The Killer Shrews

The Killer Shrews


Starring:James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis, Gordon McLendon, Baruch Lumet, Judge Henry Dupree, Alfredo DeSoto
Director: Ray Kellogg
Studio: Good Times Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
THE KILLER SHREWS They Devour Bones, Flesh, Marrow…Everything. Best known as Deputy Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke, Ken Curtis produced and co-stars in this schlock classic about giant shrews that consume their body weight every eight hours. James Best is Thorne Sherman, forced by a hurricane to take refuge on the isolated island of Dr. Marlowe Craigis (Baruch Lumet), whose experiments mutated the hungry critters. Thorne makes a friend in the doctor's daughter, Ann (Ingrid Goude), and an enemy in his assistant, Jerry Farrell (Curtis)—but they must all work together when the fur starts to fly! Special-effects veteran Ray Kellogg directed this film and its companion piece, The Giant Gila Monster, later sharing the directorial credit (with John Wayne) for The Green Berets. Approximately 69 minutes Black and White
The Killer Shrews
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!
  • ALPHA DVD VERSION
  • Classic SciFi Hit
  • Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!
  • They don't leave much, do they?
The Killer Shrews
Starring: James Best , Ingrid Goude , Ken Curtis , Gordon McLendon , and Baruch Lumet
Director: Ray Kellogg
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Attack of Giant Leeches (B&W)
  2. Giant Gila Monster (B&W)
  3. The Crawling Eye (Widescreen European Edition)
  4. Brain That Wouldn't Die (B&W)
  5. Beginning of the End (Special Edition)

ASIN: B0009PLLLS
Release Date: 2005-08-30

Description

THE KILLER SHREWS They Devour Bones, Flesh, Marrow…Everything. Best known as Deputy Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke, Ken Curtis produced and co-stars in this schlock classic about giant shrews that consume their body weight every eight hours. James Best is Thorne Sherman, forced by a hurricane to take refuge on the isolated island of Dr. Marlowe Craigis (Baruch Lumet), whose experiments mutated the hungry critters. Thorne makes a friend in the doctor's daughter, Ann (Ingrid Goude), and an enemy in his assistant, Jerry Farrell (Curtis)—but they must all work together when the fur starts to fly! Special-effects veteran Ray Kellogg directed this film and its companion piece, The Giant Gila Monster, later sharing the directorial credit (with John Wayne) for The Green Berets. Approximately 69 minutes Black and White

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!.......2007-05-03

This is a strange,but very funny movie. The monsters are dogs (small Collies) with some kind of fake fur and tails tied on them. It is really too muckin' fuch! Hysterical!

5 out of 5 stars ALPHA DVD VERSION.......2007-02-12

JAMES BEST( THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW/ DUKES OF HAZZARD )IS THE HERO AS HE TRIES TO ORGANISE AN ESCAPE FROM SHREW ISLAND. PRODUCER KEN CURTIS (SINGING COWBOY/FESTUS FROM TV's GUNSMOKE) TRIES TO STOP HIM & CLAIM HIS BRIDE TO BE. CLASSIC CHEEZIE SCI-FI ROMP CO-RELEASED TO SOUTHERN DRIVE-INS WITH "THE GIANT GILA MONSTER". THIS ONE HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED!!! I FOUND IT TO BE GREAT FUN, REMEMBERING IT FROM MY 1960's CHILDHOOD YOUTH FROM LOCAL WFMJ TV's 5:00 SHOWTIME.
THE ALPHA DVD VERSION IS REALLY QUITE GOOD, VERY CLEAR WITH GOOD AUDIO...I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING A MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE PRODUCT.
YOU CAN'T GO WRONG HERE...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

5 out of 5 stars Classic SciFi Hit.......2006-02-24

I remember as a kid watching the horror channels on tv back in the 70,s. This movie along with the crawling eye, the brain that wouldnt die, and the creature from the black lagoon were my favorites. for those into the old sci/fi movies you have to have this one in your collection. no frills, no hi-tech computer special effects. just good laughs and drama.

1 out of 5 stars Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!.......2006-02-05

James Best wasted in snoozer about genetically altered shrews which turn into hungry little dogs. Why bother? Doesn't the world have enough hungry little dogs already? Boring dialog, bad pacing and a really absurd ending don't a good movie experience make. Not even bad funny as some reviewers would have you think. Not worth the ten cents (yes, 10 cents) I paid for this at Wal-mart.

2 out of 5 stars They don't leave much, do they?.......2006-01-30

For those of you reading at home, here are the ingredients to make your own "Killer Shrew".

Chocolate Ice Cream
Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries
Peanut M & Ms
Mrs. Butterworth
Circus Peanuts
Mr. Pibb
Marshmallow Peeps (lotsa Marshmallow Peeps)
Sweet Tarts
Vanilla Frosting
Good-N-Plenty
Wax lips (oops, nope, that is for the Vulcan mindprobe)

(Blend)

"Alright, pour that into the plastic tulip glass, and garnish with a wind-up shrew!"

The Killer Shrews without Mike, Joel, Tom Servo, TV's Frank, Dr. Forester, and Crow is not a good movie. There is a reason why they chose this film to be a part of their mocking library. This "horror" film lacks in every critical category. It has shabby characters, very minimal visuals, sheep dogs in shrew costumes, and quite a bit of liquor consumption, while all the time never developing anything known as a "plot". The basis behind this film is simple, honestly, too simple. A random, uncharted island inhabited by a scientific experiment gone wrong. There are only six "survivors" who were all doing fine until Rosco P. Coltrane (aka James Best) arrived to the scene. It is after he arrives that liquor seems to be highly consumed, nerves never seemed to be unraveled, and more and more about these shrews are revealed. Nearly halfway through this film I thought that Henson might have been involved somehow with the creation of these shrews. There is even one scene in which there is a shrew hiding under the stairs, waiting for his prey, and you cannot help but feel a sense of admiration for the beast. It is rather cute, in a costumed dog sort of way.

