Grabbers Review – A Comedy Horror In All The Right Portions

4.5/5

Grabbers is a really fun monster horror, that will make you laugh out loud. Even though this is primarily a comedy, the monsters in this are surprisingly disturbing. So fans of creature features, will be able to enjoy this as well. If you are a fan of the type of comedy survival horrors like Shaun of the Dead, this will be right up your alley.

The plot for Grabbers is ridiculous but simple. Police officer Lisa Nolan, comes to Aran Island, an isolated fishing community in Ireland to replace a colleague on holiday. She is teamed up with semi-inebriated Garda Ciarán O’SheaAn, who find that the residents of this community are going missing. During their investigation, they soon find out that sea-dwelling bloodthirsty aliens are responsible. After a local drunk ends up surviving an attack, they realize that alcohol is a toxin to the monsters. Their only defence is to get as drunk as possible.

What a lot of creature features fail to do, is they neglect to have interesting characters, which Grabbers thankfully does. All the characters in this film are charming with backstories you can understand. The humour is very down to earth but also quite wacky at times. You see this in some fights against the aliens as well. It pulls off the feat of being scary but also humorous. It is reminiscent of the humour you would find in Father Ted, featuring a lot of side characters as delightful caricatures, that enhance the comedy rather than detract from it.

The CGI is not the best but not bad at all, it holds its ground with some of the big budget monster horror. And it is definitely good enough to keep you immersed in the film. And the main monster attraction is quite scary especially when it moves. I would not want to be anywhere near it. If you are a bit squeamish, be warned though, the way it attacks its victims is a bit gross. Think the facehugger aliens in Alien but with a lot more tentacles and tongues.

Also, some of the characters have quite strong Irish accents, so if you aren’t used to that, you may have some trouble understanding them. But the scenery shots are worth any trouble. Ireland is a beautiful and isolated place to have a monster invasion, hopefully we get more of Grabbers’ ilk in the future.

The only downside I had with this film, is the forced romance between the two main characters, I kinda felt it was pretty unnecessary. I mean it was not cringe, as the characters did have chemistry. Plus they did keep it as a side story rather than using it as the focus, which would have ruined the comedy horror in my opinion. However, a lot of film writers throw that in most films, so I can forgive that.

The great thing with this film is the comedy does not come at the expense of the horror, but in fact, enhances it. And I can imagine if anyone was in this situation we might react in the same way the characters do, which makes it realistic and relatable. Which is what you want from a horror film at the very fundamental level. Though the characters are fleshed out enough for this film to work in its format, if you are expecting a character driven masterpiece, this is definitely not what it is going for. It is more in line with the monster B-movies of the past.

Grabbers is a simple film, but if you are looking for some silly monster horror, I highly recommend this film.

Grabbers is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.

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