User reviews

Long before Alexander Payne's 'Downsizing,' Ray Kellogg brought us this science-fiction epic about Baruch Lumet's cunning plan to curb overpopulation and its' effects on the world's resources by shrinking humans down to half their size. Sadly, before Dr. Lumet could save the world with his ingenious idea, the shrews he had been experimenting on mutated, growing to enormous sizes and becoming terribly ferocious (how his experiments yielded the exact opposite results that he was looking for is never explained). The creatures then broke loose, escaped his compound and fled into the forests of his isolated island. Now, they stalk the night, fangs bared, waiting to turn anyone they come across into mincemeat.

'The Killer Shrews' follows sea-captain Thorne Sherman- played by James Best- who is stranded on Lumet's island and- alongside the good doctor and his scientific accomplices- forced to battle the titular mutants for the sake of humanity itself. Trapped in the minimally decorated compound with shrews on every side, the gang drink endless martinis, rattle off ridiculous speeches and plot how to escape the island without becoming the ghastly creatures' next meal.

'The Killer Shrews' is a hilariously cheap-looking affair that is surely the prototypical film that's "so bad it's good." On every level the film is laughably inept, from the performances by the actors, to the set design and decoration and of course, the stars of the show, the shrews themselves. Although the coonhounds covered in shag carpet who play the shrews in long shots look better than the puppets used in close up, it's not by much. Kellogg designed the beasts himself, and he must have been drinking more martinis than his characters to be content with the finished product.

The cast have nothing to do but neck back martinis and recite ridiculous, poorly-written dialogue from Jay Simms's screenplay when they're not running from the shrews, so it's no wonder they all appear totally flummoxed. Lumet, who usually does fine work in small roles (see his brief appearance in his son Sidney's 'The Pawnbroker' for proof of this) here seems confused and a little scared by all the faux-scientific lines he has to spout throughout the film. Ingrid Goude, who plays his daughter, is just as out of her depth, with her wooden delivery and lack of screen presence betraying a dearth of acting talent.

James Best and Ken Curtis- who plays the alcoholic Jerry- come off the best, actually giving the film a bit of life and energy in its slower, martini-based moments between rampant shrew attacks. The other actors in the cast leave the same impression on the viewer as Lumet and Goude except they aren't nearly as memorable. The common denominator between them all is that they approach the material with an over-the-top earnesty and dead-pan seriousness that makes it all the funnier to hear lines like "those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew."

Then there's the set decoration- if it can even be called decoration- which is laughably sparse. Lumet's compound looks like a low-rent motel room from the 30's that someone stole all the furniture from; leaving only the bar in place. The laboratory where the shrew experimentations took place may be the least scientific-looking set ever captured on film, based entirely on the canny inclusion of a couple of microscopes and a few test tubes. Also, the score from Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin is so melodramatic and overblown it makes the music in your average soap opera seem practically subtle.

Everything about the film is funny because it's all so mediocre. Though there are a couple of half decent performances, the cast are generally hilarious, their dialogue ridiculous and the story they're trapped in completely fatuous. There is never any suspense in the film because the shrews are so obviously coonhounds and hand-puppets, not to mention the fact that Kellogg isn't a particularly talented director and would probably have struggled to create tension even if his shrews looked like the work of Ray Harryhausen.

'The Killer Shrews' is so entertaining because it's so Godawful, though people who don't find over-the-top ineptitude humorous might be left a little cold by the experience of watching the film. If you do find the awful and the melodramatic funny (like Claudio Fragasso's 'Troll 2') then watch 'The Killer Shrews.' It's not just so bad it's good; it's so bad it's brilliant.

Having seen any number of bad movies, I can state that this is significantly better than most of them, and even better in part than movies not considered bad at all. However, in those aspects in which this movie is bad it is not merely bad, it is awful.

We have the usual formula of two-fisted hero (James Best), damsel in distress (Swedish Ingrid Goude), the damsel's mad-scientist father (non-Swedish Baruch Lumet), and the villain (Ken Curtis). The formula in this case is less clichéd than usual. The hero is fairly articulate and the mad scientist is actually quite urbane, tossing off his creation of hundreds of giant, poisonous, man-eating shrews with the line "unusual experiments lead to unusual results". The dialog is competently written and the acting is above par (with the exception of the Swedish eye-candy, who is at least good eye candy).