This is one of the first films where you can watch the entire story unfold and feel nothing for these characters. Director Ray Kellogg was either still writing the script as he was shooting or was hoping to use the phrase, "It's my first time directing" for this silly excuse of a film. It is neither scary nor thrilling in any way. To begin, the visuals are horrendous. Between the overused stock footage of a saber-toothed shrew peeking in through the wooden fence and the only ONE interior shot used in the film, it was bound to make any sane viewer go a bit bonkers. I realize that Kellogg may have been trying to build the idea of entrapment or claustrophobia for his characters, but this sensation could never have been created with this cast. It became obvious to me early in this film that drinking was just as important as knowing your lines. In fact, if you didn't know your lines and chose to drink, director Kellogg would have considered it a strong move on the part of the actor. The Killer Shrews is not a film for recovering alcoholics. I saw this film as a perfect outlet for college students and their overabundance of drinking games.

The theories behind the creation of the shrews are classic "B" cinema. As I watched this horrendous film, I could not help but think of Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Did he see this film before creating his masterpiece? I know several have mentioned it in their reviews, but one cannot help but see the similarities. People cramped in a small space trying to survive while evil creatures of the night are pounding down the door. One cannot help but think that the Killer Shrews may have been on Romero's mind in the late 1960s.

Let's see if I have covered all the points. Horrible acting. Nobody actually has a character in this film. We learn nothing about anyone and feel nothing as they attempt to save their own lives from the killer shrews. There was one point in the film where Ann asks Thorne if he doesn't wonder about everything and want to ask questions. She asks him if he doesn't want to know about her accent. Suddenly, I was whisked away to a Lost memory and was waiting for all six of these character's lives to suddenly be molded together in a rather shocking way, but alas, that did not happen. The creatures were creative, but definitely not scary, even for the late 1950s. The shrew under the stairs reminded me, to quote Mystery Science Theater 3000, like a puppet. It made me laugh, which is your typical viewer's reaction to this type of cinema today. This was not a Ed Wood production in any way. This was far worse. Acting was not necessary to be in this film. If there would have been any range of emotion emitted from anyone in this film than I may have graded it higher than I did, but alas, there was none. No chemistry between the characters, no drive, no excitement, just pure alcoholism. Finally, there was the climactic ending that flies by faster than the beginning of the film. If the ending had been more intense, a bit spookier, and maybe even at night, than I think we would have had a stronger contender as a great film. Sadly, the ending looked exactly like the rest of the film, cheap and subdued.

Overall, I don't think I could watch this film again unless I had my old MST3K buddies with me to enjoy it. There was nothing of redeeming value in this film unless you count the action that the liquor bottles saw, then one would grade it higher. The shrews were laughable, the tension was non-existent, and the science of the film was never fully developed. There were so many avenues that Kellogg could have traveled to make this into a "cult" phenomenon, but instead he stuck with less than mediocrity and the result is this black and white film that puts a horrid stain on the "horror" genre. Instead, why don't you make a "Killer Shrew" drink and call it a night, the results would be better!

Grade: ** out of ***** (extra star for the MST3K memories)
The Killer Shrews/The Giant Gila Monster
Average customer rating: Not rated
    The Killer Shrews/The Giant Gila Monster
    Starring: Giant Gila Monster , and Killer Shrews
    Manufacturer: Legend
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    Similar Items:
    1. Missile to the Moon
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    3. Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series)

    ASIN: B000P6R9JO
    Release Date: 2007-07-17
    Killer Shrews (B&W)
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!
    • ALPHA DVD VERSION
    • Classic SciFi Hit
    • Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!
    • They don't leave much, do they?
    Killer Shrews (B&W)
    Starring: James Best , Ingrid Goude , Ken Curtis , Gordon McLendon , and Baruch Lumet
    Director: Ray Kellogg
    Manufacturer: Alpha Video
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    Similar Items:
    1. Attack of Giant Leeches (B&W)
    2. Giant Gila Monster (B&W)
    3. The Crawling Eye (Widescreen European Edition)
    4. Brain That Wouldn't Die (B&W)
    5. Beginning of the End (Special Edition)

    ASIN: B00006II54
    Release Date: 2002-08-27

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!.......2007-05-03

    This is a strange,but very funny movie. The monsters are dogs (small Collies) with some kind of fake fur and tails tied on them. It is really too muckin' fuch! Hysterical!

    5 out of 5 stars ALPHA DVD VERSION.......2007-02-12

    JAMES BEST( THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW/ DUKES OF HAZZARD )IS THE HERO AS HE TRIES TO ORGANISE AN ESCAPE FROM SHREW ISLAND. PRODUCER KEN CURTIS (SINGING COWBOY/FESTUS FROM TV's GUNSMOKE) TRIES TO STOP HIM & CLAIM HIS BRIDE TO BE. CLASSIC CHEEZIE SCI-FI ROMP CO-RELEASED TO SOUTHERN DRIVE-INS WITH "THE GIANT GILA MONSTER". THIS ONE HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED!!! I FOUND IT TO BE GREAT FUN, REMEMBERING IT FROM MY 1960's CHILDHOOD YOUTH FROM LOCAL WFMJ TV's 5:00 SHOWTIME.
    THE ALPHA DVD VERSION IS REALLY QUITE GOOD, VERY CLEAR WITH GOOD AUDIO...I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING A MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE PRODUCT.
    YOU CAN'T GO WRONG HERE...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

    5 out of 5 stars Classic SciFi Hit.......2006-02-24

    I remember as a kid watching the horror channels on tv back in the 70,s. This movie along with the crawling eye, the brain that wouldnt die, and the creature from the black lagoon were my favorites. for those into the old sci/fi movies you have to have this one in your collection. no frills, no hi-tech computer special effects. just good laughs and drama.

