The Killer Shrews (1959)

User Rating:

3.0/10   

Director:

Ray Kellogg

Writers:

Jay Simms (story)
Jay Simms (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 April 1962 (West Germany)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

All that was left after...THE KILLER SHREWS! (Used in conjunction with a woman's pink pump and splattered blood)

Plot:

On an isolated island, a small group of people is terrorised by giant, voracious shrews in the midst of a hurricane.

Plot Keywords:

Shrews | Hurricane | Flesh Eating | Remote Island | Sidekick

Cast

James Best	...	Thorne Sherman
Ingrid Goude	...	Ann Craigis
Ken Curtis	...	Jerry Farrell
Gordon McLendon	...	Dr. Radford Baines
Baruch Lumet	...	Dr. Marlowe Craigis
Judge Henry Dupree	...	'Rook' Griswold (as J. H. 'Judge' Dupree)
Alfredo DeSoto	...	Mario

Also Known As:

The Attack of the Killer Shrews

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | UK:PG (video rating) (1996) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #19311)

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures Corporation (II)

Trivia:

This low budget feature is still regarded as one of the most successful "regional films." Unlike other regional films, it not only received national distribution, it also had some foreign sales.

Goofs:

Plot holes: At one point Thorne and Jerry walk past an apparently undamaged rowboat, which would get everyone off the island. When they return to the house they never mention it.

Quotes:

Dr. Radford Baines: Just ripped my trousers, that's all.
[collapses dead]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

James Best is the bright spot of this classic B-movie

Okay, it's a bad movie. Laughably bad. Hideously bad. MST3K bad (and they DID, too...). It's the kind of bad that makes you wonder just what color of shoe polish the producer was drinking when he agreed to buy it. It's also LOADS of fun. I highly recommend anyone who likes campy old flicks to pick this up for the laughable screenplay. The characters aren't bad; in fact, they're the bright spot of the movie, more or less wasted on a sad production. The acting really wasn't too bad in this film, nor were the characterizations, themselves. James Best, as Captain Thorne Sherman (que macho, eh?), stands out as the best-acted of the troupe in his role as the freelance boat captain stranded on the island by a hurricane, and forced to rally the few inhabitants against the menace of the shrews. I'm not going to kid you; against, say, 'Citizen Kane' or 'The General', this movie won't even RATE. But in the annals of B-grade or worse thrillers, this is definitely a must-see.