Slime City (1988) ***

1988's Slime City arrived during the "melt movie" boom of the mid to late 80s. It's not as good as the reigning king of that micro-genre, Street Trash (1987) (review), the big budget The Blob remake from the same year (review), Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985) (review), or even the later Body Melt (1993) (review), but it's a commendable little goopy indie horror film.

Frank Henenlotter, Stuart Gordon, David Cronenberg, and Sam Raimi were clear influences on Greg Lamberson for his debut feature, which lacks the finesse of any of those directors' work (even Henenlotter, ha), but there is a certain charm to the subpar f/x work, the stilted performances (particularly Mary Huner attempting to be seductive in her late 80s Cher outfit), the awkwardly framed shots, and the poor lighting and production design (I use that term loosely here). I will say that the score is kind of interesting and strangely hypnotic. There's a lot of fun and laughs to be had with SC.

Recommended for fans of the aforementioned films, plus Re-Animator (1985) (review), From Beyond (1986) (review), and Basket Case (1982) (review).