Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Genre Character of the Week: Sheriff Bill Pardy

Like most people, I'm a huge fan of the character who is in over his head. Whether it's a cop out of his element like in Die Hard or even a security guard out of his element in Paul Blart: Mall Cop (who will get his own post here one day), these kind of characters resonate with the audience due to one simple fact - we are able to ask ourselves, What would I do in this situation? Of course when the character is in a genre film, the stakes are immediately raised, which is why this week's character is Sheriff Bill Pardy (pictured below), from the Horror/Comedy film Slither.
Bill (played by Nathan Fillion), is the Sheriff of a small town in South Carolina, and he is still in love with his Junior High crush Starla, who is now married to the richest man in town. The problem begins when alien slugs begin showing up and taking over the bodies of the towns folk.

Now before anyone comments on it, yes, this film bears a lot of similarities to Night of the Creeps, and Bill is kind of a mixture of the two main leads from that film, but I think that as Slither borrows concepts from so many '80s horror films, this is forgivable.

In the end, I love that Bill does exactly what we all wish we would do in this horrible, not to mention disgusting scenario. He does his best to take care of the citizens of his town, and although he isn't the main character of the film (that would be Starla, played very well by Elizabeth Banks), I really admire his courage.

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