1950s SF film
The Killer Shrews, 1959, USA DIRECTED BY RAY KELLOGG
A rather weak and often laughable effort that tells a story of bad science run amok, in the accidental creation of a mutant strain of giant shrews that terrorise the occupants of a remote scientific laboratory. This was Ray Kellogg's directorial debut after quite a bit of experience doing photographic effects on Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley movies, and he filmed it back-to-back with the considerably more culturally-aware The Giant Gila Monster. But it's clear that Kellogg's vision exceeded his grasp as director as the whole thing's a pretty functional affair showing very little style and flair, and those killer shrews were never going to convince anyone, being nothing more than a pack of poorly disguised dogs. At first I couldn't help but wonder if the notion of experiments in an island setting were meant to steal some of the scientific credibility and horror of The Island of Doctor Moreau, but I needn't have grafted on any such misleading associations because the movie turns its back on moral questions and instead goes in for action. On the plus side there are one or two dark and moody sets that work fairly well in atmospheric black and white, and the musical score isn't bad at all. But none of the cast really put across anything close to an engaging performance, and everything would have been better served by a screenplay that didn't just rely on people shouting at each other to add psychological tension, of which there's little in evidence. And the method of escape from the island just looks ridiculous. And and and. This is one of those movies that did little more than enable me to tick the 'seen it' box, and given the scarcity of positive reviews I can't say I wasn't warned.