The general concept is compact and dramatically efficient: a group of people are trapped first by a hurricane and then by an outside menace in a stronghold which gets less and less strong as time, ammunition and group cohesion all grow short.

However the execution is at times illogical. One problem is that the stronghold is made out of...adobe. On a rainswept island crawling with usable timber? The thrilling conclusion is also somewhat implausible.

The main reason for the film's abysmal reputation is the legendary and quite obvious use of ordinary dogs in bathmats to play the part of giant shrews. I suppose this just has to be overlooked.

As a sidelight, it is interesting to see Dukes of Hazard sheriff James Best tall and handsome as the hero, and it is apparent that producer/villain Ken Curtis labored long and hard in the trenches before gaining fame as Festus.

I got this movie from the 100 pack at Wal Mart. once I found out who was in it I just had to jump right in,, James Best.. Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrain. apparently on an island somewhere, overpopulation has become a real problem, and these Giant Killer Shrews are taking over the population and the island. just imagine yourself on an island like that where you are being over run by these huge gigantic shrews, I thought James Best did a wonderful job in this.. he was very funny, and his acting was also pretty good,, I guess back in the late 50's you could say that the undertone to this movie was a warning about overpopulation and what it will mean in the future if we as humans try to take over a certain land mass or area... very decent film from the 50's that isn't Oscar material, but not bad either,, I would recommend it even if I never heard of James Best.

I'm shocked by the low rating this movie has on here. I have to assume most of the people who voted don't watch many movies in the genre. I have seen more mutated animal movies than I can remember and this is better than most. The acting is good and the shrews don't look too bad. I mean they are just dogs with throw rugs on their backs and some fake teeth but they only attack at night(BRILLIANT!)and they move very fast so you can't see them very well anyway. The movie starts with two guys on a ship going to an island and knowing a hurricane is coming. When they get there, the captain is immediately and obviously suspicious. Other than the scientists making up a bunch of lies and having guns, there's not much of the usual giant mutated animal movie clichés. One thing you might consider a flaw is that ten minutes in, you will know who is going to die. I actually like that. This was the first time I correctly picked every character who would die. This is definitely worth seeing.

The Killer Shrews (1959)

*** (out of 4)

You'd think a hurricane coming through would be the most dangerous thing for a small group of people on an island but it isn't. No, it's the giant killer shrews that are going to be the most dangerous for the people who soon find themselves trapped inside a house with the creatures trying to get it.

This film was shot around the same time as THE GIANT GILA MONSTER from the same production company who planned on using them as a double feature. I will gladly hold my head up high and admit that I really love both of these pictures. Yes, both are extremely low- budget pictures that has countless flaws but at the same time both of them are so darn entertaining that I can't help but have a good time with both of them.

THE KILLER SHREWS is notorious for the fact that the giant shrews are actually played by dogs with costumes. These costumes look incredibly fake and more times than not they're crooked on the dogs or falling off all together. I'm sure you could cry foul at this but if you do so then you'd be taking the film way too serious. These types of movies were meant to fill up drive-in screens so they weren't meant to be Oscar-winning movies.

One thing I really like about this film are some of the performances. While there are many issues with some of them, the cast is still quite likable and that includes James Best as the leader, Ingrid Goude as the semi love interest and Gordon McLendon and Baruch Lumet as the doctors. At just 68 minutes the film moves at a very good pace and even the dialogue is slightly entertaining in its own way. Still, the main reason to watch THE KILLER SHREWS is for its "dogs/shrews" and they are worth the price of admission alone.

Killer shrews! mad Scientists! Lover's quarrels! All this and more! I just knew that I have seen James Best somewhere before. He has been in 177 films and TV shows, but Istill didn't remember because I have only watched "The Dukes of Hazzard" once or twice. he's Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane! You just can't hide that face.

Here he is a simple boat Captain delivering supplies to an island with crazy scientists doing genetic experiments. They created some killer shrews that looked just ghastly. The teeth were four or five inches long! Worse than that, they used some poison that didn't kill them, but will certainly kill you with just a scratch.

