Grabbers Review

Grabbers Review

 

Year: 2012
Stars: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley and Russell Tovey
Directed: Jon Wright
Running Time:  90 Mins Approx.

 

Some would see this as a b-movie, it is basically but the good thing about British b-movies is you can get some decent actors in who’ll just like being in there for numerous reasons, there’s a certain line drawn there if you do a b-movie in America it means your failing or trying to get a break somewhere if you do one here in Britain it’s for a laugh and to have a laugh.

In this way you can get some pretty decent series actors or even more in your movie. Take this for instance Russell Tovey a British series veteran been in a lot of breakthrough TV series’ which I will mention later. There’s the lead who has been in some high profile films/series’ too. Nearly everyone in here has been in something most people would have heard of.
It’s got a relatively decent budget for a Brit flick DTV as well £4million so I’m hoping the film is at least half decent in the b-movie bracket. The film is directed by Jon Wright a relatively new Irish director with one other film and some TV things under his belt. Thanks to lottery funding and by the looks of it lots of other companies helping out from the vast array of them in the beginning credits he’s managed to make a decent bit of money for his second film.
He’s snagged some choice acting talent from good British shows and films such as Russell Tovey from Dr. Who, being human (UK) and a host of other titles. Richard Coyle, who’s in numerous TV series, was in prince of Persia film, outpost: black sun which I will do a review of soon myself and Finally Ruth Bradley. She’s not as famous as the other two but has been in a number of programs most notably Primeval and the newest Titanic mini-series this year.

 

So let’s get on with the film!

 

We start the film with a crashing blue light over the British Isles, then flick to a boat at sea. The light passes over their heads to which most them think it’s some kind of distress flare unfortunately we all know it isn’t in these films.
The crew are subsequently munched by whatever it was that’s landed we see a quick glimpse of a tentacle here but not much.
Flick to Ruth playing Lisa coming over in a boat interspersed with scenes of Richard playing his character Ciaran being a typical Irish drinker who seems to be in the same profession as Lisa. After a few meet and greets they go down on a beach to seen some weird stuff that’s happened where we meet Russell’s character a Dr Smith.
He’s taking samples of dead pilot whales, when they first come up to him for the customary hand shake. Dr Smith thinks it’s just usual beaching activity though Lisa notices lacerations on them. A lobster fisherman pulls up something strange in one of his traps.
They get a clean-up a crew to take them away while one of the crew is left alone of the beach he discovers some orbs, before he can report on his findings though he’s dragged screaming into the waves (fears about effects just being mainly hinted at and no real views of what’s doing it, even with the little thing in the cage) a friend comes searching for him to no avail.
The Lobster fisher puts his discovery in a bath full of water.

 

At this point I was drawing a few similarities to an Irish Sea alien/monster based Attack the Block (another British alien flick) thankfully it wasn't not that its a bad film mind! Being a quarter Irish myself I loved hearing the accents and Irish words used that I recognised from my Nan.

 

So a little ways into the film a couple are in their house going about their business when they get a knock at the door opening it, they see one of their friends strangely dangling there (though they seem to fail to notice him hanging) he’s then dropped to the floor where the husband goes to check on him and then he too is whisked away by whatever was holding their friend Cooney up. The woman does the usual scream into the house thing while her husband’s screams can be heard from all sides of the house like he’s being thrashed about.
Thinking its stopped she enters the living room where she notices soot falling from the fireplace trying to close the vent off she’s dragged up there screaming.
Back at the pub where Lisa is saying a slightly intoxicated Ciaran goes to her room to try it on at earlier insistence from the barmaid. Though not angered by this she doesn’t seem incredibly impressed either. He then passes out onto her door.
The fisherman intoxicated himself (got to love Irish stereotypes) goes back home to find his little prize has escaped and we get our first full on glimpse of a tentacle creature! This proceeds to try to munch the face off said fisherman who stamps the thing into oblivion.

 

The next morning Ciaran is woken by Lisa in a cell as she didn’t know where else to stick him, when they get a call the fisherman has taken his creature to Dr Smith. Paddy (the fisherman) calls it a grabber nice movie name drop there just in case you forgot what you were watching.
Dr Smith has no idea what it is, Paddy insists it’s a grabber, had to laugh at that especially when he thwacks it to make sure it’s dead as Dr Smith doesn’t know. We also find out here what I guessed earlier that the orbs are eggs and that this was female and pregnant.

 

After a few clues Ciaran and Lisa stumble upon the house and discover after some investigation a severed head in the chimney. After some more investigation they realise there must be a male somewhere to this female and that it need to move about in the water with a big storm due in that night they try to hatch a plan to find this thing. Paddy shows them a place where it could be coming in; they find a mac belonging to one of the fishermen of the boat. All this time Paddy is looking about on the beach and discovers more eggs.
Back in the cave Lisa and Ciaran are attacked by a giant grabber and they peg it out of there the grabber too big to fit out Ciaran says oh don’t worry but it shoots its tongue out and eats his hat.

 

They later burst in on Dr Smith who tries to tell them theories while Ciaran is just intent on burning the dead creature. Though warnings from Dr Smith Ciaran sets the creature alight making the sprinklers come on, exactly what they don’t want to happen. This leads to one of funny British people grabbing a weapon scene Dr Smith grabs a chair Lisa a small knife and Ciaran a ROLLED UP MAGAZINE, fantastic.
As the approach with caution they suspect it’s still dead as it leaps onto Ciaran face he spins around trashing the lab. They get it off with a comedy moment of them all stamping and hitting the shit out of it for a little while. After all this they realise that blood with booze in it is toxic to these creatures but they also need help to stop the other eggs hatching and going in mainland.
In another comedy moment talking about the grabbers, Dr Smith isn’t too fond of their name, he just ends up giving up and calling them it anyway, I do love Russell Tovey’s acting. Coming up with a plan to survive the night to have a lock in and get wasted in the pub until they can get the mainland to help seems like a good idea. To any Irish person (stereotype) this is a perfect idea! Strangely Ciaran opts to stay sober to be the watch out.

Lisa drunk is funny she descends into that Irish speaking that no one other than other Irish people understands. After a final snifter of Paddy’s own home brew she becomes super drunk. They then use her intoxicated blood as a test on the grabber they have and it dies a gruesome little death proving that the idea works. I could see from this moment how certain things would work out towards the end of this film. They get the rest of the islands inhabitants to the bar with the promise of a free bar.

Of course in all movies like this nothing goes according to plan little baby grabber’s start to attack and so does daddy. Dr Smith in a drunken stupor tries to make friends and is amusingly flicked away like a giant bogey. The baby grabber’s are quite cute actually a tentacle with a giant gapping mouth and all wiggly.
So the rest of the movie goes the way most films do hero or heroine saves the day, a little twist you know, I never spoil the end for my readers just in case you actually watch it whether it’s bad or not I just like to steel you against movies pitfalls.
Few little nit-picks about this film the grabbers seemed slug based so surely a good dose of salt would have helped dry them out? And don’t we have an abundance of that stuff?
The effect were good for a movie of this calibre no avatar for sure but a good effort, which brings me to something I was afraid of earlier that never panned out, the way a lot of killings and things were off screen I was scared this film was going to be one of them everything off camera affairs thankfully I was wrong.
Acting was spot on in this film and stereotypical down to a T from stupid scientists to drunk/like a drink Irish people. An enjoyable 90 minutes thankfully for a change from the bad things I’ve had the misfortune to watch lately. This movie deserves its four star rating.

 

Peace out The Horror Nation.