The Killer Shrews

This delightfully cheesy 50's B-movie bore is one-half of the double feature of creature-features produced by radio broadcaster/businessman Gordon McLendon to play in his Texas' drive-in theaters. Along with "The Giant Gila Monster"(1959), both films have a sort of watchable, no-budget, 50's genre movie charm to them, however they're still both best enjoyed as MST3K episodes. Now I just need to figure out how to outfit my dog with these old bath mats for a "Killer Shrew" costume this Halloween.

A classically poor low budget 50s horror movie with dogs in the roles of mutant shrews with high pitched squealing added in to try and disguise barking. Very little attempt is made to disguise these dogs other than the use of a more deranged looking hand puppet for close up shots as seen in the picture here. I will admit that the ending is quite creative however considering the budget and that tension builds quite nicely throughout the film to a point. Enjoyable for the comedy moments.

Poorly written, acted, and directed, but somehow still pulls of a certain degree of entertainment.

Scarier than many low-budget horror movies; I would have liked it better had the hero not been so dreadfully unlikable. Still, it had its moments.

"Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and vicious of all animals is the shrew"......HAHAHA!

The best you can ask of a 50s B-movie is creativity and stupidity, and The Killer Shrews has both. While people spend too much time walking in and out of rooms, slowly building their convoluted reasoning for the presence of giant, toxic shrews; once the melodrama increases, it's a lot of fun. The big twist is there are no giant shrews, just dogs in fancy dress. "I'm not going to worry about overpopulation just yet..." might be the most romantic closing line while leaning in for a kiss.

Probably the best bad movie I've seen, at least once the shrews show up. And when I say shrews, I mean dogs in shrew costumes. There is a lot of shrew-related tension, including shrews chewing through walls and the protagonist threatening to throw some jerk over the wall of the compound. The climax (and I spoil this because, come on, you're not going to see it) features the three main characters strapping barrels together to form a tank and heading for the sea.

If memory serves (and I am not bothering to check) this is the one where dogs (complete with wagging tails) with carpet glued to them parade as "Killer Shrews". It's exactly as good as it sounds.

Better than you'd think.

I recommend only watching this movie through the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Score without that is above. WITH, 90 easy.

Once it gets the racism out of its system, it's a decent movie. A predictable movie with awful special effects, perhaps, but a decent one none the less. Oddly enough, it reminds me of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake.

Some are so bad, they're good. This one is just bad.

I think the shrews are German shepherds with a piece of burlap attached to their heads. So much for special effects.

Not the worst acted B movie I've seen, but dogs disuised as killer shrews, come on. They had to have something better than that.

Yeah it's a pile of turds, but it was good for a laugh.

Worth a watch or three.

This was just a couple dust mites better than an Ed Wood movie. I like that the shrews were dogs in costume. Very cute!

I love how chill the Dr. is that his daughter is getting macked on left and right.

Mst3k score: 8/10