A horrid night with the shrews attacking and the Captain trying to save sultry blonde Ingrid Goude, not only from the shrews, but from Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen from "Gunsmoke") who wanted her for his own.

Innovative escape and lots of rabid shrew action.

I saw THE KILLER SHREWS the first time on TV. Late every Saturday night, the local TV station played a horror film. We were alerted by a fellow junior-high student who saw the film in another city and his "word of mouth" was to run around the hallways at school pretending he was a shrew; so when it was on TV we all stayed home to watch and see what made our friend so crazily enthusiastic.

For the time it was original in concept as no one had seen "monster shrews" before. The shrews, looking like a bunch of German Shepards dressed up for a Halloween party, have large, saber tooth tiger-like teeth ... they're coming to get ya and eat you alive! Also, one of the main characters is played by Ken Curtis a.k.a. "Festus" from the TV Series "Gunsmoke". We found this a novelty after we read THE KILLER SHREWS was filmed entirely on location in Texas!

I have to make it a point to add THE KILLER SHREWS to my film library as a campy, low-budget, 50's monster movie!

"The Killer Shrews" is not so much a disaster as a by-product of its era, now dated and comical with audiences quite comfortable to enjoy such fodder in that context. With the passage of time, "The Killer Shrews" has achieved some measure of cult status. It's not as bad (technically) as its reputation anticipates; Kellogg's storyline is standard formula (experiments with a growth hormone result in mutated shrews that terrorise the inhabitants of a remote island, isolated by a hurricane), the acting is competent (particularly Best and Curtis), and the special effects are unintentionally funny.

In point of fact, the shrews are ably played by small dogs, fitted with rodent suits, but still move and act like, small dogs. Watching the 'pack' gallop up to the compound in which the stricken sailors and scientists are holed up, and seeing them claw and gnaw at the timber and stucco as their tails wag in anticipation no doubt of meaty-bites on the other side, is always unintentionally hilarious. One can only imagine how Ken Curtis felt as he was being licked and nuzzled by the 'voracious shrews', who apparently need to eat their body weight every day just to survive.

Functional dialogue is delivered well by Best and Curtis, but there's no mistaking former Miss Sweden Ingrid Goude's lack of thespian skills as she inanely affects shock, fear and general anxiety throughout the often tense proceedings. There's also a lot of time spent standing around a well stocked bar, nimbly throwing down martinis as the onslaught amasses outside. Aside from professionals Best and Curtis, Lumet isn't bad as the chief scientist and father to Goude, lamenting the unintended consequences of his ground-breaking research. The climax is novel and was subsequently used by Irwin Allen in a scene from "The Swarm". Camp, low budget entertainment that overcomes its limitations and deserves the minor cult status it carries today.

James Best, known as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane of Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985), fame, gets the starring role in this Ray Kellogg-directed film. Believe it or not, but the Killer Shrews (1959), is not a Roger Corman film. However, the budget on this film is incredibly low. The special-effects for the large shrew-creatures, are real dogs covered in really bad costumes. The technical staff also used hand puppets for the giant killer shrews as well. That is why this is a tediously boring film. Most of the film takes place in a large house in one room, with bad dialogue, just for killing time, until the costumed dogs and hand puppets make their appearances. The stupid attack scenes are few and far between, because, let's face it, costumed dogs and hand puppets, shouldn't be on the screen too much. I mean, you don't want the movie to look too stupid, do we?

I did watch a colorized version recently of the Killer Shrews (1959), on Amazon Prime, that helped enhance the production a little bit more. I'm not condoning colorization, however I have also seen the black and white version, a couple of times, over the years, so I think I have enough information about the Killer Shrews (1959), to garner an opinion on the whole thing, but if you need extra sparkle, in order to watch this movie, maybe the colorized version is for you. Besides, this film needs all the help it can get. This film is a failure, but there is just enough to it to still find some fun. I still recommend seeing the Killer Shrews (1959), mostly to support Roscoe, but really, you have to see the film to believe this film.

PMTM Grade: 3.2 (F-) = 4 IMDB.

...Not that the Oscars are any indication of a film's greatness, and to prove that point this film was nominated for Worst Rodent Movie of All Time by the Golden Turkey Awards.

