SQUIRM

US, 1976, 93 minutes, Colour.
Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, Peter Mac Lean.
Directed by Jeff Lieberman.

Squirm rhymes with worm. This is one of the low-budget horror films of the 1970s, a prolific genre with such films as Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants and Lieberman’s own Blue Sunshine. It fitted into the pattern of animal menace, the most prominent example of which was Jaws (1975).

The film explains that worms can be brought to the surface by electricity. When there is an unusual storm in a southern town, the wires come down, the worms come to the surface – but, unfortunately for the population, many of whom are southern rednecks, the worms actually devour human beings.

This has been familiar horror material over the decades – and this is quite a well-made example of the 1970s versions.

1. The appeal of science fiction films, the interpretation of the present and the future? The appeal of horror as an aspect of science fiction? Ugliness and death, terror? the modern ecological approach? the upsets in nature and the effect on human beings?

2. The quality of this film as an example of ecological horror? The situation of the town, storm, electricity, the worms? The characters and the situations and the presentation?

3. How credible was the basic plot? the initial explanation with dates and places?

4. The film's creating of the atmosphere of Georgia, out of the way, the town itself and its isolation, the people and their unfriendliness? The atmosphere of the forests? The lack of welcome to the outsider? The film as a piece of Americana presenting the way of life in a small Georgia town?

5. The basic premise of the electricity going into the ground and its effect on the worms? The visualizing of the storm and the power lines, the worms?

6. The importance of the worms themselves? the microscopic photography during the credits? Their gradual appearance during the plot? The initial presentation of corpses and skeletons, the worms like leeches on the face of the man, their gradual coming out of the ground, their fleeing against the light, then their coming in their thousands and eating away the roots of the tree, their appearance in the house, thousands coming from behind the doors? Their attacks on the villains, on the mother?

7. What is the quality of audience horror at the visualising of worms and the shared imagination of their attacks? Squeamish, squirmish?

8. The characterisation for the credibility of the film, the mother, her relationship to her daughters, her fussing? The two girls, the older and her wanting to meet her boyfriend, competent etc.? The younger as idle, pleasure-seeking, marijuana? Their attitudes towards the town, towards their neighbours, the borrowing of cars and trucks etc.? The ordinariness of their way of life, a context for the horror?

9. How attractive was the heroine? An ordinary kind of girl, her role in the household, going to meet her boyfriend, sharing the dangers, coping with the dangers?

10. How interesting a character was the hero? An ordinary kind of young man, a city style, entering the town, the worm in his milk, the fact that he was not believed and the hostility of the sheriff and others? His quick thinking and ability to cope with the situation? His analysis of the skeleton's teeth? His going to get the wood and his being attacked by the villain? His coping with the worms? His rescue of his girl¬friend? How credible were his heroics?

11. The character of the sister, her helping, not disturbing the mother, with the skeleton, preparing the dinner, the irony of her hiding in the box and so escaping?

12. The brief portrayal of the sheriff and the attack on this type of arrogant authority figure? His disbelief? His liaison? The humour of their eating spaghetti? The way that he and the woman were killed in their bed?

13. The father and son and their hostilities? The worm farm? The fishing scene and the attack of the worms? The fact that the son did not die immediately but returned to terrorise the girl and her boy¬friend? His attack in the house and on the staircase?

14. The screenplay and the various crises with the worms and the way that these were handled? The house, the tree, the volume of the worms?

15. The use of this kind of horror film as a comment on ecological upsets?