Goo is the name of the game in Slime City, a horror film with elements of science-fiction and comedy released in 1988, written and directed by Greg Lamberson. There is quite a lot of the slimy substance throughout this movie and while it could have gone the silly and ridiculous route, and been a little more Troma in some regards, it does its own thing and turns out to be a lot of fun.

Robert Sabin stars as Alex, a starving artist who works at a rental store and has just moved into a new apartment. The building is not the worst to look at but the apartments inside are shoddy and the residents are some of the strangest one would ever meet. Alex is soon invited to dinner where he eats some strange green yogurt which he follows with a little wine, green in pallor. He is hesitant at first but finds it addictive and cannot get enough. Yet not long after, he finds himself transforming into a creature, slimy in nature and as time goes on, he gets more loathsome and even slimier each time that it happens. Alex also falls under the sway of his pretty neighbour named Mary, a seductive goth who is more than she seems and it is there that he learns of his fate to be the vessel for a man named Zachary, long dead, who is looking to make his return and the slime is the way he shall make it, through the slime and through Alex.

As ludicrous as this all might seem, it was highly amusing and no part was really all that bad despite the subject matter. There could have been room for improvement, there always is no matter the film and here, the script could have used a little more polish as it seemed a little cheesy here and there and not all of the acting was the greatest but those are mere quibbles. The way the makers of this movie used the slime was quite good and looked more than gross when applied to Sabin throughout the picture. It oozed and dripped off of him in copious amounts and whenever his face was focused upon, it was nauseating at times to look at. His final transformation at the end was both hilarious, disgusting and fantastic. Even better were the murders that Alex would commit as the monster, brutal and bloody and perfectly fitting for a production such as this. Mixing comedy into this oozing mess of a film was a smart move because it lightened the tone and made it far more watchable had it been otherwise.

This movie will not be for everybody. It is cheaply made, farcical to a degree and absolutely crazy. The comedy is dark, the horror is obvious and objectionable and overall, some might simply think it trashy or smutty. Yet while being all of those things and more, Greg Lamberson has created a film that will stick with its audience. It is not a picture that one will soon forget and that is not because of Alex’s slutty neighbour, the comedy or the kills but because of the slime, pure and simple and how well it was used. Factor in that final scene when Alex effectively becomes a monster and Slime City is definitely worth a watch or three.

3 out of 5