I knew that Ray Kellogg was a terrible film-maker, but I had still over-estimated his cinematic "talents" after watching The Giant Gila Monster (1959). The film was a dreadfully boring, uneventful creature feature about an iguana that destroys a bunch of poorly-made scale replicas of rural Texas. Afterwards, I consoled myself with the false assumption that his other films couldn't have been as bad. I was wrong. So very, very wrong. The Killer Shrews is about a group of people who get trapped on an isolated island where a group of giant, mutated shrews run rampant. These "shrews" are obviously dogs wearing coats made of shaggy carpet. Here's a tip to aspiring film-makers: if you are making a movie about a mutated monster, make it large enough that a good drop-kick wouldn't be seen as an ideal way to fight them off. Of course, we don't actually see these "shrews" until late in the movie. The first hour is comprised of almost nothing but stuffy white people standing around poorly lit rooms getting drunk. I know I criticized The Giant Gila Monster for its bad pacing, but at least we saw the eponymous monster before the third act! Having already shot itself in the foot with the first hour, The Killer Shrews somehow manages to get even worse when the "shrews" appear. Of course the hapless survivors have to figure out a way to get off the island. But their method is so ludicrous that it's a miracle that the film-makers managed to film it without keeling over from laughter. I read that The Killer Shrews actually debuted as one-half of a double feature bill alongside The Giant Gila Monster. I'm amazed that their release wasn't immediately followed by reports of entire drive-in theaters committing suicide.
3/10
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