by Jason Grooms
Do you know what the most fierce, deadly, blood-thirsty creature the world has ever known is? It’s a creature with ferocious fangs like a lion, echolocation like a vampire bat, and deadly venom like a cobra. No, it’s not a mutant platypus from the island of Doctor Moreau. It’s the shrew. What? Not afraid you say? Then you’ve never seen The Killer Shrews. I promise you, one look at the terribly horrifyingly awful shrews in this movie and you’ll have some seriously disturbing nightmares, I guarantee it.
The Killer Shrews is the story of a scientist, his family, assistants, and the small crew of a supply ship (whose captain is played by James Best, none other than Roscoe P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazard) who are trapped on an island by an approaching hurricane and are forced to take shelter in the only house on the island. But this is no ordinary island.
The scientist, Doctor Marlowe Craigis (Baruch Lumet) is experimenting with radical methods to solve the world’s impending overcrowding and hunger problem. His solution? To shrink man to half size in order to reduce the need for space and food. (I know. I kick myself for not having thought of that too.)
The unfortunate and all-to-deadly side effect of the experiment however is that it’s caused the test animals to grow exponentially larger than their original form. The most deadly of these are the shrews, which have grown to the size of large dogs and are more deadly than any creature known to man.
the hurricane strikes the hapless islanders take refuge in the house only to learn that the shrews have run out of food and are still hungry. Much to the surprise of the survivors, it doesn’t take long for the shrews to begin digging their way into the basement and begin to kill off the cast. As they start to pop their heads through the wall, the fearful full-sized humans realize too late for one of their friends that the shrews are also venomous.
Finally realizing that they can’t stay in the house any longer, they come up with a plan to lash together several steel oil drums flipped upside-down and use them as makeshift armor to get them back down to the docks where captain Sherman’s boat is still moored. As the house is finally overrun, the group gets into the steel drums and begins their journey to the boat. I won’t give away the ending but i will tell you that if I ever decide to use empty oil drums as armor, I’m going to build in a floor.
This is cheese in its purest form, smelly and old. The “shrews” in this film are actually dogs that have been dressed in look like shredded afghan rugs with prosthetic heads strapped on. The close ups are classic puppet heads with ridiculous fangs and plastic-like eyes, but don’t be fooled. While that might sound ridiculous (and honestly it is) they are still freaking scary looking and if one of those things popped up in a dark room…I shudder.
This is often listed as one of the worst movies of all time, simply for the fact that the creatures are just so awful. In reality, the acting isn’t that bad for a 1950 horror B film and while the “shrews” provide nearly endless comic relief as they “hunt” in a pack, the acting is actually pretty decent.
This is a must-see movie for any fan of 50s sci-fi/horror or even for the morbidly curious who want to know what a dog in a shredded afghan rug look like when they eat people. For fans of deep-fried cheese it is a definite staple. Although I swear I kept waiting for a James Best to stop and turn to the pack or marauding shrews and yell, “Freeze or I’m gonna cuff ya and stuff ya.”
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