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The Killer Shrews (1959)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 8:38 pm    Post subject: The Killer Shrews (1959) Reply with quote

This is a terrific review by Jimbo Berkey's from his wonderful site -- Free Classic Movies -- for The Killer Shrews, along with the pictures he includes and the link to watch it or download it!
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No fellows, this horror thriller is NOT about your ex . . . these killer shrews are little rat-like animals that have mutated into giant man-eating killers on an island with several men and one beautiful young lady.

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Ken Curtis, best remembered as scraggy deputy Festus on the long running television show Gunsmoke, is the bad guy, if there is a bad guy. He is an assistant for a pair of scientists who are trying to mutate animals in an attempt to solve world overpopulation that threatens our 1959 world.

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One night Ken Curtis, as Jerry Farrell, accidentally leaves a cage door open and several mutant animals escape into the forest surrounding the scientific outpost on a remote island in the Caribbean.

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James Best, as boat pilot Thorne Sherman, arrives on the island with a boatload of supplies and tells the scientists that a huge hurricane is approaching and he will stay on the island with them until the hurricane passes.

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He discovers that the scientists and Ingrid Goude, as Ann Craigis (the daughter of one of the scientists) is in great fear of the mutated animals roaming the island that have become so hungry that they will destroy and eat anything living on the island . . . including them!

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Death at the fangs of mutant killers threatens the group as the killer shrews start eating the people one by one. Who will survive? Who will die? Who will go mad? Who will wind up with beautiful blonde Ann?

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Who will pop the big bowl of white kernel popcorn covered with warm melted butter that you will enjoy as your knuckles go white with fear?


____Jimbo Berkey
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:57 pm; edited 2 times in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This has been one of my favorite guilty-pleasure B-movies down through the years.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like it so much I bought the DVD! I can't explain why it's so enjoyable, but this one and The Giant Gila Monster are fun.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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This was our feature on All Sci-Fi's Friday Live Chat for April 15th, 2016. Here's the links some of us used when we enjoyed this thriller with the killer rodents-turned-canines!


___________________ The Killer Shrews!

Enjoy the trailer to whet your appetite.


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The YouTube video of this cheap-but-creepy cinematic gem is available in both original black-and-white and in color! Very Happy (The color version starts with commercials, so run it up to he 8:00 mark.)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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___________The Killer Shrews Animated Poster


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I watched this when I was a kid (a Lon-n-n-g Time Ago. Rolling Eyes ) James Best stars as a boat captain who is delivering supplies to a small group of scientists on a forlorn island.

Yes, there are flimsy costumes on the dogs (giant shrews), the photography is pedestrian, and the budget is very low.

But there was always an extra edge to this one and, as Bill Warren writes in his book, Keep Watching the Skies, a logic informing much of the film.

The climactic action, when the survivors are escaping under some garbage cans, is the source of derision nowadays. But the scenes stay true to the internal logic of the film. The big shrews are not superhuman, but they have the equivalent strength of large dogs. It does make sense. Bullets can stop these things, but you need a lot of bullets — there are a lot of these critters.

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Myself, I always identified with the guy who chooses to stay on the roof, waiting for the proper moment to make a run for it. When I watched this, I thought —

'Would I have the guts to eventually climb down and run? Or, would I stay up there forever?'

Keep in mind, this is from the perspective of a 10-year old. If a film works, whatever your age, it works. It's very well paced, with a couple of genuine shocks. There's ample tension generated, especially in the last 10 minutes, when it's a desperate gamble to reach the water (duck-walking in large cans). The fear conveyed by the characters is effective.

The entire plot of people trapped inside a steadily crumbling fortified house' was utilized later in such famous films as Night of the Living Dead (1968).


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Also, according to Warren's Keep Watching the Skies, it was budgeted at $123,000. The director, Ray Kellogg, later helped John Wayne to direct The Green Berets (1968)

I was well acquainted with the character of Festus on the TV western series Gunsmoke (again, as a kid). It wasn't until much later that I realized it was the same actor (Ken Curtis) playing the scumbag in this little film. Curtis was very good at playing creeps early in his career. Curtis was also producer here. This does have similarities to the FOOD OF THE GODS premise.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Well bless my soul, they actually made a sequel to this movie in 2012, called Return of the Killer Shrews!

The terrible CGI shrews are definitely not a plus, but the cast includes the stars of the original — James Best — along with his fellow stars from The Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider (Bo Duke) and Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus Hogg).

The cast also includes Bruce Davison, the senator who was killed by Magneto's mutant-making machine in the first X-Men movie.

The photography looks good, and it has several very attractive ladies, but otherwise I'm not optimistic about the quality of this sequel . . . although it appears to be played more for laughs than screams, so perhaps it would be fun. Very Happy

Here's two trailers for it.


_______________ Return of the Killer Shrews


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_____ Return of the Killer Shrews Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
This was our feature on All Sci-Fi's Friday Live Chat for April 15th, 2016. Here's the links some of us used when we enjoyed this thriller with the killer rodents-turned-canines!

Shrews aren't rodents. They're actually more closely related to hedgehogs and moles. “True” shrews comprise the family Soricidae within the order Soricimorpha, which belongs to a larger group of mammals called insectivores.

The Killer Shrews scared the crap out of my nine-year-old self when I first saw it on television -- although even at that young age, I noticed that the "giant shrews" suspiciously resembled costumed dogs. Funny, they didn't look shrewish!
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