Grabbers (2012)

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nTitle: Grabbers (2012)

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nDirector: Jon Wright

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nCast: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey

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nEvery now and again a movie pops up out of nowhere andncompletely takes me by surprise, Grabbers is one such film, completely fun,ncompletely entertaining. I knew nothing of the Irish monster movie, I simplynrented it because the themes and situations are similar to a script I’ve beennworking on for a while now…and well, I was extremely curious as to how theynhandled the Lovecraftian elements on this one. That’s right my friends, this isnyet another film that plays in Lovecraft’s sand box; Grabbers was obviouslyninfluenced by stories like say ‘Dagon’, ‘The Horror at Red Hook’, ‘The Call ofnCthulhu’ or ‘The Colour out of Space’. This is a film that knows where it’snborrowing from and does it well, any lover of Lovecraft’s particular brand ofnhorror should be pleased with this one for here’s a film filled with many tentacledncreatures that come from the stars and take residence in our oceans! What’snmore Lovecraftian than that right?  

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nIn Grabbers, a meteor falls to the ocean somewhere in thenshores of a small fishing community in Ireland and with it comes these bloodnthirsty creatures that begin to spread throughout the town.  It’s up to the town’s drunkard police man andnhis rookie partner to find a way to put an end to the alien invasion. Thankfully,nthe creatures have an aversion to alcohol, which means that the best way tonstay safe is to be drunk all the time! Will they be able to stop the creaturesnwhile being completely blasted? 

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nFirst off, Grabbers isn’t the most original film you’ll evernsee, in fact, you’ll feel like you’ve seen the movie before. To me it felt asnif I was watching Stuart Gordon’s Dagon (2001), only told in a much more lighthearted,nadventurous tone, kind of like a monster movie from the eighties. In that sensenit is very similar to Attack the Block (2011), because it a modern film attempting to evokenthose adventurous monster movies from the eighties, with a tinge of nostalgia. Grabbers is a film like Gremlins (1984) wherenthere are monsters terrorizing the town, in fact, there’s a whole scene with these little squid like monsters destroying a pub that brought to mind certain images from Gremlins. The story is told in a light tone, withnan emphasis on the comedy and the jokes. You know, nothing too scary or frightening.nMonster movies have a formula, and so Grabbers kind of fails in the sense that it follows it to a t, which means you kind of know exactly what beatsnthe story is going to be hitting. So things go a bit like this, monster arrives, slowly wensigns of its presence, the towns people discover the creatures, they figure out hownto kill them and the film ends with a full blown monster vs. the townsnpeople scenario. It also reminded of Tremors (1990), right down to having anscene where the town folk are debating over what they are going to call thencreatures they’ve just discovered. So don’t expect anything to original.

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nThankfully the film gets many other things right, fornexample, this idea that you have to be drunk in order to keep the beasties awaynis awesome because that just means that we’ll have drunk people as protagonistsnall throughout the film, which when done right can be hilariousl. The films main character is a drunkard police man; sonwe have what’s called an ‘unreliable protagonist’, the proverbial looser whonturns into a hero. In that sense the film felt a bit like Shaun of the Dead (2004),nbecause it has an incompetent individual who suddenly takes charge of things.nIt is also like Shaun of the Dead because the most pivotal moments end up takingnplace in or around a pub. So yeah, that whole idea about everyone being drunknwas cool, the actors played drunk very convincingly because before the shoot,ndirector Jon Wright took his actors on a drinking spree and taped the whole thing. They then re-watched the footage and used it as reference for their performances,nwhich worked like magic because I’ll tell ya, they played drunk good! Theynreally exploit that Irish ideal of drinking till you pass out! And speaking ofnIreland, the film has these really beautiful vistas of Ireland and its shores.nI love the way Ireland looks, so cold and gloomy, a perfect setting for anhorror movie like this one. To top things off, same as in Dagon, it’s rainingnfor practically the entire film.

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nAnother major plus for the film are the creatures which looknamazing! If you’re a fan of Lovecraft and the whole Cthulhu mythos, then you’rengoing to love this movie because in many ways, it’s the ultimate Cthulhu movie,nit reminded me of another obscure fantasy film that also had heavy Lovecraftianninfluences called Cast a Deadly Spell (1991), which starred Fred Ward in thenrole of a private detective investigating the theft of the Necronomicon in an1940’s alternate universe in which magic is real, actually, common place! Ifnyou haven’t seen Cast a Deadly Spell and you are a fan of Lovecraft, Inrecommend checking that one out! Though tonally very different from Cast anDeadly Spell, both films end up with a huge tentacled creature terrorizing thentown. Grabbers is the latest of the Lovecraft inspired monster films, and itnhas the benefit of having modern special effects at its disposal, which is whynGrabbers has the best creatures with tentacles I’ve seen in a while, reallyncool to look at. Bottom line is, Grabbers is a fun, fast paced, lightheartednmonster flick, highly recommend it to Lovecraft fans and monster flick fansnalike.

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nRating: 4 out of 5    

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