Squirm (1976)

A Killer What?

Sand worms from the coast that are all juiced up and pissed off because a storm blew down some power lines and is sending tons of electricity into the wet ground.

Is it Any Good?

While it is rightfully regarded as a cornerstone comedy and nerd culture, Mystery Science Theater 3000 will always have to deal with its culpability into making movie lovers into smarmy pedantic little shits. While there is an evergoing battle raging over how it was Mike Nelson (who took over as the lead of the show halfway through its ten season run and is currently the leading force behind Rifftrax along with fellow MST3K alum Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy) or original host and creator Joel Hodgson who turned the show from a loving roast of b-movies to a cynical mockery of them the fact is that the narrative of the show from episode one was that the movies the characters were watching were hot garbage and the awful prints used for the episodes did little to dissuade this notion. I’m not saying that Mystery Science Theater is directly to blame for CinemaSins, How It Should Have Ended, and other pedantic unfunny horseshit, I’m just saying it’s not not to blame.

Squirm was one of the final movies to be featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 on its ill-fated Sci-Fi channel era and as such it was a very common rerun and one of the most entertaining episodes of that season. I daresay that anybody who didn’t see Squirm in the late 70s when it came out only knew about it because of the episode. And in total fairness the dialogue is hilariously bad, the movie features a wimpy thoughtless jerk protagonist, a hilariously hostile group of townies (including the world’s useless movie Sheriff), and a capable and interesting female lead who is given short shrift.

What Squirm also has is some truly impressive practical special effects, some genuinely shiver-inducing gross out bits, and an effective story that works in spite of its bad dialogue and actors. It’s a solid movie even without the silhouettes at the bottom of the screen.

Watch, Toss, or Buy?

Buy it, there’s a Scream! Factory Blu-ray.