When I first saw this film a long, long time ago, I was terrified and the film earned a special place in my heart. It was what I couldn't see that terrified me, of course, what was actually impossible to see for most of the time. The slime people didn't scare me, of course, because I didn't believe in them, I didn't buy their good looks.
When I saw the film again recently, I wasn't terrified, but I found its first half hour effective because the fog surrounding Los Angeles was so damn thick it evoked Stephen King's "The Mist" and James Herbert's "The Fog", two of my favorite stories. I have always loved fog and what it potentially harbors, so "The Slime People" still kept its special place in my heart.
The fog is UNBELIEVABLY thick in this Z-grade gem. No, it's more like hovering pea soup than fog. Clearly, it is papering over the non-existent sets and MIA production design, but it works. It convinces us that something terrible is lurking within it. When that "something" is revealed", the seams start to split.
The endless dialog scenes are something to behold. They don't go anywhere and the actors only convince us that they showed up to the studio to put food on the table. The monsters are rubbery, which is fine, but they lack personality, too, which is a great shame.
I like the fact that the monsters are still referred to as "people" in the title because monsters do deserve respect. It's just a pity they weren't given more do and it's equally pitiful that we don't get a look-in on their grand plan for LA and the world.
Since remakes should be improvements on bad films with potentially rich concepts, this is a prime candidate for one.
When I saw the film again recently, I wasn't terrified, but I found its first half hour effective because the fog surrounding Los Angeles was so damn thick it evoked Stephen King's "The Mist" and James Herbert's "The Fog", two of my favorite stories. I have always loved fog and what it potentially harbors, so "The Slime People" still kept its special place in my heart.
The fog is UNBELIEVABLY thick in this Z-grade gem. No, it's more like hovering pea soup than fog. Clearly, it is papering over the non-existent sets and MIA production design, but it works. It convinces us that something terrible is lurking within it. When that "something" is revealed", the seams start to split.
The endless dialog scenes are something to behold. They don't go anywhere and the actors only convince us that they showed up to the studio to put food on the table. The monsters are rubbery, which is fine, but they lack personality, too, which is a great shame.
I like the fact that the monsters are still referred to as "people" in the title because monsters do deserve respect. It's just a pity they weren't given more do and it's equally pitiful that we don't get a look-in on their grand plan for LA and the world.
Since remakes should be improvements on bad films with potentially rich concepts, this is a prime candidate for one.