    1 out of 5 stars Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!.......2006-02-05

    James Best wasted in snoozer about genetically altered shrews which turn into hungry little dogs. Why bother? Doesn't the world have enough hungry little dogs already? Boring dialog, bad pacing and a really absurd ending don't a good movie experience make. Not even bad funny as some reviewers would have you think. Not worth the ten cents (yes, 10 cents) I paid for this at Wal-mart.

    2 out of 5 stars They don't leave much, do they?.......2006-01-30

    For those of you reading at home, here are the ingredients to make your own "Killer Shrew".

    Chocolate Ice Cream
    Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries
    Peanut M & Ms
    Mrs. Butterworth
    Circus Peanuts
    Mr. Pibb
    Marshmallow Peeps (lotsa Marshmallow Peeps)
    Sweet Tarts
    Vanilla Frosting
    Good-N-Plenty
    Wax lips (oops, nope, that is for the Vulcan mindprobe)

    (Blend)

    "Alright, pour that into the plastic tulip glass, and garnish with a wind-up shrew!"

    The Killer Shrews without Mike, Joel, Tom Servo, TV's Frank, Dr. Forester, and Crow is not a good movie. There is a reason why they chose this film to be a part of their mocking library. This "horror" film lacks in every critical category. It has shabby characters, very minimal visuals, sheep dogs in shrew costumes, and quite a bit of liquor consumption, while all the time never developing anything known as a "plot". The basis behind this film is simple, honestly, too simple. A random, uncharted island inhabited by a scientific experiment gone wrong. There are only six "survivors" who were all doing fine until Rosco P. Coltrane (aka James Best) arrived to the scene. It is after he arrives that liquor seems to be highly consumed, nerves never seemed to be unraveled, and more and more about these shrews are revealed. Nearly halfway through this film I thought that Henson might have been involved somehow with the creation of these shrews. There is even one scene in which there is a shrew hiding under the stairs, waiting for his prey, and you cannot help but feel a sense of admiration for the beast. It is rather cute, in a costumed dog sort of way.

    This is one of the first films where you can watch the entire story unfold and feel nothing for these characters. Director Ray Kellogg was either still writing the script as he was shooting or was hoping to use the phrase, "It's my first time directing" for this silly excuse of a film. It is neither scary nor thrilling in any way. To begin, the visuals are horrendous. Between the overused stock footage of a saber-toothed shrew peeking in through the wooden fence and the only ONE interior shot used in the film, it was bound to make any sane viewer go a bit bonkers. I realize that Kellogg may have been trying to build the idea of entrapment or claustrophobia for his characters, but this sensation could never have been created with this cast. It became obvious to me early in this film that drinking was just as important as knowing your lines. In fact, if you didn't know your lines and chose to drink, director Kellogg would have considered it a strong move on the part of the actor. The Killer Shrews is not a film for recovering alcoholics. I saw this film as a perfect outlet for college students and their overabundance of drinking games.

    The theories behind the creation of the shrews are classic "B" cinema. As I watched this horrendous film, I could not help but think of Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Did he see this film before creating his masterpiece? I know several have mentioned it in their reviews, but one cannot help but see the similarities. People cramped in a small space trying to survive while evil creatures of the night are pounding down the door. One cannot help but think that the Killer Shrews may have been on Romero's mind in the late 1960s.

    Let's see if I have covered all the points. Horrible acting. Nobody actually has a character in this film. We learn nothing about anyone and feel nothing as they attempt to save their own lives from the killer shrews. There was one point in the film where Ann asks Thorne if he doesn't wonder about everything and want to ask questions. She asks him if he doesn't want to know about her accent. Suddenly, I was whisked away to a Lost memory and was waiting for all six of these character's lives to suddenly be molded together in a rather shocking way, but alas, that did not happen. The creatures were creative, but definitely not scary, even for the late 1950s. The shrew under the stairs reminded me, to quote Mystery Science Theater 3000, like a puppet. It made me laugh, which is your typical viewer's reaction to this type of cinema today. This was not a Ed Wood production in any way. This was far worse. Acting was not necessary to be in this film. If there would have been any range of emotion emitted from anyone in this film than I may have graded it higher than I did, but alas, there was none. No chemistry between the characters, no drive, no excitement, just pure alcoholism. Finally, there was the climactic ending that flies by faster than the beginning of the film. If the ending had been more intense, a bit spookier, and maybe even at night, than I think we would have had a stronger contender as a great film. Sadly, the ending looked exactly like the rest of the film, cheap and subdued.

    Overall, I don't think I could watch this film again unless I had my old MST3K buddies with me to enjoy it. There was nothing of redeeming value in this film unless you count the action that the liquor bottles saw, then one would grade it higher. The shrews were laughable, the tension was non-existent, and the science of the film was never fully developed. There were so many avenues that Kellogg could have traveled to make this into a "cult" phenomenon, but instead he stuck with less than mediocrity and the result is this black and white film that puts a horrid stain on the "horror" genre. Instead, why don't you make a "Killer Shrew" drink and call it a night, the results would be better!

