John’s Horror Corner: Slime City (1988), a low budget 80s “melt” horror for fans of schlocky gore-slathered messes.

NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW
JUST…DON’T LOOK AT THIS IN YOUR OFFICE, OK?
NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
FAR TOO GROSS FOR YOUR WORK PLACE!

MY CALL: This “melting horror flick” was made for fans of ultra-low budget 80s horror and gore-slathered messy schlock. No nudity, but rather violent and featuring some of the worst acting the genre has to offer. So, yeah, I liked it! MOVIES LIKE Slime City: The Incredible Melting Man (1977) was among the earlier “melting horror” movies. But Street Trash (1987), Neon Maniacs (1986), The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke ’em High (1986) are all more in the same style as Slime City. For something more recent and far more sleazy (and “breasty”) slime horror, try BioSlime (2010). Also, if you enjoyed this Slime City (which I watched with my Shudder subscription through Amazon Prime), try to 2010 sequel Slime City Massacre!

There’s something about the dregs of indie 80s horror that breeds an uneasing atmosphere. The writing and direction is awful and the acting can be completely stale. But this manifests something of a horror-appropriate awkwardness at times, doesn’t it? Such is the case with Slime City, a film that doesn’t go easy on the weirdness gas pedal.

When we meet Alex (Craig Sabin; Naked Fear, Slime City Massacre) he is looking for a new apartment with his girlfriend in hopes that this privacy from his old roommate will break his lady’s chastity. His frustrations are apparent and he seems to be getting tired of her, but he’s quite interested in his promiscuous rocker down-the-hall neighbor who is actually played by the same actress as his girlfriend (Mary Huner; Undying Love).

Does anyone really have a neighbor like this?
She’s posing like this alone in her apartment, BTW.

Yearning for company Alex accepts a dinner invitation from an emo poet neighbor who serves green Himalayan yogurt for dinner and, somehow, Alex readily accepts a glass of some mysterious green fluid that was prepared decades ago by a purported alchemist! He is told this directly right before he decides to take a sip. Whatever bad shit happens to him, he has it coming for being stupid!

Writer/director Greg Lamberson (Killer Rack) seems to follow hard in the footsteps of such delightfully stupid, gory, smutty and brutal predecessors as Street Trash (1987), The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke ’em High (1986). After Alex’s weird green yogurt and beverage dinner date, he has a clothes-on sex session with the slutty girl next store and wakes up covered in some manner of perhaps sexually transmissible slime.

Excellent disguise you made with those slime-soaked gauze…
Won’t draw any attention at all!

His body is falling apart, oozing and leaking, with his skin about to slough off. Strangely, the only cure for this malady is to brutally bash in a hobo’s head with a lead pipe! Then, POOF! He’s clean, slimeless and normal again. So, evidently Alex is now a raging were-slime monster.

This is why we pay attention to expiration dates on cottage cheese!

As if taking after The Wolfman (1941) a fortune-teller gypsy warns his girlfriend of danger. Meanwhile, Alex wanders around like some hooker-soliciting mummy wrapped up in gauze, secreting mucous. He’s like an addict. He can’t stop drinking this alchemical concoction that makes him slime out, and then he must subsequently kill to appease the evil slime.

Much to my surprise, there was no nudity at all. And good for them, I guess. While there is clearly a place in cheap horror for gratuitous nudity, this flick brings enough gore to the table that the women need only disrobe to put on a clean, slime-free blouse between scenes. The real entertainment comes in the form of super gory sludgy scenes including mimicking The Thing‘s stomach mouth, a crawling brain, and an attacking headless animated body like The Reanimator (1985)…there’s a lot for gorehounds to enjoy here.

Yuck aaaaand yuck! LOL

 Apparently the brain is the source of the infection. I guess it’s trying to escape.
It also sort of looks like the animated steak in Poltergeist (1982).

It turns out there’s a greater plot afoot. It involves Satan, the occult, resurrection, and all the jazz. Kinda’ dumb. But for fans of ultra-low budget 80s horror and gore-slathered messy schlock, this should entertain you.