Slither (2006) Online

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Don Thompson	-	Wally
	Nathan Fillion	-	Bill Pardy
	Gregg Henry	-	Jack MacReady
	Xantha Radley	-	Uptight Mom
	Elizabeth Banks	-	Starla Grant
	Tania Saulnier	-	Kylie Strutemyer
	Dustin Milligan	-	Drawing Boy
	Michael Rooker	-	Grant Grant
	Haig Sutherland	-	Trevor
	Jennifer Copping	-	Margaret
	Zak Ludwig	-	Gina Kid
	Kathryn Kirkpatrick	-	Karaoke Woman
	Brenda James	-	Brenda Gutierrez
	Lorena Gale	-	Janene
	Bart Anderson	-	Butcher

In the opening scene as they pan down the street, you can see "R.J. McCready's Funeral Home". R.J. McCready was Kurt Russell's character in Das Ding aus einer anderen Welt (1982), Russell ended up working with James Gunn 11 years later on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).

In the script, Brenda is the niece of Randy Flagg. Randall Flagg is the bad guy in several Stephen King novels, including Stephen Kings 'The Stand' - Das letzte Gefecht (1994).

Brenda is watching Atomic Hero (1984) with her baby, when Grant comes to her house.

Haig Sutherland was the first person to be cast. Elizabeth Banks was the second. Gregg Henry was the last actor to be seen for the part (out of more than one hundred actors from Los Angeles and Vancouver) and nailed his audition. Nathan Fillion was the last actor to be cast, about a week before shooting began. Shooting lasted forty-seven days.

The name of the High School is "Earl Bassat High", after a character in Im Land der Raketen-Würmer (1990).

People, places, and buildings, throughout the film, allude to various late twentieth century monster movies. See Movie Connections for specifics.

Dangled above the street at the beginning of the film, and on stage later at the Deer Cheer celebration, you can see a "Henenlotter's Saddle Lodge presents Deer Cheer" sign, a reference to cult horror Writer and Director Frank Henenlotter, famed Creator of Basket Case - Der unheimliche Zwilling (1982) and Elmer (1988).

(At around forty-eight minutes) When the mother tells her two daughters to go to bed, the one on the right is reading a "Goosebumps" story by R.L. Stine titled, "The Girl Who Cried Monster".

Jenna and Emily Strutemyer were named after Jenna Fischer, Director James Gunn's wife, and her sister.

Gregg Henry also appeared with Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker in Guardians of the Galaxy.

James Gunn's intention with the character of Starla was essentially, "the Hitchcock blond," and found it in Elizabeth Banks, he saw other actresses, "they had the sort of WB good looks but Elizabeth really had that old time grace."

Nathan Fillion (Bill Pardy) and Michael Rooker (Grant Grant) were in Super - Shut Up, Crime! (2010) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

A couple different studios wanted to produce the film, but Gunn went with Gold Circle and Universal because they wanted to start production immediately and offered him real freedom.

The first thing Fillion thinks of when he sees himself on screen is his big nose.

"When you make a movie in Canada you have to have a certain amount of Canadian actors," says Gunn. "You're really only allowed to have American actors if they're stars." Fillion got in as a Canadian, obviously.

"We had many, many vendors on this film," Gunn says, "and some of them were great and some of them were not so great." Digital Dimension and Image Engine get a shout out from him as two of the best.

The scene with Grant visiting Brenda and her baby was filmed in a house in British Columbia that smelled of cat piss and other odors. Gunn recalls being stuck in there, gagging, while the rest of the crew were thankful to be outside. "But still thank you very much to the family for letting us use your house," added Fillion.

Inspiration for the film according to, James Gunn the first image that hit his mind was of a young woman with an alien-like worm flapping and burrowing into her mouth. The story and title came later as he decided to bring back the feel of the films he loved from the '80s. Specifically, he mentions wanting to honor The Fly, The Thing, Basket Case, Return of the Living Dead and more.

Air Supply's "Every Woman in the World" was written into the script as Mr. and Mrs. Grant's love song. Fillion asks why, and Gunn says "Frankly I find it creepy." He explains why but then backpedals a bit saying "I like the song, I'm not saying I don't like the song, it's not my time of music necessarily but I really do like the song."

Several of the character names are nods to talents in the horror genre, and Gunn was originally planning on pointing them all out during the commentary. He decides though that it will be be more entertaining for viewers if he doesn't. But then he does.

Gunn admits to casting the actor to play Hank (played by himself) when he was drunk. "I'm just wondering why you cast such a homely man," asked Fillion.

Michael Rooker accidentally broke his glasses off camera, while doing kung-fu kicks by himself.

Fillion recalled Gunn telling him that "We are making a funny movie, but we're not making a comedy." From that point forward Fillion better understood the tonal balance he needed to aim for.

