cult film freak: TRACKING THE JAWS-CLONE OF NEW WORLD PICTURES 'SLUGS'

Title: SLUGS Year: 1988 Rating: ***1/2

Roger Corman's New World Pictures sans Roger Corman made a surprisingly decent Jaws-Clone, taking its time for the body count deaths with pretty good actors spouting pretty good dialogue between gross-out sequences that outshine the suspenseful horror aspect, overall more catered to the drive-in exploitation crowd...

Beginning with a bikini-clad blonde on a boat with her boyfriend, the JAWS connection is contrived right up front since SLUGS aren't known for being water/lake creatures... but soon we're at a small town that, within its cozy confides, has a nice guy health inspector who, along with his pretty wife and working class buddy, investigates what could be killing (and skinning bare) various townspeople...

Tammy Reger as Pam

Including the local drunk, an old couple and eventually working back to the sewer with a few high school parties (featuring cute blonde Tammy Reger) along the way, attempting the teen slasher device including two horny lovers and a passive virgin girl you think might just survive... but the show belongs to this nicer version of Donald Sutherland's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS snoopy health code guy: the token one man believing what seems impossible while trying to convince everyone before it's too late: that "homeless snails" are causing all the havoc...

And of course, again like JAWS, a greedy mayor seeks money over public safety, with sporadic business deals thrown in that actually aren't boring or distracting, moving the film along with creativity and something new around every corner, but mostly underneath them.