The hellgramite is an ugly creature. It looks like a centipede with barbs on its extremities. The principle character is a raging alcoholic. He has been through every kind of detox and program. His marriage is breaking up and he obviously has few prospects. Until one day, in the throes of a bender, he is met be a man who gives him a matchbook with a promise to end his alcoholism. He is desperate and goes to see the guy. The cure. Put one of these ugly worm larvae in his stomach and it will swill up all the liquor. Go cold turkey, and experience devastating pain. Sort of like going to detox. Except the thing stays there for good. It's a pretty good story about a sad situation.
5 Reviews
Bottoms Up!
sol-kay4 June 2011
***SPOILERS*** Drunk and totally out of control long time alcoholic Miley Judson, Timothy Bottoms, is on the verge of suffering liver failure or worse if he keeps up his drinking binges. It's at his local watering hole that Miley is approached by Dr. Eugene Murrich, Leslie Yeo, who hands him, as he's drinking himself into oblivion, a box of matches advertising this Hellgramite Method that guaranteed to cure anyone of his or her drinking problems even if it ends up killing them in doing it.
At first thinking that it's some kind of a joke it's later when Miley comes home, after drinking non-sop for some five hours, with the once piping hot pizza ice cold that his outraged wife Annie, Julie Khaner, gives the drunken slob a final ultimatum to either stop drinking or she and the couples seven year old son Chad, Ilya Wooloshyn, will pack up and leave the smashed rummy for good! Going to see Dr. Murrich for help Miley is given a red capsule to gulp down with a shot of gin and told that from this moment on his troubles or drinking problem will be history. What Miley didn't know is that the capsule contains a Hellgramite worm that feeds on booze or alcohol and would grow to the point of killing him as long as he hits the booze bottle that feeds it!
As Miley goes back to his drinking the worm keeps growing by it sucking up all the alcohol that he consumes that no matter how much he drinks he doesn't get the buzz or high that he's used to getting from his drinks! Knowing that he has to go cold turkey to at least keep the worm from growing and thus keep it from killing him Miley flushes down all the liquor bottles in his home to make sure he doesn't give in to his drinking, that now has no effect on his brain or body, and thus starve the worm out or put it into hibernation!
***SPOILER*** Stomach crunching final with Miley beating the odds as well as the Hellgarmite Worm and thus cleaning himself up and getting his both wife and son back. Now a new man and on a mission Kiley goes back to his old watering hole not to drink himself silly but to help other drunks like himself to straightening themselves out by handing them the same book of matches that Dr. Murrich gave him. The book of matches that will guide them back to health & sobriety by turning to and being put on his tried true and never failed alcoholic treatment Hellgramite Method!
At first thinking that it's some kind of a joke it's later when Miley comes home, after drinking non-sop for some five hours, with the once piping hot pizza ice cold that his outraged wife Annie, Julie Khaner, gives the drunken slob a final ultimatum to either stop drinking or she and the couples seven year old son Chad, Ilya Wooloshyn, will pack up and leave the smashed rummy for good! Going to see Dr. Murrich for help Miley is given a red capsule to gulp down with a shot of gin and told that from this moment on his troubles or drinking problem will be history. What Miley didn't know is that the capsule contains a Hellgramite worm that feeds on booze or alcohol and would grow to the point of killing him as long as he hits the booze bottle that feeds it!
As Miley goes back to his drinking the worm keeps growing by it sucking up all the alcohol that he consumes that no matter how much he drinks he doesn't get the buzz or high that he's used to getting from his drinks! Knowing that he has to go cold turkey to at least keep the worm from growing and thus keep it from killing him Miley flushes down all the liquor bottles in his home to make sure he doesn't give in to his drinking, that now has no effect on his brain or body, and thus starve the worm out or put it into hibernation!
