Squirm is a 1976 American natural horror film written and directed by Jeff Lieberman in his feature-film directing debut, starring Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R. A. Dow, Jean Sullivan, Peter MacLean, Fran Higgins, and William Newman. The film takes place in the fictional town of Fly Creek, Georgia, which becomes infested with carnivorous worms after an electrical storm. Lieberman's script is based on a childhood incident in which his brother fed electricity into a patch of earth, causing earthworms to rise to the surface.
Most of the financing came from Broadway producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh. Millions of worms were used over the five-week filming in Port Wentworth, Georgia; worms were brought in from Maine to augment local supplies. Makeup artist Rick Baker provided the special effects, using prosthetics for the first time in his career. After American International Pictures picked up Squirm for distribution, it was edited to remove the most graphic scenes in an unsuccessful attempt to lower its "R" rating to "PG". The film was a commercial success, but opened to lukewarm reviews. It has since become a critical favorite and a cult classic.
Plot On September 29, 1975, in the rural town of Fly Creek, Georgia, a powerful storm topples an overhead power line, leaving the area without electricity. The power line lands in wet mud and electrifies the worms underneath. The next morning, Geri Sanders borrows a truck from her neighbor, worm farmer Roger Grimes, to pick up her boyfriend Mick, who is arriving from New York City for a vacation. While Geri and Mick go to town, Roger's shipment of 100,000 bloodworms and sandworms escape from the back of the truck. Mick enters a diner, where the local sheriff says over 300,000 volts are being released into the ground from severed power lines. Mick orders an egg cream and finds a worm in it, though the owner and Sheriff Jim Reston believe he placed it there himself as a prank.
Geri introduces Mick to her mother Naomi and sister Alma before they both leave to browse at antique dealer Aaron Beardsley's house. Outside, Roger's father Willie finds the shipment of worms is missing. Roger sees Mick with Geri and becomes envious of their relationship. After arriving at Beardsley's house, Geri and Mick cannot find him, but Geri sees a human skeleton outside the property. They summon Sheriff Reston, but the skeleton has apparently disappeared when he arrives. Thinking it is another prank, Reston threatens to arrest Mick if he returns to the town. While asking locals about Beardsley's whereabouts, they find out he was last seen before the storm. Mick believes he himself unintentionally released the worms; he apologizes to Roger and invites him to go fishing with him and Geri. They eventually find the skeleton in Roger's truck.
While on the boat, Mick is bitten by a worm. Roger shows his bitten-off thumb and tells Mick and Geri that worms attack when electrified. Mick gets off the boat to tend to his wound, leaving Geri with Roger. Next, Mick and Alma take the skeleton's skull to an abandoned dental office, where they compare its teeth with patient X-rays and confirm the skeleton is Beardsley's. Roger makes advances towards Geri, but the worms brought as bait attack him and crawl into his face. He runs off into the woods; Geri later tells Mick what happened. Mick and Geri visit the worm farm to find Roger, but Mick finds Willie's body being eaten by worms. They report their findings to Sheriff Reston, but he ignores them. Mick deduces the worms killed Beardsley but cannot figure out why they attacked him.
While Mick and Geri are eating dinner with Naomi and Alma, the worms eat through the roots of a tree, causing it to crash into the house. Mick realizes electricity is still being released from the power lines and that the wet soil is acting as a conductor; he further hypothesizes the worms only come out at night. Mick tells Geri to keep everyone inside equipped with candles (in order to ward off the worms) and leaves to get plywood to board up the house. Roger, whose face has been deformed by worms, attacks Mick in the woods and knocks him unconscious. He then enters the house and kidnaps Geri. The worms infest the house and attack other places in town. Sheriff Reston and his date are eaten alive in a jail cell, and people at a bar are attacked and eaten.
Mick regains consciousness and finds Naomi's remains, covered in worms, at the house. When he goes upstairs, Roger attacks and chases him downstairs. Mick pushes Roger into a pile of worms, which engulf him. Mick frees Geri and tells her that Naomi, and possibly Alma, are dead. While they try escaping through a window, Roger crawls out of the pile of worms and bites Mick in the leg. Mick beats Roger to death with a flashlight before climbing into a tree with Geri, where they stay until morning. Upon waking, they observe that the worms have disappeared; a lineman informs them that power has been restored to the town. Alma, who survived by hiding in a chest, emerges and looks out the window. Geri and Mick rush into the house to meet her.