There are a pack of humongous starving shrews loose on a desolate island. A bunch of "scientists" travel to the island to be terrorized by the shrews.

Okay, so the dogs yowling because they have wet bathmats appended to their backs, and masks to their faces, are hilarious, I mean terrifying; the attempts made to conceal their caninity are also veeeery clever; Thorn Sherman is heroically disinterested; the music is horrifyingly melodramatic; hackneyed theories involving the shrews abound; and the method of escape is one of the most laughingly novel ever recorded on film. All of this, and the realization that these people spend most of the film living in paralyzing fear of the silliest monsters ever created make this film great.

The interior shots are filmed inside the greatest cabin ever. It is difficult to discern whether the walls are decorated with wallpaper, or are just supposed to be extremely filthy. The mantel features a haphazardly placed set of candle holders, a beer stein, a clock set horizontally on the edge, and all to emphasize the focal point of the room- a picture hanging above the mantel of horse legs beside a lake. The perfect, nay the only, setting for bloodthirsty shrews to terrorize scientists and their lackeys.

"It's alright, doctor, he just ripped my trousers. That's all." Never underestimate a killer shrew.

The Killer Shrews is a low budget B horror movie from 1959. Are there problems with it? Does it seem simple and not as scary as modern horror films? Yes and yes, I just said it was a low budget B movie from 1959. Don't expect too much. Considering this, I've watched this movie several times over the years and find it to be a fun, suspenseful, and entertaining movie. I also believe it to be under rated and well worth viewing. Being under rated, it also is very reasonably priced. You just have to sit back, relax and enjoy it. This type of movie however could not stand up to a close examination. If it's taken too seriously or is put under a microscope, it just won't be able to stand the inspection.

I won't recount the plot - such as it is - of this campy classic, because several others have already done so. I'll just give a couple of reasons why it's SOOOO bad that it's hilarious ... which makes it good, or at least entertaining, in a perverse way. First, the "shrews" are quite obviously dogs wearing mop-like wigs and/or bathmats. Easily the worst "monsters" ever put on film. Second, it's clear that Ray Kellogg was on such a tight budget that they weren't going to waste film with reshoots no matter HOW badly a scene went. At one point, one of the actors obviously forgot his lines, so Ingrid Goude prompts him on-camera, saying "Aren't you wondering about my strange accent?" Truly a great moment in cheesy movie history!

Rated "straight" this movie gets about 2 points on a ten-point scale, just above the all- time stinkers like Plan 9 and Manos: Hands of Fate. As unintentional comedy, however, it's pretty entertaining and might rate 5/10.

This is one of my favorite all time schlocky movies from the fifties. The shrews themselves look like...well what they are, collies (or is it greyhounds?) in fur coats. The acting ranges from good (James Best, Ken Curtis) to non-existent (Ingrid Goude, Gorden McLendon.) The dialogue is lame. The editing bad and music poorly inserted; ominous music plays when James Best goes to wash his hands! That being said, I have to take exception with those that say giant shrews are a silly idea. Shrews are primitive mammals with high metabolism rates. They consume their own weight in food every couple of hours. They are known to attack animals larger than themselves. At least one species is mildly poisonous. The great naturalist Roger Carras, in his book, DANGEROUS TO MAN, in the chapter on poisonous mammals and montremes, states that shrews the size of collies would wreck unthinkable ecological havoc. Now you just learned something new.

This movie was fun to watch with a cast that did a good job in their roles and despite horrendous special effects along with a script that could have been better written however the cinematography was good.

Of course this wasn't a master piece, it was a b movie. But as far as b movies go, it was entertaining, it was relatively clever, and I enjoyed the acting, again not the greatest acting ever, but I enjoyed it. The shrews were just dogs in a costume, but it's better than the cgi sequel return of the killer shrews. Some down sides of the film is because the effects aren't great, almost every b movie cliché has been followed, such as the Black man dying first, and the jerk in the film dies off around the end. This would be a great movie to show at horror themes parties, watching a movie during Halloween. I have given it the title of the best b movie I have seen. Give it a watch.

