Squirm (film)
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| Squirm | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jeff Lieberman |
| Produced by | George Manas |
| Written by | Jeff Lieberman |
| Starring | Don Scardino Patricia Pearcy R.A. Dow Jean Sullivan Peter MacLean Fran Higgins William Newman Barbara Quinn |
| Music by | Robert Prince |
| Cinematography | Joseph Mangine |
| Editing by | Brian Smedley-Aston |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 30, 1976 (USA) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Gross revenue | Unknown |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Squirm is a 1976 film starring Don Scardino and Patricia Pearcy. The story takes place in the small town of Fly Creek, which has a horrible storm one night that knocks the power lines down. Electricity is pumped into the ground. This inadvertently makes the bloodworms in the town grow bigger and bite people. In 1999, the movie was featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000's penultimate episode.
In the early stages of production, Martin Sheen was attached to play Mick, while Kim Basinger auditioned for the part of Geri. Sylvester Stallone, then a virtual unknown, lobbied for the part of Rodger. [1]
[edit] Synopsis
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
Geri Sanders (Patricia Pearcy) leaves with her mother (Jean Sullivan) and sister, Alma (Fran Higgins). She has invited her new boyfriend, Mick (Don Scardino) down to her house for five days. A boy named Roger is outside cleaning up the family's garden. Geri realizes that she has to pick up Mick so she asks Roger if she can borrow his truck. He agrees, but warns her to be careful, because he has a crate full of worms in the back to bring to his father's worm farm. She complies and drives the truck to meet Mick, and before she leaves her mother asks her to pick up ice while she's at it.
Mick is on the bus into Fly Creek and is told that there is a tree blocking the road so they'll have to turn back. Mick says he'll get off where he is. He asks the bus driver if he knows how to get into Fly Creek and the bus driver tells him of two routes: one on the road and another through the woods, which is significantly shorter than the first. He tells him that he should have a compass should he choose to go through the woods. Carrying several things, Mick gets off the bus and starts going through the woods without a compass.
He walks for quite a while and then falls into a swamp, where Geri finds him. He gets out and gets in the truck with Geri. Geri remembers she has to pick up ice and goes into the store to get some. Alarmed by a sloshing sound in the back of the truck, Mick gets out and goes into a restaurant where he orders an egg cream and a glass of water. The waitress, startled at what an Egg Cream is, brings him the two drinks. After studying it studiously, he takes a drink from his Egg Cream and drops it in alarm, as there is an abnormally-large-sized worm in it. The waitress gets mad at him and the local Police Chief (and the waitress) blame him for putting it in there on purpose because he didn't like the drink. He disagrees and walks out.
The two of them drive back and then agree to go fishing with Roger after lunch. They discover a skeleton at an old man's house and try to tell the sheriff. They lead him back to where the skeleton was and discover that it's gone. Angry, the sheriff warns Mick that if he sees him one more time, he'll kick him out of town. Geri and Mick begin to suspect Roger is the killer but go out fishing with him anyway. When Mick is bitten by a very large worm in the bait, Roger relates a tale of how, when his father first started the worm farm, he used his toy transformer from his electric train set to electrify the ground and bring worms up. They came, but they bit. They bit bad enough to bite the top of Roger's thumb off. Mick goes back on to shore, leaving Roger and Geri in the boat alone.
Roger tries to kiss Geri but Geri pushes him away. Neither of them notice that the bait has spilled to the floor and the worms go into Roger's skin and start eating him. He screams and the two of them fall of the boat. Roger runs into the forest screaming, and Geri looks for him but she can't find him.
Meanwhile, Mick goes into the back of the old man's truck and takes the head of a skeleton Geri and him found. Alma sees and they take it to a Dentist because three teeth, in succession, are missing. Looking at the X-Rays, Mick decides to take it to the Sheriff, despite the Sheriff's warnings, because he now thinks that he has proof. He first goes back to the house and finds Geri who tells him what happened to the Roger. Geri and Mick go to the Sheriff's office but find he isn't there.
Eventually the two of them track the Sheriff down, but they do not have the skull. He warns Mick one last time to get out of town and Geri and Mick leave. While having dinner at Geri's house, a tree falls over and crushes part of their house. Everyone survives. Alma decides to go take a shower and leaves the water running, but it's not water that's coming out of the shower head. It's worms.
Mick figures out that it's the electricity that's causing the worms to grow and goes to a torn down mill to get some spare wood to patch up the house so the worms can't get in. He picks a big piece of plywood and then starts heading back through the woods. However, he is apprehended by Roger, who's face is horribly disfigured, who throws him into a pit, hurting his ankle. He throws the plywood on him which knocks him out, and worms start to come out of the dirt around him.
Meanwhile, all the power is out and Naomi (Geri and Alma's mother) is knitting. She hears a noise and realizes that Alma left the water on. Alma, with only a lantern, goes up to the bathroom and opens the door, only to be covered by a multitude of worms.
Mick awakens and takes his shirt off and lights it on fire with a lighter. Using a stick, he climbs out of the pit and begins his trek home. No worms have gotten Mick in the time that he was unconscious.
Back at the house, Geri asks her mother, he is going somewhat paranoid, if she left any of the doors open. Her mother says that she left the back door open to get some fresh air in the house. While going to the back door, Roger covers Geri's mouth and takes her away. Through a hole in the ceiling, worms are coming and they attack Geri and Alma's mother.
Mick gets back to the house and finds that it has been almost completely overrun by worms. He manages to get up the stairs and goes into the attic, where he is attacked by Roger. Geri is tied up in the attic, too. They get to the stairs and Mick flips Roger over into the huge amount of worms. He goes upstairs and frees Geri and starts to climb out the window into a nearby tree. Roger is still alive, but with no legs, and bites Mick in the leg as he is about to go out the window. Mick beats Roger to death with his flashlight and climbs out the window and hides in the tree with Geri.
Mick and Geri wake up and talk to an elderly electrician who says that the town's power is back to normal. All the worms are gone. It turns out that Alma didn't die, merely hid in a trunk, and she goes to the window where she greets Geri and Mick.
