Customer Reviews

The Giant Gila Monster / The Killer Shrews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I give this DVD release three stars, but I need to explain its positive and negative points for you to understand it (hence the asterisk).

The good points: 1. The price is unbeatable. 2. You get TWO movies for that price. 3. The movies REALLY aren't all that bad. Ignore for a moment the mediocre acting, the corniness and the poor special effects, and THE KILLER SHREWS has at its heart a terrifying siege while THE GIANT GILA MONSTER has some genuinely well-drawn characters and a surprisingly decent script.

The bad points: 1. Yes, the transfer is sub-par. A lot of pixelation, especially during bright flashes in darkness (like the lightning strikes during the hurricane in THE KILLER SHREWS). 2. Two chapter stops per film, and one of each is the beginning. 3. Few 'extras' per se, but some interesting trivia bits on difficult-to-read text screens.

Now that you know all that, take into consideration the fact that most VHS copies are recorded in EP, and this DVD (despite its below-average quality) is miles ahead of those VHS tapes... and the price is probably better, too. So, overall, I think it's worth it.

I bought this DVD specifically for "The Killer Shrews". If you like Ed Wood, this movie should appeal to you. The Shrews are a low budget special affect-but the story still works. This is the only role I've seen Ken Curtis in, other than Festus on Gunsmoke. In a way, this movie is a precursor to "Night of the Living Dead"-a group of people are isolated at a house surrounded by killer shrews instead of Zombies--and being on an Island, they need to find a way to escape to the safety of a boat. The first copy I purchased of this DVD was defective, but the replacement I received plays fine. I would recommend the version with a red cover showing a gila monsters claw picking up a jalopy ---I tried the other version on 3 different DVD players, and was unable to play it successfully on any of them. "The Giant Gila Monster" is ok-but I wouldn't have purchased this DVD just for that movie--it's not all that interesting.

Out of the many, many DVDs in my collection, this one I can honestly say is the worst in technical quality I have ever seen. To begin, my high-end player was unable to understand the pitiful menu, rendering it utterly useless. Not that you really need it. There are really only 2 chapter stops per film. Did they actually think we would forget this? Also, I was unable to access the "bonus" features other than Diamond's promotional screen (like I will ever buy another disc from them again!) Want to skip ahead to your favorite scenes? Good luck! My player stopped the disc when I tried to navigate through one of the chapters! Whew! Also, there were a lot of annoying pauses all throughout GILA MONSTER. Never have I placed such an inept disc in my player. After this experience, I probably never will again...unless I want a headache!

Why does this disc get one star? Well, if for no other reason than the fact you are getting these two wonderfully campy films on one disc. I just wished the geniuses who authored this disc had put for a little more effort. In this case, you certainly GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

Others here have hashed over plot details, etc. so I'll just weigh in with the general consensus that Killer Shrews is the better of the two flicks here. The budgetary limitations are obvious, but if you can get over the fact that the monsters don't look anything like shrews, and the silly duck-walking thing, there's a fairly taut little thriller in there. Giant Gila Monster is less effective, with cornball humor, cringeworthy musical numbers, liberal doses of maudlin sentimentality, and a really blah monster dragging down its 'camp' appeal. This movie really needed Eddie Cahn or Herb Strock at the helm. Watchable but probably not quite bent enough for many C-movie enthusiasts.
The Diamond DVD is a mixed bag as well. First, I did not experience any of the technical problems that others have reported here; my disc played fine (other than some visible pixelation during the lightning flashes in Shrews) and I had no problem accessing any menu items, etc. Second, while neither source print is spectacular, they are definitely NOT transferred from mediocre VHS tapes as one reviewer stated. Compared to my VHS copy of Killer Shrews, the print used here compares quite favorably. There is some light speckling and scratching, but no major damage or jump-cutting. The tonal values are quite decent, (slightly richer than my VHS) and sharpness and shadow/highlight detail are much improved. For the money spent I'm quite pleased with Killer Shrews. Giant Gila Monster fares not so well. Compared to my VHS copy taped off public TV the DVD source print is sharper but also quite a bit darker, particularly in the night scenes and toward the end of the film in general. The highlight and midtone detail are thus actually improved in many scenes, but the shadow detail fills in a bit in the lighter scenes and a lot in the darker scenes, rendering much of the climax of the movie very murky. The DVD also exhibits more overall wear: light speckling and scratching, distracting reel change 'dots', jump cuts between reels, etc. In other words, even though the DVD is sharper, I'm hanging on to my videotape.
For me, Killer Shrews alone is worth the price of this disc (I'm assuming Madacy's version is as horribly butchered as their other Killer Creature Double Features). I wouldn't recommend spending the bucks just to get The Giant Gila Monster unless you have no other copy available. Does anyone have specific info on the quality of Elite's version?

