History Literature / Slime1953

''Slime'' is a short horror novelette written by Creator/JosephPayneBrennan and originally published in the March 1953 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It went on to inspire many BlobMonster stories and films like ''[[Film/TheBlob1958 The Blob]]'', Creator/StephenKing's ''[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Raft]]'', ''Literature/TheClone'', Creator/DeanKoontz's ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}'' and many others.

''Slime'' is a short horror novelette written by Creator/JosephPayneBrennan and originally published in the March 1953 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It went on to inspire many BlobMonster stories and films like ''[[Film/TheBlob1958 The Blob]]'', Creator/StephenKing's ''[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Raft]]'', ''Literature/TheClone'', Dean R. Koontz's ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}'' and many others.

* ImmuneToBullets: The slime, on account of being the IntangibleMan.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It's unlikely such an enormous water creature from the ocean's depths would be able to survive on land, let alone move with the swiftness that it does. However, Brennan does go out of his way to describe, in depth (no pun intended), that its great strength and resilience is not just due to its amorphous nature, but because it has evolved to survive at crushing depths in the abyss.

It's been published in many anthology collections (most memorably in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' and ''Literature/TheShapesOfMidnight'' with an introduction by Creator/StephenKing), and a very well-produced three-part audio version read by Edward E. French can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZLTVgp25Y here]] and was even once ripped off wholesale for the first half of Victor Norwood's novel ''Literature/NightOfTheBlackHorror''.

It's been published in many anthology collections (most memorably in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' and ''Literature/TheShapesOfMidnight'' with an introduction by Creator/StephenKing), and a very well-produced three-part audio version read by Edward E. French can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZLTVgp25Y here]].

* PoliceAreUseless: Subverted. Underbeck and his men aren't so much incompetent as hopelessly outmatched, and do the best they can under the circumstances. Though, with that said, Underbeck's approach to apprehending who he initially thinks is the killer are pretty suspects (see TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw above).

* LastNameBasis: Sergeant Grimes is the only character who isn't given a first name.

* AcquittedTooLate: Homeless man Henry Hossing is initially suspected of having killed the missing Rupert Barnaby and Jason Bukmeist. However, eventually, survivors begin reporting the truth. Not that it does Henry much good, considering he was the first victim.

* AgentMulder: Old Man Gowse, as part of his CloudCuckooLander status, believes that something evil lurks in the swamp and is responsible for the disappearances. He even goes as far as leaving his farm near the swamp and moving into a hotel room, planning to stay there until things blow over.
* AgentScully: Gowse's neighbor Barnaby, a skeptical and rational man, considers everyone's fear of Wharton's Swamp irrational, which gets him killed when he ignores Gowse's warnings and goes hunting in the swamp at night. Likewise, Chief Underbeck is initially dismissive of Gowse, believing there's a perfectly logical explanation for the missing people and animals. But eventually, even ''he'' has to admit something is going on.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: While relating his story to Underbeck, the man who rescued the SoleSurvivor from the monster's third attack ends his story by saying sheepishly that he probably broke the speed limit driving into town.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It's unlikely such an enormous water creature from the ocean's depths would be able to survive on land, let alone move with the swiftness that it does. That said, Brennan does go out of his way to describe, in depth (no pun intended), that its great strength and resilience is not just due to its amorphous nature, but because it has evolved to survive at crushing depths in the abyss.
* AssholeVictim: Rupert Barnaby, although he probably wasn't intended as such. However, he can come off as a jerk to modern readers by his mocking dismissal of Gowse and the fact he [[KickTheDog hits]] his hunting dog Jibbe when Jibbe gets scared.

* TheCassandra: Nobody believes the local [[CloudCuckooLander kook]], Giles Gowse, about something slimy and horrible eating his cow Sarey... that is, until more people start disappearing, [[spoiler:including one of the cops searching for the missing people]], forcing Chief Underbeck to [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight start taking Old Man Gowse's fears seriously]]. It's even {{Lampshaded}} by Underbeck, who grudgingly refers to Gowse as "Old Man Cassandra."

** The ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' cover shows an [[DisposableWoman anonymous woman]] being [[TouchOfTheMonster grabbed by the slime]]. [[spoiler:The only woman attacked by the slime is Dolores Rell, and she survives.]] It's pretty obvious this was included as an attention-getter due to its salaciousness.
** The SpoilerCover for ''Literature/TheShapesOfMidnight'', one of the story collections ''Slime'' appears in, shows a scene from it, where the slime attacks [[spoiler:Luke Matson]] while his partner [[spoiler:Fred Storr]] watches in horror. However, it depicts them in uniforms that say "County Sheriff" on the sleeve. In the actual story, Clinton Center's police force are not a county sheriff's department.

** As soon as he senses the slime's presence near his camp, Henry pretty much freezes up. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] insofar as he's intoxicated and [[AlcoholInducedStupidity not thinking clearly]], although, interestingly, at least ''one'' reason given for why he doesn't try to flee is that despite being drunk, he knows that in his intoxicated state, he'd just stumble uselessly in a circle or something equally [[FaceDeathWithDignity undignified]].
** Later, Officer Fred Storr can only watch in frozen horror as his partner is swallowed by the slime. He eventually recovers from his shock, however, and starts firing, although too late to save his partner (not that it would've done him [[ImmuneToBullets much good]] anyway). [[spoiler:Only the beam of his flashlight saves Fred from sharing his poor partner's fate]].
** [[spoiler:At the end, when the soldiers pursue the slime out of the swamp towards the beach, many of their companions guarding the water's edge are too stunned to even fire at the thing their searchlights illuminate emerging from the reeds.]]
* DetectEvil: The sheer ''alien'' smell and presence of the slime typically allows its victims to sense its presence just before it strikes, eliciting a sense of PrimalFear within them. Not that it saves them.

