Famous for its heavy use of fog machines, the fog in The Slime People (1963) is so packed near the end it’s impossible to see anything. Salt water, reptile men, spears, a pilot flies into a John Carpenter movie and discovers unconvincing Thing wannabes. Breathless reporting, costumes, a couple survivors, was Romero and Darabont keeping notes? Rough Morning, Cartoon Eyeglasses, Screaming Cotton Candy, Taking Commondo Cody To Court, How Stupid The Movie Is, Thick Fog, Baking A Pie. “Sorta looks like I Dream of Jeannie lettering”, “Hi. I’m a Slime Person. And this is our story”, “Nice rock garden. Oh it’s his back.” “Like poppin a zit” or “Thank You Mr. Optimist”?
I watched this one not long ago, but I can’t say I really saw it. Who looked at the footage they were getting and said “yeah, that works”? There’s a germ of an interesting idea in there, but even the best plot in the world won’t work if you can’t see anything.
Once again, the old bail out of the car trick is used to resolve last week’s cliffhanger. Now granted, the scene occurs with an out of control truck going down the middle of a narrow mountain road. So it’s not like they could maneuver out of the way. Unfortunately, the process is made awkward by having Cody and Ted both exit through the passenger side door. More padding is thrown in with Graber and Daly dropping a nuke in a dormant volcano, which somehow results in widespread flooding. After featuring some stock footage of the carnage, the subject never comes up again.
As for the feature, it’s something of a step down compared to Robot Monster. The primary flaw comes from it being so talky. But even when action occurs, you can’t tell with all the fog. Now the use of obscured visuals in horror films is a longstanding tradition. Not only can it hide how cheap looking the monster costumes are (and the ones used here are real eyesores), but it can even add to the mood. But there’s a difference between obscuring and opacity. With as much fog as was being cranked out, they may as well have made it a radio drama.
Dependent on who you ask, you’re not missing much. A few people wrestling against an unseen force and for much of it you have no idea what’s going on. EXACTLY like The Slime People (1963). The connections don’t end there. A river of talking, black and white photography, sound carrying the weight of the visuals. Obviously Blair Witch (1999) is more highly regarded. I personally love it. And yet Slime People and Blair play with understanding what’s on screen.