Gunn and Fillion both agree that the most horrifying scene in the movie is the bit with Grant having sex with his wife. "Elizabeth did not have to act much in this scene," says Gunn, "as Rooker was groping her. There he flicks her nipple." Apparently one of the producers fought hard to have Gunn cut the nipple flick.

The shot of Brendas baby in the crib teething on a tomato was originally accompanied by a bit of dialogue explaining why, Brenda says that tomatoes are cheaper than toys, and the infant actually softens them up thereby making them better for cooking. It was a good call cutting the explanation.

Don Thompson loves the horror genre and grew up on Universal's classics, and on the last day of shooting he approached Gunn with tears in his eyes to thank him for the experience of working on this one. His favorite scene to film was when Wally returns from the dead and speaks with Starla.

Gunn points out that while he's hardened on gore effects and such the dog corpse that Starla finds in her basement made him "really sick."

Rooker dislocated his shoulder while filming the scene where he attacks Starla and grows a floppy arm. It was a long shooting day with multiple setups, and he didn't tell anyone until the shot was in the can.

When the monstrous Grant slithers across the field unaware that he's surrounded by cops, was created practically and manipulated by multiple puppeteers who were then digitally erased.

The barn is on property owned by Buddhist monks, who love The Matrix (1999).

Brenda James suffers from claustrophobia and a meat-phobia. This made her scenes with the meat products and the ones trapped in the bloated body fairly traumatic for her.

Gunn is no fan of the shot where the worms cover Pardy (Fillion) and Starla. "I think the worms look really bad."

Gunn had originally scripted the infection of the two little Strutemyer girls to appear partially onscreen, but he decided against showing it. "It was one of the things the producers really didn't want me to show, especially in Europe they're very touchy about children being killed." I would actually disagree with that statement as there seem to be far more genre films from Europe offing kids on screen than we've ever gotten here ‐ The Children, Cub, Who Can Kill a Child ‐ but his next point makes a lot more sense. "I'm really glad that I didn't do it, because the experience of these worms entering people's mouths is quite sexual in certain ways, and it's difficult to watch. To do it with a child would have been too much."

"Kylie's mom has to vomit on her," says Gunn, "but we only had three of those jackets." It took three takes, the first two of which resulted in minor dribbles from the actress' mouth. They rehearsed and "Iris [Quinn] learned that she really had to cough to get the stuff to spurt out in the way I wanted, and then she was able to vomit appropriately on her daughter's face."

Jenna Fischer, who was married to Gunn at the time, was not originally part of the cast. The actor in her role begged to be released from his contract because he had an offer to shoot a pilot, so Gunn let him go rather than have a performer on set who didn't want to be there. Gunn swapped the character's gender and gave her a few more lines. By the time the movie was released Fischer had become immensely popular from The Office, so she was the one who went on The Tonight Show the night before the film opened.

The post-car crash scene was filmed on a night that was below zero and at the mercy of a Hells Angels party across the street. One of the bikers got a ticket for crossing a barricade into the production area, and he subsequently became very angry. He began setting off fireworks to interrupt he filming because bikers can be petty people too apparently.

Gunn recalls that during the film's premiere screening he spent more time watching Fillion's mother than watching the movie. She was jumping from scares, flailing from worry and "I don't want to put down your mother, but I think there was some urine trickling down around my feet."

Gunn absolutely hated the scene where the "silly Muppet deer," attacks Bill.

The question about the film that Gunn gets most is people inquiring as to who sings the song at the very end. It's called "Baby I Love You" by The Yayhoos.

Fillion had wanted to work with Gunn since seeing the Dawn of the Dead remake which Gunn had written. He actually auditioned for the film but was passed over. "They said they wanted someone to be more of a young, blond woman," explains Fillion.

One thing that was difficult Gunn stated, "is getting little girls to walk like zombies."

Gunn found it necessary to explain what "bukkake" means as no one seems to get the reference. I'm not sure what it says about me that I already knew the definition.

Rob Zombie: Voice of Dr. Karl, talking to Starla on the phone.

James Gunn: Hank, teacher at school.

The post-credits coda shows a cat getting possessed by the last surviving creature. In an early draft, this was meant to happen to Bill (Nathan Fillion), after the Grant-creature is destroyed. Starla (Elizabeth Banks) sees the resulting wound later, prompting her to shoot Bill to death.

Jenna Fischer disclosed on a television talk show that she got the role of Shelby as a "birthday present" from her spouse, James Gunn, after another actress dropped out of the movie. Being a big fan of zombie films, she always wanted to play a zombie. Upon hearing the news, she screamed with joy.

For the scenes of pregnant Brenda a suit of 3 meters long was created where the actress had to get inside the suit and rest her head in a hole.

Lloyd Kaufman appears as the Sad Drunk in the police station.

that Brenda consumed large quantities of meat during her pregnancy was proposed by one of the film's producers who said "If brenda gestates thousands of baby slugs inside her as she fed them".