It's not long before Malignant starts to recall old-time favorites like Brian De Palma's Sisters (1973) and Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case (1982), as well as any other number of supernatural slashers and terrifying tales of imaginary friends (there's even a nod to old "women in prison" movies).
At times the film recalls cult classics including Frank Henenlotter’s “Basket Case” and Tobe Hooper’s “Lifeforce” but also science fiction from the decade.
Joe Friar, www.facebook.com•Fort Worth Report•Sep 10, 2021
There are influences at play that range from Lucio Fulci, Hammer Horror, Re-Animator (1985), The Evil Dead (1981), Basket Case (1982), and a plethora of others.
With additional nods to directors like David Cronenberg (a local shop is named after "Videodrome" antihero Max Renn) and Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case"), "Slither" is a movie only true horror buffs can love.
The rape establishes, however, a certain lawlessness in Slither alongside a real interest in grotesque-ifying the American gothic in a new "household" that Grant (starting to look a lot like Belial from Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case--indeed, a bar in the film is called "Henenlotter's") sets up in an abandoned barn, bringing home the bacon, as it were, and spreading his seed in one explosive, crimson guignol of a sentient-slug ejaculation.
Grant turns into tentacled monstrosity (bearing a not coincidental facial resemblance to Belial from Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case— since the bar in the film is named Henenlotter’s) who then “impregnates” Brenda with a horde of nasty slugs bent on taking over mankind.
The town's beer joint is named Henenlotter's in honor of the director of the grindhouse classic ''Basket Case" (1982), while David Cronenberg's 1975 ''They Came From Within" gets a viscous shout-out.
This is Lynne Ramsay’s update of Lustig’s Vigilante or Henenlotter’s Basket Case, where lonely, broken creatures go on bloody revenge missions in cities lit like surgeries.
In many ways, this essence of a familiar acting out the rage its host cannot has been revisited countless times, whether in glorious B-movie cult classics like Baby Blood (1990) or Basket Case (1982) or higher brow freak shows like The Brood (1979), a femme centered psychosomatic extravaganza Bergholm seems to be on the same wavelength as.
The story has been moulded into numerous adaptations, parodies and spoofs, including Young Frankenstein (1974), Blackenstein (1973), Frankenhooker (1990), Frankenweenie (2012), and, most recently, Lisa Frankenstein (2024).
“Venom” is basically “The Wolfman,” meets “Brain Damage” with a hint of “The Mask,” and the writers work over time destroying every link the character has to the Spider-Man mythos.