The Killer Shrews

Director - Ray Kellogg (The Giant Gila Monster, The Green Berets)

Starring - James Best (Return of the Killer Shrews, In the Heat of the Night), Ingrid Goude (Flight, Wild Heritage), and Ken Curtis (Airwolf, Perry Mason)

Release Date - 1959

Genre - Horror/Sci-fi

Tagline - "all that was left after..."

Format - UHD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I love campy horror films. I love cheese on my food and my movies are no different. I was excited when Film Masters sent over the UHD release of The Giant Gila Monster. I couldn’t wait to revisit this one and reminisce about watching this old movies with my dad and grandmother. However, I was surprised to see a second film on the release that I had never seen before. Included in the release was 1959’s The Killer Shrews. This is a movie I thought I had seen before and but couldn’t recall a damn thing about it. This only made me even more excited to see it but once I hit play I quickly realized this was a first time watch for me. I want to thank Film Masters for sending over this lovely release. 

      The film follows a ship captain that stops on an isolated island to drop off supplies when news of a hurricane reaches him. He ventures onto the island to meet a team of scientists and other crew who are working on an experiment to reduce the size of humans to prevent the eradication of resources. They are conducting the experiments on shrews due to their quick rate of reproducing but they accidentally create a mutation that makes the shrews the size of dogs with a taste for human flesh. As the hurricane makes it way to them they must barricade themselves indoors and fight off the ongoing horde of killer shrews. 

      I fucking loved The Killer Shrews way more than I should have. I know it’s another film that often gets mocked and riffed by shows like MST3000 but I enjoyed it a lot. In fact, I watched it twice in just as many days. It’s a lot of fucking fun even though it is extremely cheesy. The acting in this one is not as bad as I was expecting. In fact, I actually liked the characters and how the cast depicted them. While several characters are painfully cliched and modeled after other films featuring science gone too far, I still found myself enjoying their performances. The outlandish characters and situations really does fit the campy nature of the film. The story for this one is so predictable but it’s not the destination that is so enjoyable here. Instead, it’s the journey and the situations these survivors find themselves in is so fucking funny and outlandish. Viewer’s can’t help but smile he entire time the film is on and at just roughly over an hour you will not be out that much of your time. Finally, the film is not a bloody one. We get dogs in shrew costumes and gimmicky deaths but that is the extent of it. Viewers need to remember that this is a no budget horror film with more focus on the shrews than anything else. Overall, The Killer Shrews is a fantastic no budget treat from the golden age of drive-in cinema. It’s cheap but it works. I know genre fans will be quick to jump in the comments and bash the review but I fucking loved it. I highly recommend it.