SLIME CITY
Written and Directed by Greg Lamberson
Featuring Robert Sabin, Mary Huner and TJ Merrick
1989
Retro Shock-O-Rama

Where do classics come from? I don't know about you, but I have my own classics. Those movies on a little list in my head that I can always count on to remind me why I like films so much in the first place. At this point, I've done pretty well in my quest to find all the weird and bizarre gems of underground and independent cinema, but by no means have I seen it all. So here, seemingly out of nowhere, comes Greg Lamberson's SLIME CITY. Weird? Yes. Bizarre? Certainly. A classic? Well I'll put it this way: it's staying on that list in my head indefinitely.

Originally a hit in the late 80's on the NYC midnight-movie circuit, SLIME CITY shakes hands like an old friend I just met. Robert Sabin plays Alex, a young video clerk who moves into a crappy-ass apartment building in order to be closer to his girlfriend Lori (Mary Huner). Not surprisingly, he quickly meets a few of the oddball tenants, and finds himself having dinner at his beatnik neighbor's place one night. What's dinner? A gross-looking bowl full of "himalayan yogurt", and a glass of cloudy green wine, of course. Alex, either out of a need to make nice with the people he's going to be seeing each day or just to prove he likes to be adventurous with his food, eats the yogurt and downs the wine, even though the beatnik warns that the recipie belonged to a long-dead alchemist by the name of Zachary. Horror audiences know something bad is gonna happen, and we want to see poor Alex fall face-first into it. And fall he does.

SLIME CITY more than lives up to its name, let me make that clear first and foremost. If you're looking for a nice disgusting time in front of the telly, you'll get it here. The makeup fx are unexpectedly high-quality and are more than just a little effective (the film's climax is definitely up there on the puke meter). As Alex goes about his tranformations and murder sprees, I was surprised at how grisly things really did get, especially given that the film doesn't try very hard at being serious. A wise decision or just luck on the part of the filmmakers? I'm not sure, but it totally works. And Sabin's performance as Alex really makes you like the guy, to the extent that when his bodily changes and violent actions begin to take place, the overall effect proves to be somewhat disturbing. And what's worse, Lori still won't give Alex any play, even after he moves in to the ghetto! So when he wakes up one morning covered in sticky goop, there's more than a little metaphor going on here.

What I came away liking most about SLIME CITY was its overall charm and off-putting creepiness as a low-budget production. I've seen it compared to films like BASKET CASE and BRAIN DAMAGE, but it actually reminded me more of the original EVIL DEAD in a lot of ways. Listening to the commentary with director Lamberson and leading man Sabin, you get nearly the same vibe as when listening to a Raimi/Campbell track, and that includes a wealth of information for those who are genuinely interested in filmmaking. Alex is a likeable shmoe in the way that Ash is in Raimi's film (but is most definitely not the hero of the story), and the ending is full of multicolored body fluids and hacked-off appendages.

In fact, the violent, gore-soaked climax gives off vibes that recall the original RE-ANIMATOR too, especially given the fact that Mary Huner does battle with the undead while wearing very little clothing. And as if that weren't enough, Huner actually plays two prominent characters in SLIME CITY: the sweet, virginal blonde Lori and Alex's slutty, raven-haired neighbor Nicole. She does such a convincing job that most of the people I watched the film with didn't even realize the same actor played both parts!

I welcome SLIME CITY to my short list of favorite gross-out indie horror flicks from the 80s, and urge you to check it out. But please don't eat lemon pie, or anything with mustard, when watching this film. Just a warning.

(October 2005)