Grabbers could easily become 2012’s answer to Attack The Block. With a wacky concept, laugh out loud gags and some moments of genuine terror, this low-budget Irish monster film ticks all the boxes necessary to make it a cult smash.
The film opens up in a picturesque seaside village with a mysterious alien form crashing into the ocean during the middle of the night that proceeds to murder passengers aboard the ships out at sea in a brutal, bloody attack that leaves no one alive.
In the days following the incident a feisty, sober, newly arrived police officer named Lisa (Ruth Bradley) and long-time law enforcer who spends most of his duty intoxicated called Ciaron (Richard Coyle) begin to witness a number of bizarre occurrences uncommon in the usually serene town. People disappear, others are attacked and local discovers a previously unidentified species.
Soon, these officers realize what they have on their hands; an alien and its spawn that live on blood and water but are susceptible to alcohol. With a storm about to rage over their quaint village, therefore, they come up with a foolproof plan to save the residents that could only succeed in Ireland:
Get rat-assed.
While the madcap concept could make Grabbers either stupid fun or just plain stupid, it manages to mostly sway towards the latter. With nods to classic monster movies like Jaws and The Thing as well as a B-movie edge reminiscent of trashy 1950s science fiction, cinephiles will take pleasure in its humorous homage’s to the genre.
However, casual audiences will be equally entertained by Grabbers’ riotous suspense sequences and darkly comic Irish humour that has much in common with In Bruges and The Guard. Both of which give this sophomore effort from Tormented director Jon Wright the likelihood of huge mainstream success.
It perhaps slightly overstays its welcome in the chaotic final act when a plastered village attempt to withstand the monsters’ attacks, but nonetheless Grabbers is an eccentric, light-hearted and hilarious twist on the monster movie that, as the Irish might say, is very good craic, like.
