The Nerdery Movie Night #244: Slotherhouse and General Tso's Popcorn

Killer sloths from... Panama.

General Tso's Popcorn

Dave: Because I’m friends with René Rodgers, I thought I’d seen all of the ridiculous animal attack horror movies there were. We watched several Sharknados together, for goodness sake. But nothing could have prepared me for the pointless plot, extraneous characters, and really bad puppetry of Slotherhouse. The kills in this movie were particularly wild: overly gory and mostly not plot-driven, yet kind of adorable. I’ll admit that the sloth being so-ugly-it’s-cute, its adorable little mewling and grunting noises, and its occasional thirst for human blood reminded me of our darling new cat Ouiser and made me root for the sloth a bit. I hope Ouiser doesn’t constantly pine for her former home like the sloth did (though the sloth was pining for a verdant jungle while Ouiser would be pining for a roadside in Locust Grove, Virginia). At any rate, the bloodthirsty sloth was preferable to the sorority girls and the weird beauty pageant/coven/rave that they had going on. The credits said there was no AI used in the making of this film, but the sorority house scenes had that LSD-trip feel that seem so natural for bad AI. (⭐️⭐️️️)

I’d originally planned a candy corn-themed popcorn, but, friends, I ate all the candy corn while Joe was away at a conference for the past few days. Rather than admit that I have no control over my snacking, I found a savory popcorn that, while not as seasonally appropriate, was damn delicious. It was another vaguely caramel-based popcorn, but the pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce mostly erased the tooth-aching sweetness. I got cocky and didn’t measure the orange peel, though, and the final product bordered on spicy orange chicken instead of General Tso’s, but no matter: we absolutely devoured the bowl. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️️1/2)

Joe: Horror-comedy as a genre is a tricky wicket. There are few movies that achieve the highs of Shaun of the Dead or Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil: movies that are side-splitting hilarious while also having moments of true tension (and gross-out gore that's played for laughs more than screams). No one is going into a film called Slotherhouse thinking that high art is the order of the day, and it's safe to say that neither of us was expecting much. It's good that we kept expectations low: even though the filmmakers seem to know their film is supremely stupid, it doesn't quite hit its mark. For one thing, most of the slaughtering takes place off-screen to characters you know nothing about. So there's little at stake, and most of the humor stems from sheer audacity rather than genuine comedy. Still, it was a lot of dumb fun - and since we both had very little bandwidth tonight, it kinda hit the mark. KINDA. (⭐️⭐️1/2)

While Dave was making this popcorn - a process, I'd like to point out, that took more than an hour to whip up - I lobbed guesses his way: was it phở? Kung pao chicken? The aroma was intoxicating, and I couldn't wait for the results. Heavens to betsy, it was General Tso's (not my go-to, to be honest), and it was delicious. Fresh chives! A remarkable caramel that managed to be mildly spicy and orange-forward. This was a meal, and as I write this, I can only hope he liked it and thought it was worth the time invested, because I desperately want him to make it again. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - thought I would give it 10x that if I could).

Popcorn from: Refinery 29

Slotherhouse on IMDB