‘Slime City’
VIPCO, 1988

starring: Robert C. Sabin, Mary Huner, T.J. Merrick and Dennis Embry
written and directed by: Gregory Lamberson

the plot: Starving artist Alex (Sabin) moves in to a seedy Manhattan apartment building filled with strange tenants. Alex is a bit of a sleaze—he hopes having his own place will nudge his wholesome girlfriend Lori (Huner) into having sex with him, and if that doesn’t work, he can pay a visit to his neighbor Nicole (also Huner), a Goth sexpot. After Alex eats a strange, green “Himalyan yogurt” and quaffs a glowing green drink given to him by fellow tenant Roman (Embry), Alex sleeps with Nicole and subsequently wakes up covered in a clear slime. Over the next few days, Alex’s skin begins to slop off in a slimy mess and he finds that only by murdering innocents (and eating that gross yogurt) can he lead a normal life. Lori grows suspicious of Alex’s strange behavior and goes to his apartment to investigate, but she’s unprepared for the dripping, oozing horror that awaits her.

why its good: “Slime City” is a complete campy mess, but still pretty fun. It’s a lower-than-low-budget piece of trash cinema that’s ultimately saved by an interesting (though confusing) premise and a hilariously gory finale. Sabin and Huner put the most effort into their roles, which isn’t saying much. The rest of the cast seems to have been plucked off the street and stuck in front of the camera—for example, Alex’s second victim in the film, a prostitute who stands motionless and blandly says, “You bastard” as Alex lunges at her with a straight razor. The strangely convoluted plot Lamberson came up with—about an alchemist who killed his followers and committed suicide in the building and is now using the slime to return—sets the film’s ambitions pretty high, but it’s the goofy gross-out scenes that are the best. When a gang of young thugs attacks a slime-covered Alex, one of the guys has his arm swallowed and bitten off by Alex’s stomach! Sequences like that make the dreadfully boring first half hour of the film worth sitting through.

why you should own it: ei Cinema’s Retro-Shock-O-Rama label has released a collector’s edition of “Slime City,” complete with commentary and deleted scenes. If you can pick it up for cheap, do so, and watch it alongside Frank Hennelotter’s New York grindhouse masterpiece “Basket Case.”