[Movie Review] Grabbers

Go see Grabbers.
If you liked Tremors then go see Grabbers.
If you looking for a movie that is funny, enjoyable and has a horrendously cute villains then go see Grabbers.
Grabbers is a dramedy/horror themed-movie directed by John Wright and written by Kevin Lehane. I mentioned a few lines above an homage to Tremors and manages to get Predator/Carpenter’s The Thing/The Fog, Jaws and a few other homages in there as well.
The movie starts of ominously enough with a fishing trawler off the coast of an Irish isle town. The crew witnesses a meteorite crashing into the ocean but before they investigate further they are quickly dispatch by something we cannot and won’t see for half the movie. This is not necessarily a bad thing since many time creatures are best shown in their full glory until the final reel of the movie.
Morning arrives on this quint Irish island town and our protagonists are introduced, the first being by the book police officer Lisa Nolan played by Ruth Bradley and fellow police officer/town drunk Ciarán O’Shea played by Richard Coyle. Both are polar opposites but neither are a-typical archetypes either as the film progresses. After several introductions to the supporting cast it turns out Lisa has taken her vacation by filling in for one of the other cops.
Unfortunately, Lisa is not the only new arrival at the island. The creatures from the meteorite begin to infest the town and bit by bit their biology is introduced. I mentioned Tremors before and Lehane manages to get the entire Tremor biology that took four movies into one which is a great to see because when was the last time you saw an octopus type monster with a mouth full of teeth surrounded by eye balls get sick over trying to suck the blood out of a person with a .20 on the breathalyzer test.
The creatures are dubbed Grabbers and it turns out they need blood and water to survive but they can’t stand drunks. So what does the town do?
They hold a lock in and get the entire small town sloshed while the eggs hatch and these cute little octopi start migrating across town looking for victims. The CGI/practical effects are well done even if a few of the night shots here and there are little too dark not because it’s hiding a multitude of CGI sins just it’s too dark to enjoy the giant octopi Grabber as he rolls after our heroes.
Yep, he and she Grabbers. Hatched from eggs. And they’re smart. They actually set traps to lure their prey out into the open.
I should make mention that body count in the movie is low so if you’re expecting hack-a-thon you’re going to be slightly disappointed. Instead the body count is kept low as the ground rules of the Grabbers are established. A scene of trying to light one on fire does not turn out well since they need water to live and guess what happens when you light a fire inside a building? The fire sprinklers.
I’m happy not everyone is painted with a red shirt so sometimes the heroes are beaten up while sometimes the secondary characters are dispatched. Many times you know the red shits but Grabbers kept it believable. I half expected a different ending for Adam Smith played by Russell Tovey. His Grabber encounter turned into a Amblin shout out but I would have thought he was fine. But alas no such luck and no Marvel-esque final credit scene.
According to IMDB this was filmed during one of the coldest winters on record for Ireland but it doesn’t look freezing the Director of Photographer really shot a wonderful looking movie from the craggy caves where the Grabbers are holed up to the morning ocean shots that are reminiscent of Jaws. It had a good soundtrack too and the budding romance between the two main characters was not shoved down our throats.
So if you’re tired of hearing about Sharknado then check out Grabbers. It may be available a local movie theater or download via Amazon/iTunes.