Snatchers (2019)

(On Cable TV, October 2020) While teenage horror-comedy Snatchers is far too heavy on sex and gore to be considered a feel-good movie, it is far more fun than expected. The plot is set in motion when an alien parasite brought back from Mexican ruins starts affecting students in a small-town high school. Debauchery leads our heroine to become nine-month pregnant the morning after a one-night stand, and things just escalate from there as she gives birth to an alien parasite that goes off to slaughter a good number of the small-town residents. I know, I know—this all sounds like horror so far and this horror/comedy hybrid is far better suited to jaded audiences. But within that subgenre, Snatchers is clearly in command of what it’s doing: Fast pace, frequent gags, tasty dialogue and clever direction from Stephen Cedars and Benji Kleiman make this a compulsively watchable film once it gets started. The film’s biggest assets are the likable characters: Mary Nepi is quite good as the protagonist, but as usual for many high school films, the best friend character (played by Gabrielle Elyse) is funnier and more striking. Clearly genre-aware to an uncanny degree, Snatchers combines body horror and high-school comedy from a female viewpoint to deliver something that’s clearly not fit for sensitive natures, but will reach a devoted audience in tune with its twisted sense of dark humour.