Review of The Killer Shrews (1959) by Kurt B — 11 Jan 2011

A typical story of the lab experiment gone wrong except this time it's a couple of hundred Shrews on an island that have grown strangely to the exact same size as dogs. The inhabitancy have to stop the Shrews getting in over night as through the day their eyes are sensitive to light so they can then make a quick get away to a boat on the other side of the island.

Negatives, the Shrews were simply dressed up Dogs and it was dreadfully noticeable in fact one of the Dogs had spots on its leg and was probably a Dalmatian. I was actually very surprised by the film maker's choice to do things this way; I was expecting to see stock footage of Shrews edited into the movie a bit like "Empire of the Ants". Another negative was when one character is going to give the other a gun but keeps it in his hand and then when the shot changes the gun appears in his hand. The story line was also really cliché as the scientist was also German; also as this was filmed in the 50's it was noticeable that the characters of a different ethnic background were killed first except the scientist.

The acting of The Killer Shrews was actually rather good or as good as it can be for a b-movie. Although there were a load of cheesy elements and some mistakes I couldn't help but like this film a rather lot. It was just like a zombie movie but with Shrews and it captured the atmosphere of the people being stuck inside with no way out rather perfectly making me think of this film of a cross between "Night of the Living Dead" and "Empire of the Ants".