The Return of the Living Dead did it in the 1980's.

In the 1990's came The Faculty.

Both combined comedy and horror for a perfect blend in which neither was compromised, with each complimenting the other.

Slither may well be the gem of comedy and horror for this decade. It's an old school tribute to half-forgotten treasures like The Hidden with the gross-out sight gags and wry humor of Sean of the Dead.

In director / writer James Gunn's film, an ancient alien parasite that invades and inhabits living creatures has come to earth in a meteorite. When two unfortunate denizens of the small town of Wheelsy discover the creepy, slug-like creature in the nearby woods, they are quickly transformed into a pair of symbotic mutations, each with a different role to fill in the grotesque reproductive cycle of the monstrous being.

No comedy horror film should lack a sexual element, as Linnea Quigley and Famke Janssen proved in 'Return' and 'Faculty,' respectively. Slither provides female eye candy in the persons of Elizabeth Banks and Tanya Saulnier, although the sex in Slither is far more restrained than the gore.

Elaborate make up and mechanical special effects share screen time with very effective and well used CGI to bring the slithering horrors to life. The wriggling crawlies of the invading parasites, that look like a cross between slugs and tadpoles engorged with blood are particularly convincing.

Director Gunn's previous credits include screenwriting for 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake and Scooby Doo 2, as well as directorial work on Tromeo and Juliet and TV's Tromaville Cafe.

Actor Nathan Fillion (Captain Reynolds from Firefly and Serenity) plays the town's chief of police who enlists the help of a comical group of deputies in a hunt for the creature.

Too many films have clever hype and deceptive trailers that lure the unfortunate into the theaters to see disappointing trash. Slither is a film that delivers on its promises of laughs, frights and giddy suspense.

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