CLAYTON'S CREEPY CINEMA!
WEEK 2: MUTANT MAYHEM
The Killer Shrews (1959)
Welcome to the second week of Clayton’s Creepy Cinema! This
week is dedicated to movies featuring mutated monsters and creatures that
threaten our very existence, and what better way to start things off than with The Killer Shrews. In terms of mutant
rodent movies, they don’t come much crazier than this.
The film begins with a ship captain and his first mate arriving at
a remote island with supplies for a scientist working on the island. The
captain comes ashore and notices everyone is packing weapons, leading him to
believe something sinister is afoot. An impending hurricane adds to the
nervousness already being felt by everyone, and the captain decides to wait out
the storm until the next day. As night falls, the horror begins. The first mate
is attacked, and one of the classic horror movie clichés occurs: the black guy
dies first! It is revealed that the island is overrun with giant nocturnal
mutant killer shrews, which have run out of food and are now trying to break
into the facility and eat everyone. They have to escape the facility and
reach the captain’s boat, which becomes ever more difficult as the shrews grow
bolder and hungrier.
In terms of its concept, this movie is insane. You know going
into it that it’s going to be hilarious rather than terrifying, but everyone in
the film takes the whole thing so seriously it only makes it funnier. For the
first act of the film (much like the weather in said film) not much happens.
The characters are pretty likeable, despite being clichéd (there’s the
obsessive scientist, damsel in distress, etc.), and I thought the suspense was
built well. The discussion about the shrews and the research about them adds to
the tension. You’re just waiting to see them. Then, as the storm comes, so do
the laughs. The first time one of the “shrews” appears on screen, it’s a dog
with a shag carpet draped over its back and a rubber tail hanging off the ass
end. For most of the rest of the film, that is how the shrews are depicted.
There’s also a puppet used, which is both fearsome and hilarious. It has
exaggerated fangs and doesn’t blink or move much—in fact, it’s as stiff as a
board. The shrew effects actually don’t appear to be that terrible at first,
but as they become less obscured and the camera gets closer, they start looking
really laughable. Believe it or not, despite the effects looking bad even for
back then (and especially for now), the film has some merit. Were it not for
the lackluster shrews, it could have been pretty scary. There’s a scene where
the shrews are clawing through the walls trying to get at the people, and it
reminded me of Aliens when the aliens
are slowly converging on the shrinking group of survivors. However, the bad effects
in this scene and all others simply make it devoid of anything frightening.
The Killer Shrews
is a bizarre and silly survival horror film. It had potential to be scary, and
does manage to be a little unsettling and surprising at times, but the lame excuse
for the creatures makes it totally cheesy and merely laughable, almost to the
point of so bad it’s good. 
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