The Killer Shrews

Even though an abacus wouldn’t suffice to tally up the naive statements in “The Killer Shrews”, the tirade against obtuse, manipulative research maintains its coarse effectiveness, especially when you take a look at the questionable panel of “experts” hanging out in the lab:

1. A daft old man who doesn’t seem to notice what’s going on around him;
2. A bespectacled workaholic who gets a kick out of upending the laws of nature (he’s joyful when he learns of the disturbing predicament caused by the poisonous monstrosities);
3. A jealous, violent drunk;
4. A Swedish zoologist who can’t wait to get out of there.

Dr. Craigis lives in his own little world, dreaming of a future populated by dwarves with slow, pachyderm-like metabolisms. He doesn’t seem the least bit concerned by the fact that his absurd experiments have been a disaster to the local ecosystem. He defends his work with pearls of wisdom such as: “Any unusual experiment can produce unusual results“. On the other hand, Captain Sherman is the poster child for the most boorish embodiment of American individualism, uttering lines such as “I’m only interested in anything that concerns me, then I do something about it“.

From the storytelling point of view, the centripetal structure of the siege is a forerunner to George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” films – which in turn were influenced by Richard Matheson’s work. Meanwhile, the massacre scene is pretty typical for the period, given that the first to succumb are the two fat, socially underprivileged men (the African-American and the Mexican).

Sub-par special effects – the majority of the scenes feature dogs running around, badly made up to look like shrews. The soundtrack is poorly synched to the picture. There’s also a colorized version floating around.