    Grade: ** out of ***** (extra star for the MST3K memories)
    The Killer Shrews/I Bury the Living
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • This is one of the better B-movie double-bills you will find out there
    • Great low budget turkey - lots of laughs!
    • FUN DVD's and the Power Of Cheese
    • A bargain! Pass this up at your own risk!
    The Killer Shrews/I Bury the Living
    Starring: Richard Boone , Theodore Bikel , Peggy Maurer , Robert Osterloh , and Herbert Anderson
    Director: Albert Band , and Ray Kellogg
    Manufacturer: Madacy Records
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    Similar Items:
    1. This Island Earth
    2. Anatomy of a Psycho/Hatchet For the Honeymoon
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    ASIN: B00005A07I
    Release Date: 2001-03-20

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars This is one of the better B-movie double-bills you will find out there.......2006-01-22

    There are lots of double-bill DVDs that put together B-movies from the 1950s in all sorts of interesting combinations, and with "The Killer Shrews"/"I Bury the Living" you get one of the better ones even though we are not talking about a natural combo here. "The Killer Shrews," a 1959 movie that takes itself seriously despite having Miss Universe 1957, dogs dressed up in shag carpets, rubber heads with big teeth, and an escape plan that you have to see to believe. This one has to be on my list of top ten bad monster movies. Thorne Sherman (James Best) delivers supplies to an island just as a hurricane is coming. He wants to wait out the story, but Dr. Milo Craigis (Baruch Lumet) wants Thorne to leave right away and take his daughter Ann (Ingrid Goude, Miss Sweden 1956 and then Miss Universe 1957), with him. The Doctor sounds German while his daughter has a very interesting Swedish accent, but that is not the biggest mystery on the island.

    Dr. Craigis is concerned with over population and apparently his idea is was to shrink people to make food go farther. To this end he experiments with the DNA of shrews who (a) grow to the size of dogs wearing shag carpeting, (b) have all of their worst traits becoming dominant, and (c) develop poison saliva. You would think that any one of those three could cause problems when there are 300 shrews running around on an island, but no, all three happen. The number of humans starts dwindling as the shrews need desert after eating all of the livestock on the island, so everybody starts drinking more (think about it: do you really want DRUNK giant vicious shrews with poison saliva?). Jerry Farrell (Ken Curtis) decides that Ann sparking to Thorne is worse than having giant shrews attacking them, but soon sees the error of his ways and decides that going up on the roof would be a good idea. That is also because he thinks that the idea that Thorne comes up with to escape to the boat is stupid, but I have to say, in terms of 1950s black & white monster movies this plan actually makes sense.

    Special mention must be made of Gordon McLendon who plays Dr. Radford Baines, the dedicated assistant to Dr. Craigis and who remains the consummate scientist even once he has been bitten. His death sets up what is probably the funniest line of the movie until we get to the end where the last exchange of dialogue provides a pretty funny punch line to the entire experience of pure terror trying to get away from the giant vicious shrews with poison saliva. There is just too much to enjoy in this movie, from listening to Goude's accent (you know it has to be Swedish but it does not sound Swedish and trying to figure out what it does sound like will drive you crazy), to watching the dogs covered in carpet frolick around the silly humans rolling on the ground, and waiting for one of the teeth on the rubber shrew heads to get caught on something and break off. "The Killer Shrews" is my kind of 5-star classic bad movie..

    "I Bury the Living" is one of the best long episodes of "The Twilight Zone," except that this 1958 film came out a year before the classic television anthology series started and the script was not written by Rod Serling but by Louis Garfinkle (who would eventually get a story credit for "The Deer Hunter"). But you watch this movie and you would swear it was a "Zone" episode. Richard Kraft (Richard Boone), is a local businessman who becomes the committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. In the cemetery office there is a huge map of the cemetery, with white pins for the unoccupied plots and black pins for the occupied plots. The first day on the job a young couple purchase plots and Kraft accidentally puts black pins instead of white to make their plots on the map. When the couple are killed in a car accident, Kraft is understandably spooked. He picks a name at random and substitutes a black pin for a white and again the person suddenly dies. Kraft is now becoming convinced that he has the power to kill anybody by put a black pin on their plot.

    Obviously at some point Kraft is going to see what happens when he substitutes a white pin for a black one, but what helps this film avoid becoming painfully predictable is that Kraft does not hide his fears. He tells his fiancé (Peggy Maurer), a reporter (Herbert Anderson), a cop (Robert Osterloh), and the other members of the cemetery committee. They all insist what is happening is mere coincidence, and come up with ways to test this hypothesis. The only person who takes Kraft seriously is Andy McKee (Theodore Bikel), the old caretaker that the committee is trying to get to retire.

    Boone's performance underplays the part a bit too much. There is a fine line between restraint and lethargy, but you cannot argue with the fact that he is not forcing the character and is leaving ample room for the viewers to impose their worst imaginings on Kraft's plight. But director Albert Band and cinematographer Frederick Gately deserve most of the credit for what works best here with some quite stylish camera shots and a rather effective use of close ups on the pin pushing. What will make or break this film for you is whether or not you think the ending works in terms of the set up. I was a bit disappointed in this regard and would end up rounding down to 4-stars, but otherwise this is a very solid black & white chiller. As I said up top, this is an unusual double-bill because they are entertaining in quite different ways. "The Killer Shrews" would match up better with "The Brain That Would Not Die" and "I Bury the Living" should go with something like "Dementia 13," but if you get two movies worth seeing on one of these DVDs you are way ahead of the game.

