''Slime City'' is a 1988 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

comedy horror film written and directed by

Greg Lamberson Gregory Lamberson (born April 19, 1964) is an American filmmaker and author. He is known for writing novels such as ''Johnny Gruesome'' and the series ''The Jake Helman Files'', and for directing the 1988 film '' Slime City''. He is also one of t ...

. It stars Robert C. Sabin, Mary Huner, and Bunny Levine.

Plot

Alex and his girlfriend are looking for an apartment to move into. They then move into a rundown apartment in New York City. Their neighbor seduces Alex while his girlfriend is away. His neighbors provide him with a strange drink that they call "wine" and Alex proceeds to drink it. After the incident, Alex begins to shapeshift into a yellow killer slime creature called "Zachary". He finds that the only way he can return to normal is to commit murder. His girlfriend must learn the secret of the apartment and the brutal massacre that took place centuries ago.

Cast

* Robert Sabin as Alex * Mary Huner as Lori / Nicole * Bunny Levine as Ruby * Gary Stein as Mr. Swan * Jamie Johnson as Tracy

Production

''Slime City'' was filmed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York, on a budget of .

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album featuring 40 minutes of instrumental music by Robert Tomaro was issued in 2008, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film's release. It features the bonus track "The Slime City Tribute Song" by Holy Mary Motor Club.

Release

Theatrical

A midnight preview screening of ''Slime City'' was held in New York City in March 1988. The film premiered in New York City later that spring, and was originally slated for a three-week theatrical run. This three-week run was later extended, which producer Marc Makowski attributed to the film performing well at box office. Midnight screenings of the film were held at the

Waverly Theater IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ow ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Home media

''Slime City'' was released on VHS in the United States by Camp Video in 1989. In 1993, it was released in the United Kingdom by VIPCO, under the title ''The Slime''. On October 11, 2005, ''Slime City'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by Shock-O-Rama Horror Cinema, including such bonus features as a making-of featurette, the 1999 Lamberson-directed thriller film ''Naked Fear'', and audio commentaries by Lamberson and Sabin for both films. In July 2009, Shock-O-Rama re-released ''Slime City'' and ''Naked Fear'' on DVD as a triple feature with another Lamberson-directed film, ''Undying Love'' (1991), as "Greg Lamberson's ''Slime City'' Grindhouse Collection". In 2016, ''Slime City'' was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

as a double feature with its 2009 sequel ''

Slime City Massacre ''Slime City Massacre'' is a 2010 American science fiction comedy horror film directed by Greg Lamberson and starring Jennifer Bihl, Kealan Patrick Burke, Debbie Rochon and Robert Sabin. It is a sequel to the 1988 film '' Slime City'', also dir ...

''.

Reception

In 2005, Bill Gibron of ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' criticized ''Slime City'' for its "failure to create a believable atmosphere of dread", and wrote, "There are not many laughs (but there are quite a few groans) in this oddly moody mess." He referred to it as "a kind of cult favorite", a distinction he felt is owed to the film's lack of availability and splatter elements, and wrote of the latter: "It's not at the level of a

Troma Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, primarily of the horror comedy genre. Many of them pl ...

title, or something as sensational as '' Evil Dead'' or '' The Thing'', but what we get here is still handled well, with a nice combination of nastiness and invention."

Sequel

In 2009, Lamberson directed the sequel ''Slime City Massacre'', starring Debbie Rochon.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0234748 1988 films American comedy horror films American science fiction horror films American science fiction comedy films American slasher films Films shot in New York City 1980s English-language films 1988 horror films 1980s comedy horror films 1980s science fiction horror films 1980s slasher films 1988 comedy films 1980s American films