The Killer Shrews

Mr. Jonathon T. Beckett

at 6:35 am

Thorne Sherman(James Best), arrives on an island to deliver supplies and pick up a passenger. Accompanying him is his first mate Griswold. They arent exactly given a warm welcome. Everybody is acting very shifty, and with good reason. Dr Craigis(Barach Lumas) and his associates have been experimenting in changing the metabolism and size in animals as part of their research into solving the worlds over population. Unfortunately, one batch of experiments goes very wrong leading to giant carnivorous shrews running amok. Soon the increasingly desperate, dwindling group finds themselves trapped in the research facility, with the hungry shrews surrounding the house on all sides.

This film is much better than its reputation might suggest. It is often labelled as one of the worst films of all time, a label it truely does not deserve. Okay, the giant shrews are just dogs in disguise, and the film might well have one of the corniest closing lines ever, but its a nice little character driven story, with some pretty good performances, and some real moments of tension, such as the hunt for the shrew in the cellar, and the survivors last desperate bid for freedom. Anyway, I thought it ingenious of the director to go down the route of using live animals as the creature menace, surely much more effective than using unconvincing stock projection.

Very underrated, and well worth investing in, especially if your a fan of 1950’s creature feature or low budget horror in general. 4 out of 5
Rating: 4 / 5