    4 out of 5 stars Great low budget turkey - lots of laughs!.......2002-01-23

    "Wa(t)ch ou(t) for the killer shoes!" says the actress who can't pronounce her "r"'s or her "t"'s in this fun packed B fossil. There is much here to enjoy for bad movie lovers: the co-pilot of the boat who is such an offensive African-American stereotype that even racists would roll their eyes, the actress who has so many speech defects that she is sometimes unintelligible ("don' you evah wonduh abou' the many unusual dings around heah? The shews, my accen(t)?"), the absurd shrews who are nothing but dogs with silly masks on them, the studly lead actor with bad skin who has the best line in the movie when the scientist, relieved that the shrews are no longer a danger, states that we still need to worry about overpopulation. Our manly hero grabs the heroine, plants a wet one on her and says, "oh, I don't think I'll worry about overpopulation for a while" (maybe not, but make sure your kids get a good speech therapist if the heroine is going to be their mother!). This is everything a low budget horror movie should be. The disc also contains a Gumby movie, trailers, and another B movie. Lots of fun!

    3 out of 5 stars FUN DVD's and the Power Of Cheese.......2001-05-18

    OH THE POWER OF CHEESE!

    I love schlock! I can't help it, I just do. I have several of these Killer Creature Double Features and I think that they are great. The whole drive-in motif and the cartoon intermissions are really fabulous.

    The Killer Shrews is a good way to see James Best (remember Roscoe P. Coltraine from the Dukes Of Hazzard?) Well, this is Roscoe, only MUCH younger. The Shrews (poor dogs dressed up with fangs and long hair) are a stitch.

    I Bury The Living is a surprisingly good movie and not as schlocky as The Killer Shrews.

    I like watching films of this nature and these DVD's are a steal! Yes, the quality isn't there, but who..[cares]! The lines and poor sound actually ADD to the whole experience. For those of you who are HARD CORE DVD lovers, this is bad news for you . But I think that the [bad] quality is great. It's like listening to an old LP on a turntable...

    To view all of the Killer Creature Double Features, just do a search under : MADACY

    They are the distributor of these gems....Keep em' coming Madacy!

    4 out of 5 stars A bargain! Pass this up at your own risk!.......2001-04-10

    If you've gone so far as to look this one up, you may as well take my word for it and purchase it before they're all gone. It's that simple.

    OK, no one expects Ingmar Bergman when we're talking about "The Killer Shrews", and the good folks at MST had *their* take on it. It *is* silly - the "shrews" are dogs with rubber fangs and carpet remnants glued on - heck, you can even see some of them wagging their tails. But still, this is the good old-fashioned cheese: no pretensions, no frills, and prime material for your own riffing (or to wax nostalgic over, recalling some rainy Saturday afternoon when you were stuck with this or watching professional bowling....)

    And to continue in the MST mode, you get a "Gumby" feature - the very same "robot" feature that we saw on MST! (Sigh - I would have preferred a different "Gumby", or better yet, how about a "Bosko"?)

    But the treat on this disc is "I Bury The Living" - a "waste no time" thriller starring Richard Boone (looking a LOT like a poor man's Vincent Price here) as the reluctant chairman of the local cemetary. Poor man finds out about 15 minutes after being sworn in that when he sticks a black pin (indicating deceased) into a map of the cemetary's plots (instead of a white one, indicating "lot purchased"), well, the owner is going to buy the farm, and darned soon, too. Neat, uncomplicated, fast-moving: "Twilight Zone" would have been proud to have this one.

    The transfers? THAT'S the surprise - they're pretty good! Oh, sure, "I Bury The Living" has some dark spots, but I'm willing to wager that the original print looks like that. "Shrews" is just as good, even if the movie is kid stuff.

    So - trailers, a cartoon, and two decent (well, let's say "watchable", ok?) old-tyme "Creature Features" for about a ten-spot. That's about the best bargain I've seen in a LONG time. I can't speak for the other "Double Features", but this one is a "best buy".

    Now, if we could only get "Angry Red Planet" and "Journey to the Seventh Planet" on one of these things.....
    The Crawling Eye / The Killer Shrews - Double Feature
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • A "REEL" BARGAIN - BUT THIS DVD DOES NOT OFFER A GREAT VIDEO TRANSFER FOR "THE CRAWLING EYE"
    The Crawling Eye / The Killer Shrews - Double Feature

    Manufacturer: Catcom Home Video
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GenresGenres | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
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    ASIN: B000E0R7W0

    Product Description

    The Crawling Eye 1958 B&W 83 Minutes The Killer Shrews 1957 B&W 68 Minutes

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars A "REEL" BARGAIN - BUT THIS DVD DOES NOT OFFER A GREAT VIDEO TRANSFER FOR "THE CRAWLING EYE".......2006-02-18

    IN A NUTSHELL:

    Two of my favorite creature features that still pleasantly haunt me from my childhood.

    ABOUT THE DVD: HERE'S THE PROBLEM

    The DVD put out by "CATCOM VIDEO" offers a pretty good transfer of the "KILLER SHREWS" but a very faded and degraded video transfer of "The Crawling Eye". That's a real shame because I was hoping the Crawling Eye would be a better transfer than the 2 VHS versions I also have, but the videos played better than this DVD.

    There is also a part missing, which is also missing from the 2 video editions I have. In it, "Hans" is fleeing in a car from the Hotel and drives into the crawling eye which explains how he later returned as a zombie to attempt to slay Ann Pilgrim [Janet Murnro]. This scene was deleted over time, probably to fit TV time slots, and I was hoping that this "Catcom" DVD would have restored this scene. I do plan on buying other editions of "The Crawling Eye", as I am not completely satisfied with this DVD edition, especially because of the missing scene and the poor video quality. You see, I really do enjoy this film, which was the first scary movie my older brother took me to see, almost 48 years ago.

