ike so many sci-fi/horror films (from “The Thing” to “Predator” – from which this movie will soon steal a musical motif), this one begins with a meteor crashing to Earth, introducing something extraterrestrial and cataclysmic. And, in this case, particularly slimy. In the tragically small town of Wheelsy, wealthy Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) and his sexy schoolteacher wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) are the first to come across the inhabitant of the fallen space rock after Grant, feeling rejected one night, wanders off into the forest with a girl he meets at a bar. Mimicking the invasive horrors of “Alien,” a gooey, egg-like blob injects a projectile into Grant’s chest, which takes over his mind and body, beginning a transformative process that will generate plenty of slithering monstrosities.

Nodding to “Men in Black,” Grant’s human husk has strange interests in specific foods – here, loads of meat. As the possessed man stocks up on sustenance for an eventual brood, local police chief Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) must come to terms with his repressed feelings for Starla, as well as the disappearance of a woman and the possibilities that his sleepy little hamlet is now the home of unspeakable evil. The introductory moments aren’t especially unique, borrowing from plenty of horror movie staples, including “The Fly,” with its mutilative metamorphosis; “Scream,” with its chase sequence inside a home; and “Jaws,” with its disbelieving mayor, here in the form of Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry), whose name is yet another wink, yet the homages are both obvious and amusing.

On the plus side, the blend of humor with frights is exceptional; it nicely alternates graphic violence and other visual yucks with over-the-top laughs (many of which poke fun at religious implications). Subtler jokes do crop up, but for the most part, the jabs at rural lifestyles and caricatures are significant. It’s quite the balancing act, since the dialogue is riddled with silliness, contrasting the extremeness of the imagery, which overflows with grotesqueries and bloodshed (some of which is powerfully unsettling). And many of the prosthetics and related props are curiously funny yet brutal and gruesome.

Unfortunately, despite a welcome reliance on practical effects and makeup, which look spectacular in close-ups, a handful of sequences utilize CG additives, which are never entirely convincing. Nevertheless, the simplicity of later critters makes the wriggling and writhing elements more acceptable. By the end, it’s evident that writer/director James Gunn isn’t afraid to lift components from just about every previous, influential monster movie, taking pieces of “Arachnophobia,” “Squirm,” “Shivers,” “Society,” “The Stuff,” and a wealth of other alien conqueror pictures (predominantly “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), alongside zombie apocalypse storylines. Despite the general lack of fresh ideas, however, the half-send-up and partially-earnest thriller still musters plenty of entertainment value. It’s goopy and comical, nasty and ridiculous – a rather outrageous mash-up that works more often than it doesn’t (with an ending reminiscent of Hammer films, concluding rather abruptly). “The worms are in their brains!”

– Mike Massie