After a meteor hits the sea and strange beasties are brought ashore by a fishing boat, the residents of Erin Island are terrorized by tentacled monsters – the eponymous Grabbers.
After a chance discovery exposes the monsters’ weakness, it is left to an alcoholic cop and his straight-laced partner to arrange a lock-in for the residents of the island in the local pub and to save the day.
The UK horror scene can be somewhat hit-and-miss, especially for creature features, so it is always an event of sorts when one makes it to release at all and after premiering at Sundance in 2012, ‘Grabbers’ generated some seriously positive word of mouth from fans and critics alike. Working with a budget of less than four million pounds, director Jon Wright (who also directed 2009’s Tormented, a personal favourite of mine) has achieved a minor miracle. He has assembled an impressive cast – leads Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, and Russell Tovey are well-known this side of the pond, and the minor characters are aptly portrayed by a number of suitably rustic and craggy lesser faces. Each member of the cast lends their character a real earthy, warm and organic feel, which really helps to flesh out the locale and get the audience rooting for them when the Grabbers start…erm…grabbing. At the heart of the plot is a romantic tug-of-war between the three leads but it is testament to the strength of the ensemble that this never feels like it is overshadowing events, nor does it feel forced or contrived; it is funny and touching and, in a film of this sort, this is some achievement.
The Grabbers themselves are fairly generic in terms of underwater beasties / aliens and anyone who remembers 1998’s Deep Rising with Treat Williams will know exactly what to expect here. However, for such a small production, the CGI is really top notch – production notes say the VFX took the best part of a year, and it really has paid off. Whilst the Grabbers themselves never look real, they look as realistic as it’s possible to make an angry alien squid beast look, and they squelch, slide and scuttle with suitable authenticity.
Negatives? Well, there is an abrupt tonal shift part way through that almost turns the film over but this is (thankfully) deftly avoided soon after, and there is little in terms of splatter for gore hounds. You could go as far as saying there are actually few scares too, and the impact of the deaths is caused not by flying offal and grue (though there is the occasional rolling head) but by your attachment to the characters. Similarly, I’m not sure how well some of the humour will translate for a US audience – lots of the humour of the film comes from its gentle twisting of Irish stereotypes, some of which may be lost in translation. IFC films do intend to distribute ‘Grabbers’ in The States however, so they clearly feel that there it has an audience.
VERDICT:
I really enjoyed Grabbers. It was funny, warm and touching in places, the performances were excellent and the CGI was very impressive. It wasn’t especially scary or bloody, so I can’t recommend it to those after something more brutal – however for everyone else, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Keep an eye on director Jon Wright too – he’s clearly a real talent and I look forward to what comes next from him. Organize your own lock-in, organize some friends and a pizza, and enjoy what is one of last year’s most underrated genre gems.
4/5
@Dr_Catsu