Cast
Don Scardino as Mick Patricia Pearcy as Geraldine "Geri" Sanders R. A. Dow as Roger Grimes Jean Sullivan as Naomi Sanders Peter MacLean as Sheriff Jim Reston Fran Higgins as Alma Sanders William Newman as Quigley Barbara Quinn as Sheriff's Girl Carl Dagenhart as Willie Grimes Angel Sande as Millie Carol Jean Owens as Lizzie Kim Leon Iocovozzi as Hank Walter Dimmick as Danny Leslie Thorsen as Bonnie Julia Klopp as Mrs. Klopp William A. Lindblad as Power Line Repairman
Production
Squirm was written by Jeff Lieberman, who at the time was working for Janus Films on a series called The Art of Film; he developed Squirm as an after-work project to help deal with his "frustrations over having to put on a tie". The script was based on a childhood incident in which Lieberman's brother connected a transformer to the ground to force worms to emerge so he could use them for a fishing trip, which "scared the shit out of" Lieberman. He was also inspired by a news story from Floyds Knobs, Indiana, about migrating millipedes invading homes and by the 1963 film The Birds.
Lieberman completed a rough draft in six weeks and gave it to producer George Manasse, who saw potential in it. Manasse showed Lieberman's script to then-independent Broadway producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh. They read the script during the warm U.S. summer months of 1975, after which the project moved swiftly, with the producers buying Squirm and investing $470,000 of their own money into the project. Squirm was the only film produced by The Squirm Company. The original setting and filming location was planned to be New England but the filming was changed to Port Wentworth, Georgia, due to unsuitable autumn weather conditions in the northeastern U.S. Production began in the warmer climate of Georgia in the late autumn of November 1975.
Kim Basinger auditioned for the role of Geri, but Lieberman passed on her, believing that the audience would not believe that she would live in a "hick town". Lieberman later regretted the decision, calling himself an idiot. Martin Sheen was originally cast to play the role of Mick, but was replaced with Don Scardino. Sheen suggested that the character of Mick should be an actor and had wanted him to recite the Yorick scene from Hamlet when he discovers Aaron Beardsley's skull in the film. Jean Sullivan, who played Geri's mother Naomi, based her Southern accent on Tennessee Williams. To prepare for his part as Roger, R. A. Dow spent weeks rehearsing in Port Wentworth using the method acting technique.
Half of the worms used in the film were made of rubber; the others included large sandworms from Maine, refrigerated and transported to Port Wentworth, and an estimated 3 million bloodworms provided by the University of Georgia Oceanographic Institute. To get the worms to move, wires were run under them and electrified. One scene in which a living room is filled with worms was accomplished by building a scaffolding above the ground; a canvas was placed on top and covered with a six-inch layer of thousands of worms. The local Boy Scouts troop was hired to move the canvas from below to make the worms undulate; they received merit badges for their work. After production wrapped, newspapers in Maine reported the local fishing industry had been impacted by a shortage of worms caused by the production of the film.
Brian Smedley-Aston edited Squirm. Robert Prince composed the score and also conducted a full orchestra in England for the film. Bernard Herrmann, composer for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Psycho (1960), was originally slated to write the score but died before beginning work. Joe Mangine was the director of photography and Henry Shrady was the art director. Special make-up effects artist Rick Baker created the make-up in New York for R. A. Dow's character Roger, who turns into "Wormface". He made a facial mold using prosthetics, which he had never worked with before. The fake worms were drawn through Dow's skin using monofilament fishing line covered in lubricant.
Principal photography wrapped after five weeks, one of which was dedicated to working with the worms. Lieberman was heavily involved with the post-production work, which included making the sound effects for the worms using balloons and shears, and looping the two sounds using multitrack recording. The opening and closing sound of the shears was used for the worm teeth. The worms' screams were taken from a scene in which pigs are slaughtered in Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie.
Release Squirm was shown during the May 1976 Cannes Film Market. It was acquired by American International Pictures (AIP), who released it theatrically in the United States on July 14, 1976, and worldwide on August 9 that same year. AIP had given a $250,000 advance to the film's producers for domestic distribution and $500,000 in guarantees from sixteen territories.
AIP hoped for a "PG" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), but the MPAA objected to nearly all the horror scenes as "objectionable to PG-rated sensibilities". The film was edited to remove most of the scariest material in addition to a shower scene with Patricia Pearcy. This cut the running time by 1 minute. The now 92-minute film, however, still received an "R" rating. In 1977, the MPAA re-rated the film with a "PG" rating. The TV version of the film was even more extensively cut: Lieberman commented that, "In the theatrical version there was just enough of the worm attacks left for them to work; on TV, the cuts are ridiculous!" The film was financially successful; Lansbury and Beruh recovered their investment from the foreign theatrical market.
The film was released on VHS by Vestron Video in 1983 and on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment in 2003. The DVD version, with a 93-minute run time, restored the shower scene and included an audio commentary with Lieberman as part of the special features. MGM released it as part of a set with Swamp Thing (1982) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985) in 2011. The unedited R-rated version was released in the United Kingdom on Blu-ray and DVD by Arrow Video on September 23, 2013. This version was released in the United States on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory under its label Scream Factory on October 28, 2014. Squirm was also released on streaming services Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and Shudder.
Reception