* DrivenToMadness: Dolores turns into a ScreamingWoman after seeing her boyfriend eaten, while [[spoiler:Officer Storr]] suffers a HeroicBSOD and is found just sitting down staring blankly after seeing his partner killed, [[spoiler:going into screaming fits whenever someone tries to take his [[SecurityBlanket flashlight]] away or turn it off, even in the daytime]].

* EvilSmellsBad: The slime ''really'' stinks, and its appearance is usually preceded by its victims picking up its awful stink, right before they hear the sound of it [[HellIsThatNoise oozing through the swamp]]. [[spoiler:It smells even worse when being burned by a flamethrower.]]

* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: Used a few times throughout the story. Farmer Barnaby is killed while out hunting for raccoons, and [[spoiler:Officer Luke Matson becomes a victim as well while he and his partner are hunting for what they believe to be a human murderer]]. Towards the end, [[spoiler:Underbeck calls in the US Army, whose searchlights, burning the flesh of the slime as it comes out to hunt and feed, cause the creature to experience pain and fear for the first time in its eons-long existence. And since the light can't be eaten or swatted away or otherwise vanquished, it is forced to do only one thing to survive, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere flee]].]]

* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: The story begins with a particularly nasty sea storm, with huge waves that carry the slime over a mile inland and depositing it into the swamp.

* ItsQuietTooQuiet: The swamp, due to the monster eating all the animals in it. The actual phrase is even used to describe Barnaby's farm when his neighbor Giles Gowse goes to check on him the morning after Barnaby's death in the swamp and finds the place deserted.

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:Some of the soldiers called in as backup are armed with flamethrowers. One of these is used against the slime as it attempts to escape down the beach and return to the ocean. As Brennan notes, "With good reason, the mantle of slime had hated light, for its ultimate source was fire." It burns up real good.]]

* NoNameGiven: The driver who saves [[spoiler:Dolores]] from the slime and the soldiers at the end, particularly the one [[spoiler:wielding the flamethrower which ultimately [[KillItWithFire kills]] the monster]]. This is unusual, as "Slime" is a rare Brennan story where almost everyone ''else'' gets a name.

* NothingIsScarier: The slime's victims sure seem to think so! Even though Brennan sets up early on exactly what the menace is and where it came from, and tells a lot of the story from the monster's P.O.V., the actual attacks are told from the humans' point of view, and because the slime hunts at night and is black in color, the only real forewarning anyone really has that they're in any danger before the thing strikes is a sudden sense of wrongness (based on the sudden bad smell in the vicinity, as well as [[HellIsThatNoise the slithering sound the slime makes moving through the swamp]]), and, from ''their'' point of view, it's as if the darkness suddenly just comes alive and engulfs them.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: This is what finally clues Rupert Barnaby in to the fact there really ''is'' something amiss in Wharton's Swamp. Jibbe, normally a fearless hunting dog, becomes afraid and runs off. It honestly shocks Barnaby. Unfortunately for him, he decides to stand his ground against the unseen menace, figuring his rifle is enough to put paid to whatever it is that frightened his normally brave dog. [[ForegoneConclusion He's wrong.]]

* OurMonstersAreDifferent: It's a naturally-occurring deep sea creature thrust to the surface and sent ashore by a combination volcanic eruption and storm, as opposed to an alien or some kind of man-man mutation. And although it take any shape it wants, it seems to prefer a sort of vague hooded shape.

* SecurityBlanket: Officer Fred Storr's flashlight. [[spoiler:After he barely survives the attack against him and his partner by driving the slime away with the flashlight, he is DrivenToMadness and refuses to relinquish the flashlight even after being found and rescued by his fellow cops.]]

* SwampsAreEvil: The oozy Wharton's Swamp, where the slime ends up after being washed ashore. It's got an unsavory reputation in Clinton Center for being haunted. Subverted in that it was a perfectly ordinary swamp that the locals only feared out of superstition, until the slime came along and ''made'' it [[EldritchLocation a haunted place]].
* TemptingFate: Barnaby, the slime's second human victim, has plenty of time to escape, but stands his ground rather than flee. As with Henry before him, there are a number of good reasons given, from the fact Barnaby is simply an exceptionally brave and tough farmer, to the fact he's armed, and the fact he really has no reason to expect anything worse than a bear, but Jibbe's OutOfCharacterMoment and the overpowering [[DetectEvil sense of dread]] which presages the slime's attacks really should've gotten his rear in gear. Instead, he chooses to remain out of [[SuicidalOverconfidence stubbornness]] and confidence in his hunting rifle.

''Slime'' is a short horror story written by Creator/JosephPayneBrennan and originally published in the March 1953 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It went on to inspire many BlobMonster stories and films like ''[[Film/TheBlob1958 The Blob]]'', Creator/StephenKing's ''[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Raft]]'', ''Literature/TheClone'', Dean R. Koontz's ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}'' and many others.

* TheCassandra: Nobody believes the local [[CloudCuckooLander kook]], Giles Gowse, about something slimy and horrible eating his cow Sarey... that is, until more people start disappearing, [[spoiler:including one of the cops searching for the missing people]], forcing Chief Underbeck to start taking Old Man Gowse's fears seriously. It's even {{Lampshaded}} by Underbeck, who grudgingly refers to Gowse as "Old Man Cassandra."

!!Tropes used in this story:

* NoNameGiven: The driver who saves [[spoiler:Dolores]] from the slime and the soldiers at the end, particularly the one [[spoiler:wielding the flamethrower which ultimately [[KillItWithFire kills]] the monster]]. This is unusual, as "Slime" is a rare Brennan story where almost every ''else'' gets a name.

* JumpScare: Edward E. French's audio book version has a few very good ones through judicious use of sound effects and musical stings.