Review by Stephanie Scaife
This Irish creature feature is Jon Wright’s sophomore effort as a director, after the watchable if flawed teen zombie flick Tormented, and what an unexpected treat it is. Imagine if The Guard and Tremors had an oozy, tentacled love child, then what you’d end up with is Grabbers. It makes a welcome relief to the oh-so-serious horror films of late, and although not downright scary, it successfully treads the line of being both a laugh-out-loud comedy and an icky monster film with some decent squelchy moments of gross out horror.
Richard Coyle stars as workshy Garda Ciarán O’Shea, a burgeoning alcoholic on the isolated Erin Island off the coast of Ireland. Then one day a new supervisor turns up in the form of straight laced workaholic Lisa Nolan (Ruth Bradley), whose seemingly enforced sabbatical from Dublin has landed her with O’Shea. This unlikely paring, which we’ve all seen variations on time and time again, is surprisingly the film’s biggest success, thanks in large part to Coyle and Bradley, their convincing chemistry together, and to the well written screenplay from Kevin Lehane. It’s not long before our odd couple are put to the test when bloodthirsty aliens crash land into the ocean just off the coast of the island and start draining and decapitating the locals. With the help of forensic scientist Dr. Smith (Russell Tovey) and Paddy (Lalor Roddy), the local fisherman who first catches one of the creatures, they set out to rid the island of its inconvenient infestation.
As luck would have it these blood-sucking freaks can’t stomach alcohol; being that this is a film set in Ireland and half the characters are permanently sozzled, it doesn’t take them long to figure this handy little detail out. Although aliens allergic to alcohol crash landing in Ireland is about as clever as those water-allergic aliens from Signs coming to a planet that is 70% water… anyway this handy revelation leads the locals to stage an almighty lock-in at the local pub in a bid to stay as rat-arsed as possible, thus ensuring that they don’t become dinner for the island’s new extraterrestrial inhabitants. David Pearse and Bronagh Gallagher star as the pub landlords, Pearse as the reluctant host to this almighty piss-up and Gallagher under the rather tragic assumption that it’s all been organised to celebrate her birthday, and together with the rest of the locals they must endeavour to stay as bladdered as possible whilst battling it out against the aliens and their newly hatched squirmy offspring. This of course offers ample opportunity for humour, which we’re given in droves, particularly from Bradley as a teetotaler who must get drunk.
With great acting all round and a fantastic supporting cast of Ireland’s finest, combined with a great script and some decent camerawork that makes ample use of the surrounding scenery, Grabbers is a real breath of fresh air. The special effects used in creating what can only be described as very Lovecraftian beasties are surprisingly good too, particularly the baby aliens that offer ample opportunities for sight gags and knowing nods to other favourite b-movies such as the aforementioned Tremors, along with the likes of Gremlins and Critters. This really is the most fun you’re likely to have in front of your TV on a dreary January evening and it comes highly recommended.
Grabbers is out now on Region 2 DVD, from Sony Pictures.