This is a fairly low rent disc, four chapter stops and a hard to read bio page that offers little of real interest. The picture quality is quite poor, one posted review offers the idea that this is a copy of a VHS tape rather than a film negative, during one scene the image breaks up in a cluster of squares (I guess that is what some call refracting?).

The movies themselves remain equally low rent 50s swiss cheese fests. Drive-in misfires from an alomst forgotten era. Still monster fans will find more than enough fun in the movies to gobble them up, but they may wish to look elsewhere for better looking transfers of these...gems. The movies are recommended, this particular disc release is not.

For those interested in these two classic, bad b-monster films, here is a warning. This paricular DVD, which claims to be 'digitally remastered' looks like a direct transfer from fair quality VHS tapes. At one point during "Gila Monster", the tape slows and nearly grinds to a stop. And there is a slight pause between the two (yes, only two) chapter stops in each film.

Worst of all, the creepy opening narration for "The Killer Shrews" is cut to only its last line! This 70-minute epic has been reduced to 68 minutes!
Admittedly the video quality is fine and the sound is quite good on this disc, but in truth, you get what you pay for.

Other reviews here have discussed the movies at length. Yes these are badly done movies, but "Killer Shrews" is still far superior to the "Gila Monster". At least the shrews are entertaininly bad and, for this reviewer at least, the movie does generate a couple of real chills. James Best is as always, a handsome and underrated actor.

"The Giant Gila Monster" is just plain bad. Unfortunately, the lead actor Don Sullivan, who shows promise, did not go far afterward.

This DVD brings us a pair of movies from director Ray Kellogg, whose most notable work would be the John Wayne film "The Green Berets." But long before he worked with the Duke, Kellogg made a couple of low budget monster movies that show you what sort of creatures you come up with when you do not have any money. The good news is that one of those two bad B-movies should tickle your fancy and make the double feature worth the viewing.

"The Giant Gila Monster" is one of those films where you take a real animal and having it crawl through miniature sets. The tagline for this film was: "Only Hell could breed such an enormous beast. Only God could destroy it!" But this 1959 film made in north Texas for $138,000, is a lot more low-keyed than those lines would suggest. In fact, what is interesting given when this film is made is the key relationship between Sheriff Jeff (Fred Graham) and young Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan). The kid is working on his hot rod and instead of busting his chops the sheriff really functions as a mentor: he says he is concerned about the kids in town, and you actually believe it. The idea of having a movie in which a teenage hot rodder, who also sings like Pat Boone who is not a juvenile delinquent, or at least treated like one by the cops, is rather refreshing, although admittedly the character is a bit heavy on the saccharine. But Sullivan has a natural charm and the guy wrote his own songs, so give him some credit.

But since we are talking letting a Gila monster wander through miniatures in a film with teenage hot rodders, of course this movie received "MST3K" treatment (Season 4, when Joel turned Crow and Servo into "The Thing With Two Heads" as inspired by the movie of the same name"). My major complaint about this film is that the day for night shooting is so dark I have a hard time figuring out what is happening. Obviously the special effects budget is such that most of the "horror" is suggested by quick cuts rather than actually showing everything. Still, I like the way that everybody is pretty level headed in this film and deal with the giant Gila monster in a relatively intelligent manner without wasting a lot of time and effort. Yes, finding the monster, which is the size of several houses, should not take so long, but then the movie would be shorter and it is only 74 minutes anyway.