    The Killer Shrews, on the other hand, played as well as the video version did when it was brand new. This DVD is worth the price easily, just for "The Killer Shrews".

    BONUS FEATURE: A CARTOON THAT REALLY GROWS ON YOU - REEL-EE!

    You get a really neat cartoon from the silent film era, involving a "RAREBIT", a cute little creature who keeps growing, and growing, and growing. It features the lovely music of Schubert's Piano Improvisational Sonata and there is a parody of King Kong which includes an air attack by armed bi-planes. I kid you not!

    BOTTOM LINE:

    Despite the video quality problems that afflict "The Crawling Eye", this DVD is still a tremendous bargain and both the "RAREBIT" cartoon and "The Killer Shrews" play quite well. Plus, "The Crawling Eye" is a really good movie, especially for the genre.
    Dementia 13/Killer Shrews
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • I like "Dementia 13," but how I loved "The Killer Shrews"!
    • Spooky combo
    Dementia 13/Killer Shrews
    Starring: DVD Cult 2 Movies Classics
    Manufacturer: DVD Cult Classics
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    Similar Items:
    1. A Bucket of Blood/Attack of the Giant Leeches

    ASIN: B0002Q9VAC
    Release Date: 2004-07-27

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars I like "Dementia 13," but how I loved "The Killer Shrews"!.......2005-08-29

    This is an odd pairing of low-budget horror films, but that is probably all the justification you need (that and their availability in the public domain perhaps). "Dementia 13" was the result of producer Roger Corman's infamous "apprentice" program at AIP; Corman was shooting his own film and let Francis Ford Coppolla get his first director's credit by shooting "Dementia 13" on the same location. "Dementia 13" is just a nice little low-budget horror film for which the biggest complaint is that the pace is a tad slow. The story is set in Ireland and if it bears a strong resemblance to Corman's film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, well "duh." When her husband drops dead, Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) know she will be cut out of the Haloran family inheritance so she pretends he is in New York on business and heads off to the ancestral home in Ireland to try and get in good with the family. But at Castle Haloran the family is engaged in a morbid ritual marking the death of John's sister Kathleen, who drowned in the pond six years earlier. The question of inheritance becomes more interesting once family members start being hacked to death by an ax-murderer.

    Despite this development "Dementia 13" is not a gory film, but more of a character study, which alone makes it somewhat atypical for the time and genre. Coppolla manages to creat atmosphere so that the film is more of a psychological exercise than it is a splatter flick, and the submereged scream is certainly a memorable touch. The most recognizable faces in the film are Patrick Magee as Dr. Caleb and William Campbell, soon to go to a small measure of fame in a couple of episodes of the original "Star Trek" and a place in Beatles trivia as the man who supposedly had plastic surgery to replace Paul McCartney in the Beatles after his "death" (he was also married to Judith Exner, and anybody who has links to JFK, the Beatles and Star Trek is a pop culture immortal).

    Then we having "The Killer Shrews," which is such a person favorite of mine in terms of gloriously bad movies that it justifies rounding up when I split the difference on these two films. This 1959 movie takes itself seriously despite having Miss Universe 1957, dogs dressed up in shag carpets, rubber heads with big teeth, and an escape plan that you have to see to believe. Thorne Sherman (James Best) delivers supplies to an island just as a hurricane is coming. He wants to wait out the story, but Dr. Milo Craigis (Baruch Lumet) wants Thorne to leave right away and take his daughter Ann (Ingrid Goude, Miss Sweden 1956 and then Miss Universe 1957), with him. The Doctor sounds German while his daughter has a very interesting Swedish accent, but that is not the biggest mystery on the island.

    Dr. Craigis is concerned with over population and apparently his idea is was to shrink people to make food go farther. To this end he experiments with the DNA of shrews who (a) grow to the size of dogs wearing shag carpeting, (b) have all of their worst traits becoming dominant, and (c) develop poison saliva. You would think that any one of those three could cause problems when there are 300 shrews running around on an island, but no, all three happen. The number of humans starts dwindling as the shrews need desert after eating all of the livestock on the island, so everybody starts drinking more (think about it: do you really want DRUNK giant vicious shrews with poison saliva?). Jerry Farrell (Ken Curtis) decides that Ann sparking to Thorne is worse than having giant shrews attacking them, but soon sees the error of his ways and decides that going up on the roof would be a good idea. That is also because he thinks that the idea that Thorne comes up with to escape to the boat is stupid, but I have to say, in terms of 1950s black & white monster movies this plan actually makes sense.

    Special mention must be made of Gordon McLendon who plays Dr. Radford Baines, the dedicated assistant to Dr. Craigis and who remains the consummate scientist even once he has been bitten. His death sets up what is probably the funniest line of the movie until we get to the end where the last exchange of dialogue provides a pretty funny punch line to the entire experience of pure terror trying to get away from the giant vicious shrews with poison saliva. There is just too much to enjoy in this movie, from listening to Goude's accent (you know it has to be Swedish but it does not sound Swedish and trying to figure out what it does sound like will drive you crazy), to watching the dogs covered in carpet frolick around the silly humans rolling on the ground, and waiting for one of the teeth on the rubber shrew heads to get caught on something and break off. "The Killer Shrews" is my kind of bad movie and if you have any affection for such sorry things it has to be on your "Must See" list.

    3 out of 5 stars Spooky combo.......2005-03-04

    Dementia 13

    A slasher with gusto

    Can you believe this movie is Francis Ford Coppola, and produced by Roger Corman? Nether can the viewer. I am not sure how it made it to film. However it has collector value.