***SPOILER*** Stomach crunching final with Miley beating the odds as well as the Hellgarmite Worm and thus cleaning himself up and getting his both wife and son back. Now a new man and on a mission Kiley goes back to his old watering hole not to drink himself silly but to help other drunks like himself to straightening themselves out by handing them the same book of matches that Dr. Murrich gave him. The book of matches that will guide them back to health & sobriety by turning to and being put on his tried true and never failed alcoholic treatment Hellgramite Method!
The Twilight Zone: The Hellgramite Method
Scarecrow-8813 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
The underrated actor Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show) stars in this harrowing, at times extremely difficult to watch, episode of The Twilight Zone (80s style) as Miley, a pathetic alcoholic about to lose his marriage if he doesn't seek help to quit. While downing shots of whiskey in a bar he often frequents, a mysterious man, Dr. Eugene Murrich, offers him a chance to quit, but it comes with a heavy price. The Hellgramite Method is what Murrich claims will undoubtedly end Miley's alcoholism—a pill swallowed produces a worm that slowly grows if the one who ingested it continues to drink( the worm demands alcohol which causes the man who has it inside him total agony, but if he is somehow able to withstand the misery, the worm's starvation might lead to its dormancy)! Seeing Bottoms hit rock bottom (pun intended) is part of what makes "The Hellgramite Method" a powerful episode—the torture he endures in order to "get clean" is pretty hellish indeed. Good showcase for Bottoms who presents a man at the end of his rope, needing the worm actually if he is to beat the booze. Most memorable scene could be Bottoms wallowing on the kitchen floor, in ever-present pain, as the worm moves around inside his belly. Leslie Yeo is Dr. Eugene Murrich, the man behind the Hellgramite Method, motivated by the DUI death of his family. Julie Khaner is the wife, Annie, who has had enough of Bottoms' habitual nightly binges.
Pain and strange methods to kick the addiction!
blanbrn15 August 2019
This "Twilight Zone" episode from season 3 "The Hellgramite Method" is one that's strange and tough it features character actor Timothy Bottoms("The Hitchhiker" and "The Paper Chase") as Miley an alcoholic who's life is taking a toll as he's always late with the wife and he sleeps late from the hangovers. So he's looking for a new cure only it will not be easy as kicking an addiction is tough only to learn that some cures are worse than a disease as especially when it involves an insect and the stomach!
An Extreme Way to Climb Aboard the Wagon
chrstphrtully5 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"The Hellgramite Method" is a genuinely disturbing story of an alcoholic (Timothy Bottoms) who, on what seems to be a lark, takes a rather unconventional path to sobriety. When another patron of his favorite bar gives him a matchbook advertising the eponymous approach, he decides to follow the advice of the doctor in question, a genuinely creepy sort, who gives him a red pill. Only then does he learn that the pill releases a voracious tapeworm that thrives on alcohol -- if he refrains from drinking, the worm will go into hibernation; if he continues to drink or falls off the wagon, the worm will literally eat him alive.
The script and direction are pretty fierce here, once Bottoms' character takes the plunge. The withdrawal scenes are pretty uncomfortable to watch (how accurate they are I have no idea), and Bottoms' confrontation with the doctor is really something to see. In this respect, William Selby's script and Gilbert Shilton's direction know just when to pull out the stops, letting Leslie Yeo go overboard at just the right moment while keeping it at least somewhat motivated. Bottoms is also effective, though he seems more effective when going through withdrawal than as a somewhat superficial, happy-go-lucky drunk.
The script and direction are pretty fierce here, once Bottoms' character takes the plunge. The withdrawal scenes are pretty uncomfortable to watch (how accurate they are I have no idea), and Bottoms' confrontation with the doctor is really something to see. In this respect, William Selby's script and Gilbert Shilton's direction know just when to pull out the stops, letting Leslie Yeo go overboard at just the right moment while keeping it at least somewhat motivated. Bottoms is also effective, though he seems more effective when going through withdrawal than as a somewhat superficial, happy-go-lucky drunk.
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