

1976

**

I’m a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 but many a great film has been ridiculed by its cast of zany characters. Squirm deserved such ridicule. However, as slow and unimpressive as most of the film is, when it gets going it really gets going. The story takes place in Fly Creek, a small southern town best known for it's antiques and the Grimes Worm Farm. During one particularly hot summer, while Mick (Don Scardino) is travelling by bus to meet new girlfriend Geri Sanders (Patricia Pearcy), the town is hit by a freak a thunderstorm. The roads are flooded and all power is lost due to a downed power line that is still sparking. For whatever reason, killer worms are stimulated by electricity, which the fallen power line is providing in abundance, There are many of them, they’re up and out of the ground and for some reason they’re very hungry. There were many killer animal/killer nature films released in the 70s and the genre gave us many a brilliant and ‘so bad its brilliant’ film. To be fair to Squirm it was made half-way through the sub-genre’s popularity and up to that point all the featured animals were classically and legitimately scary. Sharks, Lions, Bears, Snakes….they’re are scary for good reason, worms less so, so I give them some credit. It is important to not question the plot too much but to just enjoy it for the nonsense that it is – it’s no Phase IV but it is far more amusing. Squirm is at its best when it explores small redneck town weirdness. The Sheriff (Peter MacLean) is frighteningly unresponsive, the Grimes family, Willie (Carl Dagenhart) and Roger (R.A. Dow), are demented and creepy and the Sanders family seems rather dysfunctional. It’s a sub-standard slow-burning creeper that gets going after the worms finally wriggle their way to our protagonists – helped by a well-placed (both literally and in terms of the script) skeleton scene. The effects are laughable but quite effective, especially the ones that see the worms burrowing into people’s skin. The amount of sea worms used in the film was vast, as the production would order shipments of 250,000 Glycera worms at a time. The production would end up wiping out New England's supply of Glycera fishing worms that year, making the movie instantly unpopular in the area it was filmed. The ending could have been a bit better but after all the waiting, the pain, death and wriggling comes as a welcome relief. I’m not sure if the pay-off is worth it in the end, the wormy scenes are good but are too far and few between. The idea of literally drowning in a sea of worms is terrifying, as is having them eat their way into your skin – so I’m not sure the worms needed to scream quite the way they did. The film is basically two people running to town and back without actually achieving anything with around ten minutes of horror. Squirm is definitely worth seeing for anyone with a taste for lower-budget 1970s horror, and at times is quite a gem. Just don't set your expectations too high but really, why would you for a film like this?. In the end, the mistakes can’t all be blamed on the low budget either, as Jeff Lieberman rejected Kim Basinger, Sylvester Stallone and Martin Sheen when all three actors eagerly pursued the main roles, deciding to cast less-known (or experienced) actors instead. He cites The Birds as his biggest influence. I’m guessing you could take any horror film, swap the villain for a bunch of worms and Squirm is pretty much what you’d get every single time.