For me there is a lot more fun to be had with "The Killer Shrews," a 1959 movie that takes itself seriously despite having Miss Universe 1957, dogs dressed up in shag carpets, rubber heads with big teeth, and an escape plan that you have to see to believe. The only question is why did "MST3K" wait until season four to take on this one? This one has to be on my list of top ten bad monster movies. Thorne Sherman (James Best) delivers supplies to an island just as a hurricane is coming. He wants to wait out the story, but Dr. Milo Craigis (Baruch Lumet) wants Thorne to leave right away and take his daughter Ann (Ingrid Goude, Miss Sweden 1956 and then Miss Universe 1957), with him. The Doctor sounds German while his daughter has a very interesting Swedish accent, but that is not the biggest mystery on the island.

Dr. Craigis is concerned with over population and apparently his idea is was to shrink people to make food go farther. To this end he experiments with the DNA of shrews who (a) grow to the size of dogs wearing shag carpeting, (b) have all of their worst traits becoming dominant, and (c) develop poison saliva. You would think that any one of those three could cause problems when there are 300 shrews running around on an island, but no, all three happen. The number of humans starts dwindling as the shrews need desert after eating all of the livestock on the island, so everybody starts drinking more (think about it: do you really want DRUNK giant vicious shrews with poison saliva?). Jerry Farrell (Ken Curtis) decides that Ann sparking to Thorne is worse than having giant shrews attacking them, but soon sees the error of his ways and decides that going up on the roof would be a good idea. That is also because he thinks that the idea that Thorne comes up with to escape to the boat is stupid, but I have to say, in terms of 1950s black & white monster movies this plan actually makes sense.

Special mention must be made of Gordon McLendon who plays Dr. Radford Baines, the dedicated assistant to Dr. Craigis and who remains the consummate scientist even once he has been bitten. His death sets up what is probably the funniest line of the movie until we get to the end where the last exchange of dialogue provides a pretty funny punch line to the entire experience of pure terror trying to get away from the giant vicious shrews with poison saliva. There is just too much to enjoy in this movie, from listening to Goude's accent (you know it has to be Swedish but it does not sound Swedish and trying to figure out what it does sound like will drive you crazy), to watching the dogs covered in carpet frolick around the silly humans rolling on the ground, and waiting for one of the teeth on the rubber shrew heads to get caught on something and break off. "The Killer Shrews" is my kind of bad movie.

These movies are a hoot! In the first movie, The Giant Gila Monster it is fun to watch the teens hot rodding around in their souped up jalopies trying to escape the Giant Gila Monster. The songs are hilarious and the subplot of the young man trying to raise money for his little sisters braces makes no sense in the plot. The second movie on the DVD is the Killer Shrews. This movie has a better plot and makes a little more sense than the Giant Gila monster. Did anyone notice that the captain of the ship is the same actor who played Jim Lindsey the Guitar Player on The Andy Griffith Show. These movies are fun but dont expect too much.

Actually, I loved the movie "Gila Monster"! It was super seeing all those old (I mean old) hot rods. The slang the kids use is super neat to hear (Hey, Daddy!) The songs thrown in were a little silly, but they gave me a good chance to get a snack without pausing the DVD. Did I know how the whole thing was going to turn out in the end? YES, of course, but I still had a good time getting there. Honestly, if you are placing an order already, just go on and add this one too. You probably won't regret it!

OK, these are two egregiously awful pieces of movie-making. Yes, yes, of course.

However, if you enjoy cheesy movies with over-the-top plots, truly bad monster effects, wacky dialogue, and heroines with inexplicable foreign accents, get this two-movies-in-one DVD. The price is right, and you'll have hours of guilty pleasure watching teenagers save a pathetic podunk town, and dogs with bits of carpeting glued on them gamboling about looking not at all like fierce, threatening giant shrews.

But, don't be confused. These are BAD movies.