The Film:
Squirm is an interesting movie in that the large majority of the film is a campy fun mystery, but at other times it is capable of having genuine moments of horror. The story starts with a horrible storm knocking down some power lines in Fly Greek, Georgia. Those power lines surge large amounts of high voltage electricity into the ground, which in turn causes the worms to come out in a frenzy from underground. Mick (Don Scardino) arrives from New York after the storm to find his girlfriend and local girl Geri (Patricia Pearcy). After this we get introduced to the various people in the town as well as Geri's mother and sister. After all of the characters have been introduced the wormy mystery begins to pick up as skeletons are found by the couple. This leads the couple to want to solve the mystery of these skeletons that appear to be people whom they have recently seen. Eventually all the worming around leads to the discover of killer worms and their attack on the town.
I find that some of the better parts of
Squirm were the many instances where the filmmakers were able to play off on the grossness of worms. For example, a worm in someones drink and talking about the worms while showing close-ups of people slurping spaghetti. This film is definitely not serious and going by the commentary by the director it appears that this was the intention of the film. Jeff Lieberman explains that this film was always self aware of what kind of film it was. As well, he explains that both Don Scardino and himself tried to add funny elements to the movie throughout filming. As for the picture quality, the picture quality for this release is quite good. The detail and clarity throughout the film is definitely above average. For a film of this type it looks a lot better than some one is to expect. There are no real problems with the picture quality on this release. Very good picture quality overall.
Overall,
Squirm is an enjoyable little movie filled with quite a few cringe worthy moments without being overly disgusting. The film can really only be enjoyed if people understand what they are getting into up front.
Squirm is not a straight forward horror film filled with gross out moments. Rather,
Squirm is a campy tongue-in-cheek type of film that is aware that the whole plot is rather crazy. Along with the campy moments and plot, there are quite a few successful horror moments, particularly in the house at the end.
3.5/5
The Extras:
The extras on this release are a little sparse when compared to most other Scream Factory Collector's Editions and as a result
Squirm is on the lower end of Collector's Editions in terms of extras. This Blu-ray features an
Audio Commentary by writer/director Jeff Lieberman. The commentary is a fun listen filled with a lot of interesting facts about the film and the process getting it made. Another good aspect is that while the commentary shares some same information found in some of the other extras, it also has a lot of great information only found in this commentary.
Digging In: The Making of Squirm is an interesting 33 minute making-of documentary that features mainly Jeff Lieberman discussing the initial idea for the film, trying to get it made, making it, releasing it, and finally it's secured cult status. The documentary also features Don Scardino discussing all aspects of the film from his perspective. The last little extra feature is called
Eureka! With Jeff Lieberman which is a 7 minute video that explains his early inspiration and where it took place, for the idea of
Squirm. The disc all has an original theatrical trailer, TV spot, radio spot, and still gallery. Overall the extras on this release are pretty good but with sticking the Collector's Edition label on this release most people would probably expect a few more extras.
3/5
Overall: Recommended
. Here is the list of extras:
