Originally produced by a Dallas, Texas based company to play at drive-in's as the companion piece to the same producer's The Giant Gila Monster (shot back-to-back with this), somehow The Killer Shrews has managed to gather a cult following over the years. There's been multiple public domain DVD releases, it's been available to watch for free on various websites, it has received the "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" treatment, and it's become a minor footnote in B-movie history - if mostly because of the fact our deadly shrews are mostly just common domestic dogs outfitted with pieces of carpet and ridiculous looking fake fangs. But there's no denying that, over fifty years later, it has its fans with even a direct sequel, Return of the Killer Shrews, just being released courtesy of Retromedia and starring this flick's original hero (and, as folks my age will remember him, Rosco P. Coltrane from "The Dukes of Hazzard") James Best.

The set-up here is about as basic as 50s sci-fi flicks tended to be but things start off on an ominous tone as the opening narration tells us all we need to know about shrews and just how vicious they can be. So now we know what our cast is soon to be up against but first we need to meet this ragtag group. Into the picture comes boat captain Thorne (Best) who has arrived at a remote island off the coast of Texas to deliver some supplies to the group of scientists holed up there.

As we find out from our main brainiac Dr. Cragis (Baruch Lumet) they've been working on using shrews to try and figure out a shrinking formulation they'll use on humans to cut down on food consumption (!!). The results have been very iffy so far but our indifferent captain is soon going to have to deal with not only an incoming hurricane and a love triangle between himself, Cragis's daughter Ann (Ingrid Goude) and her heavy drinking fiancé Jerry (Ken Curtis), but also the mutated shrews resulting from the experiments. Looks like our little buggers have grown gigantic, have venomous bites and acquired a taste for human flesh. This leads to much groanable soap opera-like drama with stilted dialogue and a goofy fistfight, a few amusing attack scenes including one down in the cellar, and a final third where they're under siege by our killer creatures and have to try to escape to Thorne's boat - and, believe me, the way they do it has to be seen to be believed.

Best plays our hero with as little emotion as possible. He truly is just going through the motions and doesn't really react too surprisingly to the fact there's giant shrews cavorting around. As our typical 50s love interest Goude is pretty bland with even her accent not adding any appeal to her but she's completely overwhelmed by scenes containing Cragis' bespectacled assistant Radford (Gordon McLendon) who over emotes wildly. Curtis also walks around acting jealous and bitter as is necessary.

If you're a fan of 50s drive-in flicks and have 69 minutes to kill then you might get some mild enjoyment out of this. The minimalist sets and shoddy effects work (though the modeled shrew heads aren't really that bad all things considered) shows off its low-budget but you should still see this once if you're into that decade's creature features. I did get a few pleasing moments from the finale but most of them were due to the fact silly things are constantly happening (such as them shoving a couch in front of a hole a shrew has burrowed into the wall and the aforementioned escape tactic) but it was a dull slog through a front end filled with wannabe scientific babble, swelling music and a hurricane threat that's never really used. I still love the poster art, though. (Chris Hartley, 11/6/13)

Directed By: Ray Kellogg.
Written By: Jay Simms.

Starring: James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis, Gordon McLendon.