Horror Movie Review: Squirm (1976)

The plot of Squirm sees a storm have a surprising effect on the local worm population. The storm brings power-lines down onto wet soil & the surge in electricity transforms the worms. These squirmy creepy-crawlies are now mad with bloodlust!

You’d think from the synopsis that Squirm is going to be a fun creature feature. A tongue in cheek, balls out & silly horror designed to make you feel uneasy about worms. It’s no easy task to make worms a decent threat & unsurprisingly this movie fails miserably. However, not for the reasons you might expect.

50 minutes into this 2-hour movie & absolutely nothing of significance has happened involving worms. Sure, the male lead found a worm in his milkshake & a human skeleton may be the result of the worms but we’ve not seen anything actually happen!

Squirm is an extremely boring film that is completely forgettable up until its finale. The last 15 minutes make this a worthwhile watch as this is where the worm budget went! Not so much a slow burner as it is a non-starter.

City boy Mick (Don Scardino) makes his way to the little town of Fly Creek. He’s here to relax & spend time with his girlfriend, Geri (Patricia Pearcy). Unfortunately his ‘city boy’ ways rub up the townspeople the wrong way, in particular the local sheriff.

The redneck weirdness is one of the highlights of this slog-fest of a movie. The cast of hicks are amusing & varied. Paranoia of the city folk runs rampant so when Mick realises the worms are munching their way through the townsfolk he isn’t believed.

A lot of the dialogue is super-cheesy & it plays up to many stereotypes about rednecks but it’s forgivable considering the year of release. What isn’t so easy to forgive is how stop/start the plot is. Every time it seems to be heading towards a payoff it abandons it in favour of more unnecessary dialogue often between Mick & Geri.

Considering the age of Squirm a lot of the effects have held up really well. Scenes of the worms burrowing into flesh look great & the tidal wave of squirmy things at the end is great fun. There’s no denying its appeal but a movie like this should be a much campier affair & a lot more fun. Instead it takes itself way too seriously & is dragged out to excess.