It’s a huge month for huge worms. Dune: Part Two is here, and with it comes the epic Shai-Hulud worm-riding action the first movie merely hinted at. Worms are so important to the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation that a special promotional popcorn bucket has been released that looks … unfortunately worm friendly. Perhaps more than Zendaya or Timothée Chalamet, the sandworms are the true stars of Dune.
While Dune may bring us the highest-profile worm to grace the big screen, worms have squirmed their way through film history — including in a movie called Squirm. To celebrate Dune, here’s a listing of the best and worst worms that Hollywood (or Hollyworm, if you will) has to offer. Much as the Fremen walk without rhythm in order to avoid detection by the sandworms, this list is also without much rhythm. What makes a worm good? What is a worm, even? Biologically speaking, “worms†are a very broad group of distantly related animals. They usually don’t have legs (except when they do). And despite the similarities, slugs are not worms — they are slugs. Caterpillars? Caterpillars are clearly not worms. Be serious. Given that many pop-culture worms are alien in nature, classifying them is even more subjective. Ultimately, though, you know a worm when you see it and bless its comings and goings.
16.
Annelids (Men in Black)
I hate these guys so much. The Annelids, a.k.a. “Worms,†from the Men in Black movies are awful and do a disservice to worms everywhere. Not only are they bipedal — which is basically the one thing a worm cannot be — they’re perverted creeps that play Twister with Rosario Dawson. I do not like how they behave, I do not like their horrible little bodies, and I am not amused by their antics. The Shai-Hulud create the Spice. The Annelids just drink coffee and upset me.
15.
Giant leeches (Attack of the Giant Leeches)
The titular stars of this 1959 creature feature also commit the cardinal sin of walking on two legs. That’s not really their fault, however, as they were once normal leeches but mutated owing to atomic radiation, as animals in ’50s movies are wont to do. They can be blamed for kidnapping people and slowly sucking them dry of blood in their swampy lair.
14.
GrÃma Wormtongue (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)
GrÃma, son of Gálmód, is technically a man, but only technically. He earned the nickname Wormtongue when he worked with Saruman to put Théoden, king of Rohan, in thrall to the wizard. Upon being freed from Saruman’s spell, Théoden calls GrÃma a “witless worm,†and he is right to do so. Aragorn shouldn’t have stopped Théoden from killing GrÃma in retribution. Truly one of the worst worms.
13.
Worms (How to Eat Fried Worms)
The worms in this adaptation of the ’70s children’s book are just regular-ass earthworms who get eaten when Billy Forrester, a new kid in school, accepts a bet that he can eat ten of them without throwing up. The worms themselves are utterly unimpressive, leading to their low ranking here. RIP to those worms, but the others on this list are different.
12.
Ceti eels (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
Is the Ceti eel that Khan puts in the captive Chekov’s ear a worm? The name would have you believe it’s an eel, but eels are aquatic fish and this is obviously some sort of invertebrate. The larvae are perhaps more sluglike than wormlike, but the adult Ceti eel has a carapace that doesn’t seem especially sluggy. In any case, once a Ceti eel crawls into its victim’s ear, it wraps around their cerebral cortex and makes them very susceptible to suggestion. Maybe that’s why it’s on this list of movie worms despite, maybe, not being a worm.
11.
Jeff (Men in Black II)
The second wormlike alien to appear in the Men in Black franchise is a much better worm: Jeff, a big one with a bunch of sharp teeth and a dainty little flower growing out of his forehead, lives in the New York City subway system. Jeff loses points for destroying and partially eating a subway car. This is the last thing the MTA needs right now.
10.
Maggot (Corpse Bride)
This Peter Lorre–lookin’ worm lives inside the titular Corpse Bride’s head in Tim Burton’s most Hot Topic–core movie yet (which is saying something). Maggot acts as a morbid Jiminy Cricket, ultimately looking out for Emily’s best interests. But there’s something off-putting and slimy about him — and not even in a wormy way. He just makes me kind of uncomfortable.
9.
Dionin, a.k.a. the d’Ampton Worm (The Lair of the White Worm)
Hugh Grant gives a whole speech about how we shouldn’t take the word worm too literally. (“It’s an adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon wyrm, meaning ‘dragon’ or ‘snake.’â€) And sure, the white worm of this comedy-horror adaptation of Dracula author Bram Stoker’s novel is more draconic than squirmy, but you’ve got to give it up to this pagan snake god. Worshipping Dune’s worms makes your eyes turn blue. Worshipping Dionin turns you into a venom-spitting serpent lady with a killer sense of fashion.
