Movie Summary
SHORT: The short revolves around an average Joe who is being kept from his golf outing with his buds by his wife who has him working on the couch in the living room. He's not a happy camper and declares that he hopes he never sees another spring as long as he lives. Coily the spring sprite appears and grants his wish. What ensues is one revelation after another as our hero finds out just how bad life would be without springs. Finally, humbled by the sprite's work, he begs Coily to let him take back his wish. Coily agrees and Joe's life is back to normal. Almost. He turns in to a convert, preaching to his friends at the golf course about how wonderful springs are as they all stand around, apparently wondering how they can spring this yahoo in to another county.
MOVIE: An electrical storm knocks down power lines in Georgia, sending thousands of volts in to the muddy ground. This, in turn, alters the local earthworm population which all turn in to vicious, carnivorous slitherers replete with teeth, a bad attitude and a good appetite.
After the storm, the weather turns sunny and warm and the cast, fully equipped with thick southern accents, go about their morning routines. The matriarch, presumably because of the previous night's noisy storm, senses evil.
The nonsouthern-accented hero, Mick, (who looks like a cross between Elton John and an extra from Happy Days) arrives by bus. He has to hike through the woods because a tree has fallen across the road. He meets our heroine, Geri Lee, as he stumbles through the brush.
The two of them proceed to wander aimlessly throughout the town and surrounding countryside, while local hicks Roger the worm farmer and the sheriff take turns drooling over Geri Lee and hating Mick. The "stars" begin to encounter odd things such as picked-clean human skeletons here and there and worms that bite as Mick trys to bait his hook while out in the rowboat, fishin'. When Mick goes ashore, ostensibly to have his wound treated, Roger makes a clumsy pass at Geri Lee. She rebuffs him and he lands on the worms from the bait box who have evidently broken free of their paperboard prison.
After awhile, Mick figures out what's going on, sort of, but it's too late! The worms are everywhere and they're hungry for human flesh. Rather than just leave the area, they attempt to board up the house to keep their crawling attackers at bay. Mick runs about in the woods looking for lumber and is accosted by Roger who has turned in to a worm-faced maniac and is angry at him for ruining everything. Roger knocks Mick out with a sheet of moldy plywood and after throwing some miscellaneous firewood at him, wanders off.
Meanwhile, the worms have somehow figured out where their human dinners are and are crawling through every nook and cranny to get to them, finally cascading out of a closet en masse. Mick awakes with the plywood somehow off and laying next to him (I guess he tosses and turns after being knocked unconscious). But hoards of worms are headed his way. Some have even gotten in to the tree branches as they hang off and leer at him. Mick creates a torch out of a stick and his shirt and makes his way back to the house. He finds lots and lots of worms who have also brought along lots of multi-legged friends and Roger who has apparently joined the worm gang. Mick fights Roger and gets Geri back and they make their way out to the branches of a nearby tree that the worms seem to have missed somehow. They wake to find their wormy visitors gone and a utility guy who informs them that the power's back on. The end.
Host Segments
Prologue: Mike and the bots are performing the annual Satellite O Love safety check. Fire extinguishers are empty (shot 'em off in Mike's face). The flare guns are also empty (shot 'em off in your face, Mike). First Aid kit was used up treating Mike's burns from the flare gun. The ham radio was mistaken for an actual ham and cooked in the toaster oven. As a matter of fact, every safety feature is either gone or unworkable. Mike deems the SOL completely unsafe. Mission accomplished. The only thing working, of course, is the toaster oven. They go to commercial as Mike goes off with the bots, who are going to stick their heads in the towel dispenser. Wheeeeeee.
Segment One: Mike, wrapping up one last item that he must have missed earlier during the safety check, asks about the list of emergency telephone numbers. Crow informs him that they threw it out and replaced it with a Jeff (you might be a redneck if...) Foxworthy joke book. They're then interrupted by Pearlezvous who has come up with yet another idea for achieving world domination. This time, they'll hold the first annual Castle Forrester Fair. From there, they'll take over the local fair, then the county fair, then the state fair and, finally, the world's fair MUUUUUUUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
The SOL contribution to the fair is Winston, a giant 5,743 pound pig. The bots chastise Mike for not noticing the SOL silo from which they've been drawing Winston's feed. Pearl shows off Bobo's fried Ape Hair booth while Brain Guy chokes on his helping of fried Ape Hair. She then informs the SOL that in the Loser Pavillion, they're showing this week's film fare (hahaha). A killer worm movie called "Squirm" with a short to start off with called "A Case of Spring Fever".
Segment Two: Mike walks in after the doors close where Crow and Servo are reading their comic books. They wonder if there's a sprite for everything. To test, Crow wishes that there was no Mike. Mikey the Mike sprite appears and *poof* Mike is gone. The bots don't really care and go back to reading their comics. After Mikey whines a bit, the bots finally cave in and wish for things that they can't have if there's no Mike. Exasperated with the annoying sprite, they beg to take back their wish just to get rid of him. Mike reappears, Mikey disappers. Servo wonders what would happen if he wished Mike's socks didn't exist. Mike Socksy (The Mike Socks sprite they call me) appears and they go to commercial with Mike being told he can't have his socks back because there's "Noooooooo Mike's socks".
Segment Three: Crow and Mike find that Servo has come down with a severe case of Southern Belleness. Tom is dressed in a snazzy little green Southern Belle's gown with matching parasol and bonnet, a thick southern accent and a coquettish manner. Crow suggests some Yankee behavior modification and under Servo's southern belle protests, Mike and Crow seem to succeed in bringing Servo out of it in time for movie sign.
Segment Four: The bots find Mike in a lab coat and a lot of nuclear lab equipment that he has wired to his pet worm Emmett. With a throw of the switch, smoke and flame, Emmett is dead and they all have a crunchy fried worm snack.
Segment Five: Mike finds Crow has dressed up as Geri's sister with high heels. Crow's heels are very high. All Mike can see of Crow is a little fleck of gold. Crow invites Mike to laugh at him, which Mike declines but goes to get Servo to witness the spectacle. Crow loses his balance and falls. Servo and Mike show up just in time to see the fall.
Pearl offers her condolences for Mike's "little gold reindeer" and shows off the castle's new attraction: bungy jumping off of a platform that is only a couple of feet high. Pearl has Brain Guy jump off and he promptly hits the floor with a thud, separating his shoulder. She has him do it again. He slams on to the floor again. Pearl says "Come to the fair." Fade out.
Stinger: (Roger saying to Mick) You gonna be the worm face!
My Thoughts
One of my all time favorite segments (no pun intended) with the sprites Mikey and Mike Socksy. A true classic and the guys are in great form. No secret here, however, the movie slithers in to "B" movie lore quite effortlessly. I marvel at the film maker's ability at getting that many worms and millipedes in to one place, but that's about it. Yep, no plot, no stars, and no lunch which I lost while watching the so-called climax. A classic piece of slime (no pun intended) whose only saving graces are that Roger Corman didn't direct it and they spared us from having some stupid song associated with it that would haunt the minds of hapless viewers for days on end. Bleeeeeeech!
