"Don't Let Them in Your Mouth!": SLITHER

The horror and comedy genres are directly related, even though comedy has an edge in terms of wide appeal.  Both typically revolve around absurd misfortunes, characters tend to be a bit more incompetent, but most importantly, the build and payoff of both a joke and a scare use similar techniques to create suspense and relief of tension.  So why not have both?  

SLITHER  (HORROR-COMEDY, 2006) 
Directed by James Gunn
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker, Tania Saulnier, Matreya Fedor, Don Thompson, Brenda James, Jenna Fischer
Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, and language.
95 minutes
SCAREmeter: 4.5/10 (freaky monster scenes and such, but more funny than scary)
GOREmeter: 9.5/10 (ridiculous, over-the-top gory gross out scenes, mostly comedic)
LAUGHmeter: 7/10
OVERALL: 3.5/4 

Filmmaker James Gunn went mainstream in a big way last summer when his film GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY opened in number-one, then returned three weekends later to take the top spot at the box office four weekends in a row, grossing over $600 million worldwide to date and currently ranks as the #1 movie of the year domestically.  Gunn got started writing films at Troma Entertainment, the independent film company whose name is synonymous with the sort of cheap, self-aware, lurid horror films they make, those being characterized graphic, disgusting violence and bizarre overt sexuality.  For instance, in Gunn's first big gig, TROMEO AND JULIET, which he wrote with director Lloyd Kaufman, Juliet is transformed by the apothecary's potion into cow monster with gigantic male sex organ.  Gunn then moved on to writing the abysmal SCOOBY-DOO and its abysmal sequel, and the Zack Snyder-directed DAWN OF THE DEAD remake.  Gunn moved into directing with his own script SLITHER, a homage/parody of the old-timey B-monster movies with alien invaders, small town politics and gratuitous gory violence, God-willing.
One night in the unsuspecting little town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, a meteorite crashes down unnoticed.  Walking around in the woods, well-to-do businessman Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) discovers the meteorite, which fires a barb into his chest, infecting him with an alien parasite and transforming him into a big, disgusting, carnivorous slug/squid thing that only exists to turn people into either part of a zombified hive mind or huge pregnant stomachs full of slimy baby alien slugs with which to devour all life in the world.  Bad news.  Grant's beautiful wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), a sweet-natured girl who married for money, is concerned, so she asks for help from police chief Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), her childhood sweetheart who still harbors feelings toward her.  Surrounded by slugs that want to get into his mouth and take over his brain, Chief Pardy has to contain the disease before it spreads out of town, kill his lifelong crush's deformed husband and see how things go from there.

"Something's wrong with me."  "Uh, yeah."

It's hilariously disgusting, from people splitting clean in half lengthwise to an enormously inflated woman ripping apart as thousands of slimy alien slugs explode from her, while none other than Nathan Freakin' Fillion, aka Captain Hammer, aka Captain Malcolm Reynolds, aka Richard Castle (not sure about that one, haven't seen it), aka the big guy that Groot lifted by the nostrils in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, wisecracks his way through the carnage.  Speaking of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY cast connections, Gregg Henry, SLITHER's crass mayor, played Starlord's grandfather in GOG's prologue, and Michael Rooker, as Grant Grant, also played Starlord's blue-skinned, jilted employer, Yondu.
SLITHER is a horror comedy, but more comedy than horror, and your stomach won't know what to do between the rapidly alternating gut-busting and churning.  The film was a box office failure, which is a real shame, because it's probably Gunn's sharpest film (I wasn't a fan of his other cult-classic, SUPER).  It's a great kind of Halloween party movie, with the trappings of a cheap horror movie, but not cheap or particularly scary, very gory and grotesque, but absolutely hilarious.  The plot gets pretty lazy in a few spots, arguably part of the homage to much worse movies, things like aliens transferring their memories to a victim who then explains things to everyone, but even that's kind of funny.  If more people had seen this, everyone would be quoting it.  Heck, this movie's great, just go watch it.

"Martians is from Mars, Jack."  "Or it's a general term meaning 'outer space f***er!'"