SQUIRM (1976) Review

Directed by: Jeff Lieberman
Written by: Jeff Lieberman
Starring: Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, Jean Sullivan, Peter MacLean

"AN AVALANCHE OF KILLER WORMS... WRITHING ACROSS THE LAND IN A TIDAL WAVE OF TERROR!"

Killer animal flicks were all the rage in the 70s and all of the more obvious dangerous creatures - sharks, bears, spiders and snakes and such - featured in their own films. But when filmmakers began to run out of these vicious predators they had to resort to far less threatening creatures and while not realistic or frightening, most of these movies at least turned out to be a real hoot. NIGHT OF THE LEPUS brought killer bunnies, SLUGS gave us killer... slugs, there was FROGS in '72 and of course there was SQUIRM which brought to life every person's worst nightmare; an army of killer worms!

"Late in the evening of September 29, 1975, a sudden electrical storm struck a rural sea coast area of Georgia. Power lines, felled by high winds, sent hundreds of thousands of volts surging into the muddy ground, cutting off all electricity to the small secluded town of Fly Creek. During the period that followed the storm, the citizens of Fly Creek experienced what scientists believe to be one of the most bizarre freaks of nature ever recorded. This is the story..."
SQUIRM begins with this scrolling paragraph explaining the setup for the film, then it goes on to show a storm, complete with high winds and downed power lines, rendering the previous paragraph pretty fucking redundant. On the plus side the opening scene is accompanied by a neat, creepy song.

Southern rose Geri (Pearcy) meets up with boyfriend Mick (Scardino) who has just managed to make his way into Fly Creek after the big storm hit. Flooded in and without electricity the pair decide to go meet up with a local antique dealer to check out some old junk he's selling, but when they arrive he's nowhere in sight and the only thing Geri and Mick can find is a skeleton lying out in the yard. After calling out the sheriff the skeleton mysteriously disappears. Other strange events begin to unfold; crates of worms turn up empty and Geri's neighbour Roger (Dow) is attacked by rabid worms while out fishing. More bodies turn up and Geri and Mick need to figure out what it is that's made the worms want to start snacking in the residents of this particular backwoods town.

As ridiculous as the premise may sound SQUIRM is a surprisingly effective movie that far surpassed whatever I had expected. First of all it's worth noting that the worms in the movie aren't your everyday earthworms, they're of the genus Glycer; commonly known as blood worms, and they do bite. So the notion of killer worms isn't quite as far-fetched as you might think (although it is still pretty fucking hard to imagine). One of the things SQUIRM does well is creating one of those bizarre 'small southern town' atmospheres with a cast of weird and wonderful characters. Worm farmer Roger is one of the more interesting and has some of the strangest lines in the film like the exquisite "You gonna be da worm face!"
Rick Baker's effects are impressively done as well especially 'ol wormface Roger after the little bastards have tunnelled into his skin. And considering that these are 'just worms' the climax is strangely terrifying. As far as killer animal flicks go SQUIRM is a cut above most and is refreshingly entertaining and surprisingly straight for a movie about killer worms. Plus it has just about one of the most rad posters I've ever seen.