Squirm 1976

On September 29, 1975, in the quiet rural town of Fly Creek, Georgia, a powerful storm ruptures an overhead power line, leaving the community in darkness. The line crashes into mud and electrifies the worms lurking beneath, setting off a chain of eerie, escalating events that hinge on nature, voltage, and fear. The morning after, a tense sense of routine gives way to a bizarre crisis when a worm shipment from a local worm farm—100,000 bloodworms and sandworms—escapes from a truck. Geri Sanders [Patricia Pearcy] borrows a pickup from her worm-farming neighbor, Roger Grimes [R.A. Dow], to fetch her boyfriend, Mick [Don Scardino], who has just returned from New York City for a vacation. The blend of everyday errands and extraordinary danger tension the town as they head into town.

In a diner, Mick encounters a sheriff who speaks of the electric danger still coursing through the ground—over 300,000 volts—while the town grapples with the unusual incident. Mick orders an egg cream and, to his shock, finds a worm in it. The owner and Sheriff Jim Reston [Peter MacLean] rationalize it as a prank, but the unease lingers. Back at home, Geri introduces Mick to her mother Naomi Sanders [Jean Sullivan] and sister Alma Sanders [Fran Higgins], and the pair soon head out to explore the house of antique dealer Aaron Beardsley to search for clues. Outside, Willie, Roger’s father, discovers the shipment is missing, hinting at trouble to come. Roger’s jealousy over Mick and Geri’s relationship grows, casting a shadow over the day’s lighthearted plans.

As Beardsley’s house becomes the focal point, Beardsley himself is no longer easy to locate, and a human skeleton appears to be present near the property. When the skeleton vanishes after Sheriff Reston arrives, the locals suspect another prank, but Mick’s unease deepens; he worries the worms may be the real danger. The group learns Beardsley was last seen before the storm, intensifying the mystery. Mick apologizes to Roger for any unintentional role in releasing the worms, and invites Roger to join a fishing trip with Geri and him. In time, they locate the bones—Beardsley’s skeleton—in Roger’s truck, making the horrifying connection between the worms and Beardsley’s fate.

The danger becomes personal on the water when Mick is bitten by a worm, and Roger reveals his own bite wounds and a bitten-off thumb, explaining that worms become deadly when electrified. Mick returns to shore to tend his wound, leaving Geri with Roger. Later, Alma accompanies Mick on a trip to a dentist’s office where they compare the skeleton’s teeth with X-rays and confirm the bones belong to Beardsley. Roger makes a crude advance toward Geri, but the worms, acting as numb-biting predators, attack him, crawling into his face and forcing him to flee into the woods. Geri later recounts this terrifying encounter to Mick. The couple then returns to the worm farm to search for Roger and uncover a grim discovery: Willie Grimes [Carl Dagenhart] is dead, swallowed by worms.

They report their findings to Sheriff Reston, who remains skeptical and dismissive, failing to act on the mounting evidence. Mick pieces together that the worms killed Beardsley, yet the motive remains unclear. The tension thickens at Naomi and Alma’s dinner, where the worms disrupt the meal by gnawing through tree roots, crashing a tree into the house. The realization hits: electricity continues to leak into the soil, and the wet ground conducts the deadly energy, drawing the worms out at night. Mick urges Geri to keep everyone indoors with candles to ward off the creatures while he fetches plywood to brace the house.

The threat turns brutal as Roger, now deformed by worm bites, ambushes Mick in the woods and drags him into the house, abducting Geri in the ensuing chaos. The town erupts in a nightmarish wave of worm-infested attacks—the sheriff and his date are eaten alive in a jail cell, and patrons at a bar become victims of the strange, audacious creatures. Naomi’s fate is grim: her remains, covered in worms, are found in the house. Upstairs, Roger confronts Mick, and a desperate struggle ends with Mick pushing Roger into a pile of worms, where the writhing mass engulfs him. Geri is freed, and the two lovers cling to one another as they realize Naomi and possibly Alma are dead.

Their escape is narrow: Roger resurfaces, bites Mick in the leg, and the battle resumes. In a final, decisive moment, Mick defeats Roger with a flashlight and climbs into a tree with Geri, waiting for dawn. When morning comes, the worms have vanished and power is restored to Fly Creek, bringing a fragile sense of relief. Alma reappears, having survived by hiding in a chest, and she and the remaining couple hurry back inside to reunite with the others.

The storm, the worms, and the electricity that binds them have tested the town to its core. Yet in the end, resilience and a wary return to normal life emerge from the chaos, as two survivors—Mick and Geri—face an uncertain future together, strengthened by the ordeal they endured.