8.
Carnictis sordicus (King Kong)
All sorts of creepy crawlies live in the chasms of Skull Island, but the giant bloodworms — whose scientific name, Carnictis sordicus, means “vile meat-weasel†(charming!) — are by far the most disgusting. When Kong tosses Adrian Brody and his compatriots off a log and into the abyss below, it’s Lumpy, played by Andy Serkis, who meets the worst fate. The worms surround him in the mud, extending their terrible pink protuberances and toothy mouths to grab him. Lumpy manages to cut one in half with a machete, but another puts its maw around his entire head and they begin to eat him alive.
7.
Sandworm (Beetlejuice)
There’s a goofy, macabre quality to Beetlejuice’s giant black-and-white-striped sandworms. The second head inside of their heads makes them both whimsical and scary as they swim through the sand of Saturn (not the planet — it’s really some kind of limbo). They are basically the answer to the question “What if Tim Burton made Dune?†That pitch could easily go very wrong, but it would certainly be interesting, as these sandworms demonstrate.
6.
Graboids (Tremors)
Graboids are the trashy redneck equivalent of the noble Shai-Hulud. First seen hunting Kevin Bacon in the Nevada desert in the original 1990 cult classic (and then several more times in an astounding number of straight-to-video sequels), Graboids swim through the sand and grab at their prey with their tongues, which are essentially mini-worms with mouths of their own. There’s something delightful about how Graboids lack any sense of pretension. They’re just gnarly, dirtbag worm critters, and they should be celebrated as such.
5.
Worms (Squirm)
The ’70s were full of killer-animal movies with creature features about deadly rodents, whales, ants, bats, sharks, and more. Squirm turns worms into surprisingly convincing killers after a downed power line electrifies thousands of bloodworms and sandworms that were meant to be sold as bait in a rural Georgia town. Thanks in large part to legendary special-effects makeup artist Rick Baker’s work, the worms are disgusting. You can’t help but love a movie in which a character opens a door and a literal room full of worms spills out into the hallway.
4.
Sandworms (David Lynch’s Dune)
The sandworms in Lynch’s 1984 Dune are more monstrous and less mysterious than Villeneuve’s take on the Shai-Hulud. That’s both a feature and a bug (er, worm), as Lynch’s hulking worms, with their three-lobed maws, are imposing beasts. When Usul calls a big one, you believe it’s big. The problem is they aren’t quite as majestic as Villeneuve’s worms. Awesome but not as clearly worthy of religious awe and reverence.
3.
Earthworm (James and the Giant Peach)
Earthworm is not the best of the transformed friends James travels with inside that giant peach (that would be Mr. Centipede), but the David Thewlis–voiced character is the only worm of the group. (Glowworm doesn’t count because glowworms are beetle larvae, not proper worms. Also, Glowworm is, like, barely a character compared with the rest of them.) Blind and pessimistic, Earthworm comes through when he acts as bait for the seagulls needed to get the peach across the ocean. Once they’re all settled in New York City at the end of the movie, he becomes the spokesman for a skin cream and is flanked by two attractive women in a photo in Variety. Good for Earthworm.
2.
Exogorth (Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back)
Once more, the definition of worm is a potential issue here, as the gigantic exogorths that live in asteroids throughout that galaxy far, far away are more commonly referred to as “space slugs.†But much like the Millennium Falcon, we’re not going to let that come back to bite us. So much of Star Wars is indebted to Dune, and it’s hard not to draw a connection between sandworms and these space slugs. While there’s not nearly as much meaning or narrative importance in the exogorths, seeing Han Solo narrowly escape the closing jaws of a massive beast is one of Empire’s most thrilling moments.
1.
Sandworms (Denis Villeneuve’s Dune)
There was some … apprehension when the design for the 2021 Dune’s sandworms was first revealed. People saw that trailer and said the creature’s mouth, which was inspired by baleen whales, looked like, well, a butthole. In the full context of the movie, though, it’s clear the Shai-Hulud are worthy of both the Fremen’s worship and audience adoration. By making the worms’ mouths essentially a gaping void, Villeneuve eliminates their ability to bite. Instead, the sandworms simply swallow. There is nothing on Arrakis they would need to take a bite of, they are Dune, and they consume whatever troubles the surface. Though Part Two shows that sandworms can be used for violence to great effect, they’re still sufficiently hard to anthropomorphize or identify with. What the Fremen call the Maker is something more than an animal. It represents something greater, something beyond — while also being really, really cool to ride. We are so lucky to be blessed by the Maker.