Diagonaldi Very well executed

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

thelastblogontheleft Oh, Squirm. I don't care what anyone says… this was a great movie. It was featured on one of the very last episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the director, Jeff Lieberman, was not happy about it… but perhaps not for the reason you'd expect: "Mystery Science Fiction was really invented by Zacherly, and Elvira called herself Zacherly with T*ts. The movies they would get, they would get them because the owners of the films would go, 'Oh well, a little bit is better than nothing' because nobody was booking these movies to play in their entirety. But Squirm was playing all over the world in its entirety on its own, so why would you make a cheap sale like that? Once you do that you can't sell it to stations at the same time. Of course the fandom thought I was being sensitive about them goofing on it, like it was Gone With the Wind or Citizen Kane. I was furious about the financial aspect. I didn't give a s**t what anybody says. It's a movie about worms."I think it makes me love the movie more to know that Lieberman doesn't take it, or himself, too seriously. It would be hard to do so with a movie about worms — not huge, monster worms or poisonous worms or even worms crawling out of dead bodies. Just regular ol' worms wriggling their way up out of the ground. It's not that scary of a movie, really — though it tries, with its closeups of the worms with these monster screams that I guess we're supposed to assume they're making — but what it lacks in horror it makes up for in charm. And okay, a handful of creepy scenes, like finding the old man whose insides have been entirely replaced by worms, or when they find Mrs. Sanders as just a vaguely human-shaped pile of worms, or poor Roger pulling his way up the stairs in a last attempt to take them down with him."I like a good thunderstorm. It makes you feel… helpless."It also does a great job at toeing the line with lots of great, dark humor. The scene where they are pleading for the sleazy sheriff's help while he's on a date at an Italian restaurant and they just keep panning back and forth between closeups of him and his ladyfriend slurping down spaghetti I MEAN COME ON, so good.This movie also showcases some early makeup effects by Rick Baker (before his American Werewolf in London days) — I particularly enjoyed what he did with Roger's face to make it look as though worms were burrowing under his skin.Ultimately, while not much of a scare, this movie is worth it for some icky worm scenes and some pretty commendable dialogue (heavy on the Southern accent).

Mr_Ectoplasma Jeff Lieberman's debut film "Squirm" has a rural Georgia town inundated with flesh- eating worms who have been summoned by electrical currents from fallen power lines in the aftermath of a storm. Down-home Southern girl Geri (Patricia Pearcy) is meanwhile being visited by her New Yorker boyfriend, Mick (Don Scardino), and needless to say, things in Fly Creek run amok.I've read multiple comments about this film essentially being a rendition of Hitchcock's "The Birds," rather with worms, and they couldn't be any more correct— Lieberman takes the template and runs with it by all means, but "Squirm" still retains so much charm and doses of wormy nastiness that I find it impossible not to love it.Admirable special effects on a shoestring budget are one noteworthy aspect of this film (early work by Rick Baker, who has went on to become a majorly successful makeup designer in Hollywood, is on display here), but perhaps its greatest achievement is the sense of unease that pervades even in spite of the inherent silliness of the plot. By some unidentifiable stroke of genius (or perhaps accident), "Squirm" never works its way into any sort of cornball hysteria— despite the fact that the film's antagonists are thousands of worms (and a worm-infested redneck), it still never manages to fall into the "so bad it's good" category that one might expect it to.The innocuous exposition of the film may have a great part in this in that it builds a certain kind of dread, but no matter the cause, the film maintains a healthy level of self- awareness and seriousness that really elevate it from standard low-budget creature fare. Don Scardino (who later appeared in another genre favorite of mine, "He Knows You're Alone") takes on the Tippi Hedren role as the borderline martyr figure— the New York stranger in town— and does it remarkably well. Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, and stage actress Jean Sullivan all amp up their inner Southerner without falling too far into caricature, and each of the characters are memorable. The film's finale has all the worms you could ask for, and the entire event is just plain fun.Despite what preconceptions you may about "Squirm" (I had many), it is definitely a film that is worth the time for anyone who is a fan of '70s horror or creature features in general. The direction is classy and the production is remarkably sophisticated given the minuscule budget, and lends the film a Southern Gothic dread that coexists nicely with our ground-dwelling villains. Is it cheesy? Well, it's a film about flesh-eating worms, so, yes, in content, sure— but it's just got enough elegance to really pull itself off. 8/10.

Bezenby When Seventies Elton John goes to visit his girl way down somewhere in Virginia, he's all expecting some passionate loving (wait, that doesn't sound like Elton John at all), but instead gets surrounded by pink, wriggling slimy things instead (that sounds more like Elton John).What's happened, right, is that there was some sort of storm and the some electricity hit the ground and then all these worms (who were residing in a worm farm) all went a bit mental and start chowing down on the locals, none of whom in the slightest belief Elton John's theories (or even like him in the least, especially that sheriff with the simply bizarre haircut. You know, it's one of those nature on the loose deals, only this one manages to pick a pretty harmless creature. It's far too slow as well, what with Elton and his girl doing exciting things like checking dental records, going fishing and trying to convince the sheriff that something's wrong over and over and over again.The video cover to this one scared that crap out of me when I was young (when video shops existed), but sadly it didn't live up to it all. The wormface bit was good though, but that's it!

lathe-of-heaven Whew...! I just took off my PCP Goggles (Heh, Bradly Bean, your review intro was GREAT! :) A 'must read' review if you have the chance.Well, my reaction is not quite as colourful as that of the gentleman mentioned above, but I just finished watching the film (in HD no less) and I'm earnestly trying to sort out my impressions at 11 P.M. at night (well, I guess the 'P.M.' part is a giveaway...) Anyway, I did enjoy the film and yes it DID somehow seem to keep my interest throughout it's runtime. Not exactly riveting, but entertaining. I love what ol' Bradly said about the supposed 'Georgia' accents; that was funny! And quite true; as I was beginning to watch the movie with my headphones on, I actually paused it and called my 86 year old Dad over and said you have GOT to hear the absolutely most HORRENDOUS 'Southern' accents that you will ever hear. He agreed (Southern accents are not among his favourites anyway)Mr. Lieberman does indeed have some talent for telling even a silly story like this pretty well, given that the total budget for this film was likely a bit shy of what a family of 4 would spend at a Red Lobster on any given afternoon. But, as my 'Summary' suggests, those pulsating piles of spaghetti were DAMN hilarious! I read here in the Trivia that I guess they did use like hundreds of thousands of worms or something like that, but I personally only saw maybe a few hundred and LOTS and LOTS of squirming spaghetti! Funny... BUT, other than that, I have to admit that with such a silly premise and so little money, the director did rustle up a few effective moments and genuine scares and like I said, SOMEHOW kept our interest at varying levels for about an hour and a half.I've seen Mr. Lieberman interviewed and he is actually quite interesting and funny. I really appreciated his effort and effectiveness in his first short where he was specifically hired to make a cautionary short film about drugs. You HAVE to admire his creative approach. And his following full length movie 'BLUE SUNSHINE' is a blast. And his much later 'SATAN'S HELPER' is a very odd, quirky, but still somewhat intriguing film. Seeing this as his first big screen effort makes me really wish that he had had many more opportunities to develop his talents and abilities, but apparently he has only really made a handful of films. Even with that, he has something of a reputation and a little notoriety. Too bad he couldn't ultimately make more out of it.So, the bottom line is (and I DO enjoy saying 'Bottom') that if you have a STRONG affection for these old Monster Horror films, AND you have a very, VERY forgiving spirit, then you most likely will enjoy this movie at least a little bit...