Movie Info
Movie Name: Grabbers
Studio: Forward Films
Genre(s): Horror/Comedy/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): January 23, 2012 (Sundance Film Festival)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Our fearless heroes…and their rolled up magazine!
Garda Lisa Nolan (Ruth Bradley) has just been assigned to the quiet Erin Island. Her new partner Ciarán O’Shea (Richard Coyle) is an alcoholic and her hopes to get ahead in the department could be pointless. A danger is stalking Erin Island. A creature has fallen from space and is killing whoever it encounters. With the town in danger from the “Grabbers”, a bigger danger could be if the Grabbers get off the island.
Directed by Jon Wright, Grabbers is a horror comedy. The movie premiered at Sundance and later made a film festival tour. The movie was well received by critics but had a small draw at the box office due to a limited release.
Creature movies are fun and comedy creature movies are fun. There have been a number of these style films made from Arachnophobia to Piranha to Attack the Block. Grabbers feels like another one of these comedy horror films that manages to get scares but laughs at the same time.
Grabbers are anti-police
The movie has a lot of allusions to the Alien movies with a creature that resembles a face-hugger from that franchise, but I think it has a tone and feel closer to Tremors. In fact, I feel that a lot of the basic story set-up is Tremors with characters on the fringe of society being taken out as the horror slowly creeps into to isolated town. The style is similar to Tremors as well but the movie does come up with a new solution to dealing with the creatures when the people discover the weakness to alcohol.
The cast is largely made up characters who haven’t make the hop “across the pond” to America. English actor Richard Coyle plays the male lead as the drunken police officer who’s saddled with the eager new partner and Irish actor Ruth Bradley plays his partner. Both actors went out with director Jon Wright to get drunk and help develop their character (it is tough being an actor). American audiences might recognize Russell Tovey who was one of the leads on the BBC version of Being Human and has also made other films that have had play in America.
Wait…what am I looking at?
The visuals are decent for the Grabbers. They are slimy and resemble really mobile octopi. It is a general horror for people to be attacked by tentacles and the movie plays on that idea of a tentacle monster coming after them.
Grabbers is a quick, fun movie. It is always nice to find a little surprise movie that remembers that movies are for fun and still can be good. There are faults with the film and sometimes the movie is a bit choppy, but most of the faults of the film can be forgiven because the movie is entertaining and worth seeking out.
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