| The Killer Shrews (1959) |
| Rating: 3 1/2 Severed Heads |
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| Synopsis: Boat pilot Thorne Sherman (the Dukes of Hazzard's Sherrif Rosco P. Coltrane, James Best) and his buddy Rook come to a deserted island to deliver supplies to Swedish scientist Dr. Craigis and find the house of the doctor and his assissants surrounded by a high fence and generally boarded up like a fort. With a hurricane looming offshore, Thorne decides it's best to stay ashore after unloading despite the doctor's oppositions. The doctor's daughter Ann can't keep a secret and tells Thorne that the doctor's experiments to decrease world hunger has left the island overrun with hundereds of man-eating giant killer shrews! And now that the shrew's food supply is running low the inhabitants of the island must fend off the attacks of the killer shrews that also by this time are revealed to have a deadly poisonous bite. A pretty good little movie, although it doesn't come close to the horror it was supposed to deliver, it does offer up the house under siege situation which makes for some good tension.The killer shrews look like nothing more than dogs with ratty old fur rugs on their backs and faces like an evil mutant version of Alf. And the ethnically diverse cast that need subtitles half the time can get a little annoying, but a good offering for a film that's not as much of a run-of-the-mill 50's creature movie as you'd expect. |
| What Has This Movie Taught Us? -Automatic pilots can't play dixieland jazz -If you're going to climb a tree, make sure it can support your weight -Killer shrews can chew through a wall but not a couch -Accents are unusual |
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| Memorable Moments: 00min- This movie just started and I'm already schlocked out of my mind! 10min- So you're trying to save the world by turning people into midgets? 22min- It's against your principals to ask questions? I can see why you're driving a boat for a living 29min- Now that you mention it, you're accent is a bit unusual... 32min- New Olympic sport- Sychnonized Drinking! 35min- Is Jerry coming on to Mario? 40min- It's just a flesh wound 53min- Now would be a good time to shoot some shrews... ignoring them won't make them go away 56min- Work, work, work, die.... 63min- Vroom.... |
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| Don't Quote Us On That: Narrator: "First in Alaska, and then invading steadily southward, there were reports of a new species. The giant killer shrew!" Thorne: "You expecting an invasion?" Jerry: "Yes, animals." Thorne: "Game or otherwise?" Jerry: "Under certain conditions it could be dangerous." Ann: "Aren't you the least bit curious? Don't you wonder about the unusual things around here? The guns, the fence, the shattered windows, my accent. Anything?" |
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