A comedy-horror riff on an alien-parasite invasion of a small rural town is fun, gross and completely engaging. James Gunn demonstrates his pre-GOG chops, getting the most of the great acting ensemble including Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, and Nathan Fillon.

OK, so some of the visual effects looked like they'd come straight from a 1970s edition of "Dr. Who", but once this gets up and running it's actually quite an entertaining bug-cum-zombie horror. When a meteorite lands outside a small American town, it's slug-like occupant manages to spore the local bigwig "Grant" (Michael Rooker) after he had sought some beer-induced woodland comfort after being spurned by his not-in-the-mood wife "Starla" (Elizabeth Banks) and things turned altogether stickier for him. Meantime, she's always had a bit of a crush on hunky local sheriff "Bill" (Nathan Fillion) which might well prove useful when he is drafted in to establish just why the town's pet population appears to have disappeared. Has her husband - or his troubling, bubbling, eczema - anything to do with these troubling developments? There story is all fairly predicable and there are bound to be a few scenes here that will remind you of earlier John Carpenter or Hammer or even David Cronenberg films, but there is still enough originality and tongue-in-cheek humour to keep this simmering along nicely as a stand alone project. The acting is adequate, as is the writing, and aside from making your next bath an extremely nervous experience, it's an amiable and gory splat-the-rat enterprise that I did quite enjoy.