The Killer Shrews
Directed by Ray Kellogg
Written by Jay Simms
1959/USA
Hollywood Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] Jerry Farrell: Looks like a rat, smells like a skunk – some call them bone-eaters.[/box]
The title and poster just ooze potential …
A boat captain and his sidekick take refuge from an impending hurricane on an isolated island. They are surprised to find it is inhabited by a Swedish scientist (with a German accent) and his lovely daughter (with no accent). Two other scientists, one a drunk, complete the laboratory team. Their experiments have gone awry and now they are holed up in a house waiting for their creations to cannibalize each other to extinction.
The voracious creatures are mutant shrews. Not only have the tiny animals grown to an enormous size but they now greatly resemble large dogs wearing wigs and false teeth. To make matters worse, they have turned poisonous. Our captives bravely battle the animals who really don’t want to eat each other until they finish off anything else with a heartbeat on the island.
The plot is imminently forgettable, and it lacks the weirdness of genius B movie making, but the shrews more than make up for it. Only for connoisseurs of this kind of thing.
Trailer
