Movies
Grabbers
“I liked the hell out Grabbers, but if it had revealed its monster just a little less often, and been just a little more menacing in its approach, it could have transcended mere likeability on the way to horror greatness.”
In Grabbers a quaint Irish fishing village is tormented by an invasion of squid-like creatures with round toothy mouths. Once the townsfolk realize that the creatures are allergic to alcohol, they guzzle booze to render their blood toxic and prepare for a final confrontation. It’s intended as a throwback to old-school monster movies from the 80s, and in that vein, it completely succeeds. Grabbers is a fun, fluffy diversion––sort of a hi-grade SyFy Original movie, if such a thing ever existed. It’s the sort of flick you might catch alone at a rainy weekday matinee. But there’s one particular issue that holds Grabbers back. Writer Jason Zinoman would refer to it as “The Monster Problem”.
Zinoman coined the phrase “The Monster Problem” in 2011’s Shock Value, his non-fiction account of horror films of the 70s. “The toughest challenge of every monster movie is making the appearance of the creature live up to expectations,” he writes. As a filmmaker, your monster movie will be more effective the longer you keep your monster off screen. There are exceptions, of course––some movie monsters are so well-conceived, they’re worthy of extended camera time (The Thing and Splinter come immediately to mind). But more often than not, revealing your monster too early takes your movie directly from high scares to high camp. And this is the one (albeit small) problem I had with Grabbers.
During the film’s opening moments, I was curious about which route the filmmakers would take. To show the monster, or not to show? A brief, violent pre-credit sequence piqued my interest, as a man on a fishing boat is jerked into the night sky by an unseen creature. A slim, sharpened tentacle plunges through his torso, there’s a scream and woosh!….he vanishes. Grabbers, indeed. And for the first 15 or 20 minutes, the movie is content to develop its sweet, endearing characters and keep the monster in the background.
Leads Richard Coyle and Ruth Bradley share a genuine chemistry (Bradley‘s enchanting performance is one of the highlights of the movie–~her ability to “play drunk“ is uncanny). The Irish location shots are gorgeous. A few background characters are rolled out, all well-developed and memorable. At one point I realized that I could come to care about these characters and setting, and if things got ugly and frightening later on in the movie, it might be disturbing. But then Grabbers revealed its cheesy mid-budget CG squid monsters, and you could feel the collective tension drain from the Sundance audience. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your preferences. Rather than tease the audience along with the promise of potential scares, Grabbers declares its intentions early on: “I am not a scary movie,” it says, “I am a monster movie.” And as we all know, there is certainly a difference.
I realize it sounds like I’m beefing with a completely enjoyable monster flick, and what’s my problem, right? Why not just leave it alone, let it be what it is? Because a monster movie can be both fun and scary. Don‘t get me wrong, I liked the hell out Grabbers, but if it had revealed its monster just a little less often, and been just a little more menacing in its approach, it could have transcended mere likeability on the way to horror greatness.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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