Ray Kellogg directed this horror film about a misguided scientist on a remote island who has developed a serum to bring growth to animals to deal with future overpopulation. Unfortunately, he experimented on tiny shrews that have grown to the size of dogs, and become vicious killers on the loose, just as a fierce hurricane threatens the island and the few survivors, who try desperately to escape before the shrews get them... Brought to you by the director of "The Giant Gila Monster" that same year, film is a bit better, with some surprisingly tense scenes, and fierce-sounding monsters. Still silly of course, but better than you would expect, and a definite cult item.

When will the doctors learn? On a desolate and exotic island a doctor with a heart of gold screws up and damn near destroys the world. Am I referring to Fulci's Zombie, no? How about that island with Marlon Brando? Nope, wrong again.

In the Killer Shrews this tome around on that deserted tropical island as seen a hundred times we have mutated shrews threatening to chomp down on our trapped scientists and a boat crew unlucky enough to be carting supplies to the island. Poisonous and hungry these shrews are gonna clean the island and suck the marrow from your bones…burp.

This fun little clichéd cheese fest moves along are a pretty quick pace. The acting is on par with the era, a bit over blown, but who cares. You have to love those shrew monsters. The effects are a bit *ahem* shrewd and laughable. Not to mention the long shots of the animals that appear to be dogs or maybe pigs dressed up in costumes, complete with tail. Good fun to be had by all with a hankering for b-grade sci-horror.

James Best and his friend arrive by boat at a small island in front of a storm. The island is the home to a scientist and his assistants who are working on prolonging life but accidentally create a race of giant shrews(?). Interestingly enough, these shrews look pretty much like dogs with cheesy costumes when they are shown walking or running, and in closeups they resemble nothing from this planet--they are just too weird to explain. Although all this was really cheesy, what I thought was funniest was when people were holding normal shrews and playing with them, as in real life, shrews are insane and would have probably torn them to pieces. If you look closely, these are actually mice (and it's a good thing for the "actors").

This is one of 10 movies that come on a public domain DVD collection of horror films. Pretty much all the films stink, but at least this one is very watchable but bad--sort of like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. The campiness and silliness of the whole thing hooked my attention. The acting was generally pretty bad, though Best wasn't too bad. However, if you are NOT a fan of bad but fun movies, avoid the film--it certainly ISN'T Shakespeare!

James Best (Rosco P. Coltrane from TV's The Dukes of Hazzard) plays Thorne Sherman, captain of a boat delivering supplies to a group of scientists working on a remote island. When a hurricane whips up, Sherman is forced to wait out the storm at the boffins' abode, which is laid siege during the night by a pack of over-sized man-eating mutant shrews, the unfortunate result of the scientists' experiments.

With the possible exception of the giant rabbits from cult classic Night of the Lepus, shrews have got to be the most ridiculous choice ever for a killer animal in a cheesy B-movie horror film, even if they are over-sized, poisonous shrews. It's this patently ridiculous concept, along with the terrible realisation of the creatures themselves (dogs dressed in rodent costumes and a manky model shrew head for close-ups) and some cheesy dialogue, that helps make The Killer Shrews one of the most entertaining 50s monster movies I've seen.

But although it is undoubtedly good for a laugh, believe it or not there is more to the film than just scientific hogwash, doggies in disguise, and clumsy conversation: the film's basic siege set-up proves to be extremely effective (so much so that it most likely provided inspiration for George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead), Best puts in a pretty good performance as the film's hero, and director Ray Kellogg somehow manages a fair amount of tension and one or two decent scares, the shrew in the kitchen being an absolute corker!

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for Thorne's ingenious escape plan, the likes of which wouldn't have been out of place in an episode of The A-Team.

The story is intriguing: a scientist experiments with rodents, who turn into giant mutants, running loose on a island of seven people, including his daughter. When their food supply runs out, the creatures turn cannibalistic. Ingrid Goude is good as the lone female, while James Best is best as a seaman who tangles with a drunkard (Ken Curtis) for her affections. But the romantic entanglements soon dissipate when the giant shrews, seeking food, start gnawing at the house of the islanders. This theme predates "The Birds" (1963), "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), even "Signs" (2002).If the monster costumes disappoint, the music, sound effects, performances, atmosphere and pacing more than compensate.