The Killer Shrews (1959)
Directed by Ray Kellogg
How amazing are 1950s B movie titles? Honestly! The Killer Shrews. Think about that one. It is pretty funny to think of. That’s what is amazing about that era, literally any idea was good enough. Wasp Woman? Yeah why not, MAKE IT! I noticed a while back that Amazon Prime has a lot of old 50s and 60s SciFi Horror and I figured, man I’ve never reviewed anything this old.
The concept is simple, a group of people are stranded on an island because of a hurricane. The island is home to a scientist that mutated giant shrews that are slowly becoming more and more vicious due to hunger. Apparently, the shrews already killed all the small animals on the island and now their only chance at food is to attack humans. The group has to survive and escape the island now and hopefully avoid any shrew attacks.
The effects are hilarious. The “shrews” are actually coonhounds with long hair and tails glued to them. On close ups the shrews are puppets that look like something Jim Henson would have made if dealing with brain damage and under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. They look like roadkill with huge fangs. Simply hilarious seeing the shrews run around. There is no blood, but hey it’s a movie form the 50s, you can’t expect excessive gore. The music at the beginning of the movie I swear I heard before, from like Night of the Living Dead or something, hopefully someone reading this can let me know. The photography really isn’t too bad for the era. You get some interesting shots and some straight forward angles, nothing too imaginative but they are effective. The director Ray Kellogg was also the special effects man for the movie, just an fyi.
The acting is basically on par with the other movies at the time, not great, not bad. Captain Thorne Sherman is played by James Best, probably best known for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from Dukes of Hazard. Ann Cragis is played by 50s and 60s SciFi movie queen Ingrid Goude. Her role is pretty typical, she screams a fair amount and seems helpless at times, just a cliché attractive blonde in a horror movie. The other characters are Ken Curtis as Jerry Farrell, Gordon McLendon as Dr. Baines, Baruch Lumet as Dr. Cragis, and Alfred DeSoto as Mario. The one character that instantly surprised me was Henry Dupree as Rook Griswold. Why did that surprise me? Well this was 1959 and Mr. Dupree is a black man. I’ve seen hundreds of these SciFi and monster movies and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a black man. He has only a few lines of dialogue and is the first killed by the Shrews unfortunately.
When the movie comes to its climax it leaves a little more to be desired. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD! The group is seemingly trapped in what appears to be the garage or shed. The shrews are barring down on them, eating holes into the walls and slowly breaking in. They have the idea to take 4 barrel/gas tanks or whatever they are, cut the bottoms off and tie them together. They cut small slats to see through in them and all get under the tanks. Once in the tanks they all walk in unison towards the shoreline. The shrews are attacking them as they move but the metal of the tanks acts as armor. Once they reach the shore, the shrews just give up? Are shrews afraid of water? Wtf?! They quickly throw the tanks off and swim to the boat and escape. Kind of a good idea but the fact that the shrews just run off is hilarious.
It is hard to grade something like this honestly. It is crap, but that’s why it is great. It has some dull moments, which is crazy since it is only an hour and eight minutes long haha. The effects are laughable and the plot is odd but it is all in good fun. I would give this a C-, while it isn’t horrible it isn’t as good as say Them! or Godzilla. If you like shlocky B movies from the 50s and 60s, give it a watch it is a good time.