    Dementia 13 is not a bad movie; it is a little dark in more ways than one. The just is nothing significant about it other than a few hacker scenes.

    We find our self in a Castle with a murderer who is bumping every one off. The question is "who done it?"
    Was it Lizzie Borden or Charles Dalmer?
    Maybe it was mommy?
    Or the mad doctor?
    Who knows?
    This movie makes a good addition to slasher movies and it is not as mindless as most.
    ----------------------------------------------------
    The Killer Shrews

    Dogs in shrew suits

    I first saw this in the movies. And let me tell you this is really spooky for kids (or used to be.)
    We find our selves on an island where a hand full of visitors, including us, find eerie from the beginning. Of course from the title we are anticipating "you know what's" at any time. But the visitors to this island have no idea what they are in for.
    An experiment with the intent of correcting overpopulation has gone awry, et voilà killer shrews. These ravenous creatures must eat many times their weight daily to keep from starving. And I must say that Ingrid Goude (Miss Universe Sweden 1956) would make a tasty snack (not that I notices at the movies.)
    Well the people are protected by adobe (mud) walls from the poisonous fanged carnivores (did I mention the fangs are poisonous?)
    Wait, it's RAINING!
    Horror Classics Volume 6: The Killer Shrews, The Brain that Wouldn¿t Die, King of the Zombies, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Horror Classics Volume 6: The Killer Shrews, The Brain that Wouldn¿t Die, King of the Zombies, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
      Starring: Horror Classics
      Manufacturer: Mill Creek Entertainment
      ProductGroup: DVD
      Binding: DVD

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      ASIN: B0009W306U
      Release Date: 2004-01-01
      Killer Shrews
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Killer Shrews

        Manufacturer: Synergy Ent
        ProductGroup: DVD
        Binding: DVD

        GeneralGeneral | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video
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        ASIN: B000PC72PE
        Release Date: 2007-04-13
        The Killer Shrews
        Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
        • LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!
        • ALPHA DVD VERSION
        • Classic SciFi Hit
        • Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!
        • They don't leave much, do they?
        The Killer Shrews
        Starring: James Best , Ingrid Goude , Ken Curtis , Gordon McLendon , and Baruch Lumet
        Director: Ray Kellogg
        ProductGroup: DVD
        Binding: DVD

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        Similar Items:
        1. Attack of Giant Leeches (B&W)
        2. Giant Gila Monster (B&W)
        3. The Crawling Eye (Widescreen European Edition)
        4. Brain That Wouldn't Die (B&W)
        5. Beginning of the End (Special Edition)

        ASIN: B00005NSZ0

        Customer Reviews:

        4 out of 5 stars LASSIE COME HOME! HYSTERICAL!.......2007-05-03

        This is a strange,but very funny movie. The monsters are dogs (small Collies) with some kind of fake fur and tails tied on them. It is really too muckin' fuch! Hysterical!

        5 out of 5 stars ALPHA DVD VERSION.......2007-02-12

        JAMES BEST( THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW/ DUKES OF HAZZARD )IS THE HERO AS HE TRIES TO ORGANISE AN ESCAPE FROM SHREW ISLAND. PRODUCER KEN CURTIS (SINGING COWBOY/FESTUS FROM TV's GUNSMOKE) TRIES TO STOP HIM & CLAIM HIS BRIDE TO BE. CLASSIC CHEEZIE SCI-FI ROMP CO-RELEASED TO SOUTHERN DRIVE-INS WITH "THE GIANT GILA MONSTER". THIS ONE HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED!!! I FOUND IT TO BE GREAT FUN, REMEMBERING IT FROM MY 1960's CHILDHOOD YOUTH FROM LOCAL WFMJ TV's 5:00 SHOWTIME.
        THE ALPHA DVD VERSION IS REALLY QUITE GOOD, VERY CLEAR WITH GOOD AUDIO...I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING A MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE PRODUCT.
        YOU CAN'T GO WRONG HERE...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

        5 out of 5 stars Classic SciFi Hit.......2006-02-24

        I remember as a kid watching the horror channels on tv back in the 70,s. This movie along with the crawling eye, the brain that wouldnt die, and the creature from the black lagoon were my favorites. for those into the old sci/fi movies you have to have this one in your collection. no frills, no hi-tech computer special effects. just good laughs and drama.

        1 out of 5 stars Does the Shrew Fit? No Way!.......2006-02-05

        James Best wasted in snoozer about genetically altered shrews which turn into hungry little dogs. Why bother? Doesn't the world have enough hungry little dogs already? Boring dialog, bad pacing and a really absurd ending don't a good movie experience make. Not even bad funny as some reviewers would have you think. Not worth the ten cents (yes, 10 cents) I paid for this at Wal-mart.

        2 out of 5 stars They don't leave much, do they?.......2006-01-30

        For those of you reading at home, here are the ingredients to make your own "Killer Shrew".

        Chocolate Ice Cream
        Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries
        Peanut M & Ms
        Mrs. Butterworth
        Circus Peanuts
        Mr. Pibb
        Marshmallow Peeps (lotsa Marshmallow Peeps)
        Sweet Tarts
        Vanilla Frosting
        Good-N-Plenty
        Wax lips (oops, nope, that is for the Vulcan mindprobe)

        (Blend)

        "Alright, pour that into the plastic tulip glass, and garnish with a wind-up shrew!"

