Does this sound familiar? A meteor crashes to Earth, near human habitation, “something” comes out of the meteor and proceeds to run amok among the local human populace. Or it could be a human built space craft, returning from Mars, Venus or the moon and “something” gets loose near a city or small town and creates mayhem every where it goes. Or it could be an alien spacecraft, or even big seed pods.
My point being, this is one well used concept in science fiction movies, especially science fiction monster movies. You wouldn’t think there was much film makers could do to return to that story and do something new with it. The fine Irish film crew that created Grabbers did exactly that.
Part of my post duty orders here at We Are Movie Geeks is to shine a spotlight on little known and largely unseen moves that deserve a larger audience. Grabbers is one of those movies.
First, Ireland is not exactly a hot bed of film making activity. I can think of only one other recent Irish movie The Guard 2011 with Brendan Gleason and Don Cheadle. And I doubt if I could name 10 other Irish movies that I have ever seen unless I did some research.
Off shore of Aran Island “something” crashes into the ocean near a fishing vessel and, yes, something comes out and starts running amok. The first kill happens in the first two minutes of the movie, so we’re off to a bang up start. Aran Island is a tourist destination with very few constables, in fact when the Chief takes a vacation he leaves Garda Ciaran O’Shea (Richard Coyle) with a temporary replacement Garda Lisa Nolan (Ruth Bradley) the Irish equivalent of a big City Cop (Dublin.)
This doesn’t sit well with O’Shea who feels he can take care of everything by himself, despite his raging alcoholism (this being an Irish movie strong drink is a major plot point and I’ll get to that in due time!)
So right away we have the old story of a woman in a “man’s” job having to overcome every obstacle to not only do the job but get some respect in the process. Coyle is very good as the always hung over Garda O’Shea but Ruth Bradley shines as Garda Nolan. We see right away that she knows her job, loves it and, another major plot point, is sober, never takes a drink. That she is a very attractive young lady with a great sense of timing in the comedy parts helps a great deal. For Grabbers is as much a comedy as a monster movie.
As soon as she arrives and the Chief leaves things begin happening. Whales are washed up dead on the beach, and they did not beach themselves. “Something” attacked and mauled and killed them at sea. Investigating these whale deaths is an oceanographer Dr. Adam Smith (Russell Tovey) who takes a shine to Garda Nolan right away. Se we have the classic monster movie set up of police (or military) and a scientist and a possible love triangle.
Soon a drunken lobster man Paddy (naturally!) Barrett (Lalor Roddy) catches “something” in his lobster trap. Ugly, stanky and pissing on anyone who tries to look at it this is a baby Grabber, the multi tentacle, toothy and very hungry, to both eat and reproduce, monsters, who proceed to take over the whole movie.
Through a series of events as citizens of Aran Island start to disappear and the Gardas and the oceanographer do their job it comes to light that the best protection against the Grabbers, no matter what size they are, is to be piss drunk.
And apparently Irish police are not issued fire arms. There is not one gun in the entire movie, unless you count a super soaker filled with petrol. Several makeshift weapons are thrown together but the citizens best weapon is to drink to extreme excess. The big showdown with the Grabbers, who reproduce rapidly and look like something out of H.P. Lovecraft, all tentacles and a huge mouth filled with teeth and a long tongue whiplash quick that will suck the blood out of humans, happens at the local pub where everyone in town gets hammered.
Everyone except Garda O’Shea who, in a nice bit of irony is the one character who has to stay sober to direct the fight against the Grabbers. And previously sober Garda Nolan becomes, for the first time in her life, three sheets to the wind and is hilarious at it. Her tumble down the stairs of the pub, where in all are drinking to combat the alien invasion, and somehow landing on her feet to proclaim “I’m alright!” is a highlight not to be missed.
If there is a downside the CGI which brings the Grabbers to life is not the best. About on the level of SyFy movies like Dynocroc vs Supergator, or (almost) the Sharkanado movies.) However the monsters do have their scary moments but it’s as a comedy that Grabbers really shines. A long sequence in the oceanographers lab involving all four major characters is both hysterical and a nice reference to the Alien movies. In fact I saw references to Alien, Predator, Night of the Creeps and even ET. The use of alcohol is a nice turnaround on one of the classic AIP drive in movies, Invasion of the Saucer Men, wherein the “little green men” injected people with alcohol in order to render them easy to round up and do…..whatever it was those guys wanted to do with people.
And the photography is so good, the Irish scenery so beautiful, Grabbers almost looks like a European art film. I am somewhat Irish myself, my people were known as Scots-Irish. My ancestors left Scotland and went to Ireland to look for a better life. Which the Irish themselves will tell you is a very foolish thing to do. The Irish have left Ireland for generations and gone elsewhere, looking for a better life.
But I identify with Ireland much more so than Scotland, maybe it’s the taste of a cold bottle of Guinness Stout! So I and my sweetheart Radah had a grand time seeing Grabbers. With Halloween fast approaching you could do very well with a viewing of Grabbers, with a nice six pack of Guinness to tide you over.
And as an added bonus Grabbers has the most hysterically funny Making Of documentary I have ever seen. The writer, the director, producer and all the actors talk about their “research” to get ready to make this movie, yes, they all went out and got hammered, repeatedly, in many Irish pubs. Come to think of it Grabbers would be a good movie for St. Patrick’s day as well, if you’ve already seen The Quiet Man enough.