        The Killer Shrews without Mike, Joel, Tom Servo, TV's Frank, Dr. Forester, and Crow is not a good movie. There is a reason why they chose this film to be a part of their mocking library. This "horror" film lacks in every critical category. It has shabby characters, very minimal visuals, sheep dogs in shrew costumes, and quite a bit of liquor consumption, while all the time never developing anything known as a "plot". The basis behind this film is simple, honestly, too simple. A random, uncharted island inhabited by a scientific experiment gone wrong. There are only six "survivors" who were all doing fine until Rosco P. Coltrane (aka James Best) arrived to the scene. It is after he arrives that liquor seems to be highly consumed, nerves never seemed to be unraveled, and more and more about these shrews are revealed. Nearly halfway through this film I thought that Henson might have been involved somehow with the creation of these shrews. There is even one scene in which there is a shrew hiding under the stairs, waiting for his prey, and you cannot help but feel a sense of admiration for the beast. It is rather cute, in a costumed dog sort of way.

        This is one of the first films where you can watch the entire story unfold and feel nothing for these characters. Director Ray Kellogg was either still writing the script as he was shooting or was hoping to use the phrase, "It's my first time directing" for this silly excuse of a film. It is neither scary nor thrilling in any way. To begin, the visuals are horrendous. Between the overused stock footage of a saber-toothed shrew peeking in through the wooden fence and the only ONE interior shot used in the film, it was bound to make any sane viewer go a bit bonkers. I realize that Kellogg may have been trying to build the idea of entrapment or claustrophobia for his characters, but this sensation could never have been created with this cast. It became obvious to me early in this film that drinking was just as important as knowing your lines. In fact, if you didn't know your lines and chose to drink, director Kellogg would have considered it a strong move on the part of the actor. The Killer Shrews is not a film for recovering alcoholics. I saw this film as a perfect outlet for college students and their overabundance of drinking games.

        The theories behind the creation of the shrews are classic "B" cinema. As I watched this horrendous film, I could not help but think of Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Did he see this film before creating his masterpiece? I know several have mentioned it in their reviews, but one cannot help but see the similarities. People cramped in a small space trying to survive while evil creatures of the night are pounding down the door. One cannot help but think that the Killer Shrews may have been on Romero's mind in the late 1960s.

        Let's see if I have covered all the points. Horrible acting. Nobody actually has a character in this film. We learn nothing about anyone and feel nothing as they attempt to save their own lives from the killer shrews. There was one point in the film where Ann asks Thorne if he doesn't wonder about everything and want to ask questions. She asks him if he doesn't want to know about her accent. Suddenly, I was whisked away to a Lost memory and was waiting for all six of these character's lives to suddenly be molded together in a rather shocking way, but alas, that did not happen. The creatures were creative, but definitely not scary, even for the late 1950s. The shrew under the stairs reminded me, to quote Mystery Science Theater 3000, like a puppet. It made me laugh, which is your typical viewer's reaction to this type of cinema today. This was not a Ed Wood production in any way. This was far worse. Acting was not necessary to be in this film. If there would have been any range of emotion emitted from anyone in this film than I may have graded it higher than I did, but alas, there was none. No chemistry between the characters, no drive, no excitement, just pure alcoholism. Finally, there was the climactic ending that flies by faster than the beginning of the film. If the ending had been more intense, a bit spookier, and maybe even at night, than I think we would have had a stronger contender as a great film. Sadly, the ending looked exactly like the rest of the film, cheap and subdued.

        Overall, I don't think I could watch this film again unless I had my old MST3K buddies with me to enjoy it. There was nothing of redeeming value in this film unless you count the action that the liquor bottles saw, then one would grade it higher. The shrews were laughable, the tension was non-existent, and the science of the film was never fully developed. There were so many avenues that Kellogg could have traveled to make this into a "cult" phenomenon, but instead he stuck with less than mediocrity and the result is this black and white film that puts a horrid stain on the "horror" genre. Instead, why don't you make a "Killer Shrew" drink and call it a night, the results would be better!

        Grade: ** out of ***** (extra star for the MST3K memories)
        The Killer Shrews
        Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
        • Dogs in shrew suits
        The Killer Shrews

        Manufacturer: Digiview Productions
        ProductGroup: DVD
        Binding: DVD

        GenresGenres | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
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        ASIN: B00080L7FE

        Product Description

        On a remote island, during a hurricane, a horde of monster shrews escape from the lab of Dr. Milo Craigis (Baruch Lumet. They proceed to devour all animal life on the island before seeking humans as prey.

        Customer Reviews:

        4 out of 5 stars Dogs in shrew suits.......2005-03-24

        I first saw this in the movies. And let me tell you this is really spooky for kids (or used to be.)
        We find our selves on an island where a hand full of visitors, including us, find eerie from the beginning. Of course from the title we are anticipating "you know whats" at any time. But the visitors to this island have no idea what they are in for.
        An experiment with the intent of correcting overpopulation has gone awry, et voilà killer shrews. These ravenous creatures must eat many times their weight daily to keep from starving. And I must say that Ingrid Goude (Miss Universe Sweden 1956) would make a tasty snack (not that I notices at the movies.)
        Well the people are protected by adobe (mud) walls from the poisonous fanged carnivores (did I mention the fangs are poisonous?)
        Wait, it's RAINING!


        DVD:

        1. Frankenstein's Daughter
        2. The Wasp Woman
        3. Blood Hunt
        4. Tales From the Future
        5. Shades of Darkness
        6. Mario Bava Box Set: Blood And Black Lace/ Kill Baby Kill/ Whip And The Body
        7. Sex: Medusa
        8. Weird Science Theater
        9. Horror Classics
        10. Born in Hell

        DVD

        DVD

        DVD

        Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection

        A River Runs Through It

        The Matrix Reloaded [2003]

        DVD: The Image of Bruce Lee

        The New Avengers - K Is For Kill - Parts 1 and 2