20140110: Horror Review--Grabbers

Grabbers

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British/Irish live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 94 minutes, horror, SciFi.
2. IMDB: 6.2/10.0 from 7,522 audience ratings. Spoken word is in English.  Estimated budget, 4 million British pounds.  Aspect 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 72% on the meter; 52% liked it from 1,895 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 141,167 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Jon Wright.  Written by Kevin Lehane.
6. Starring: Richard Coyle as Garda Ciarán O'Shea, Ruth Bradley as Garda Lisa Nolan, Russell Tovey as Dr. Adam Smith, Lalor Roddy as Paddy Barrett, David Pearse as Brian Maher, Pascal Scott as Dr. Jim Gleeson.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Ciaran is on duty in an island (Erin Island) off the Irish coast.  While his usual mate is on vacation, Lisa becomes his partner. There is a pending case of missing fishermen.


2. There is a lot of intoxication, but only one pub.  Ciaran's first attempt at wooing his partner is a complete failure since he was quite drunk at the time.


3. Paddy captures/kills one of things while he is quite drunk.  He brings it to the local scientist, Adam, who determines that the beasts need water and eat blood.  Ciaran and Lisa meet Paddy and Adam and discuss the unknown animal.  They look for further leads and find a human head.  The coroner/local doctor, Jim Gleeson, says, mauled by an animal of some sort; hard to tell without the rest of the body.


4. Paddy, Ciaran, and Lisa get a map and start noting events associated with the creature, and with unexplained recent phenomena.  There's heavy rain due that night, so there might be more incidents.  They go to the Black Rock Caves near which Paddy caught the one specimen.  The caves are submerged when the tide comes in, so Ciaran and Lisa go for a short look.  The find a slicker, possibly from one of the missing fishermen.  Outside the cave, Paddy finds more eggs.  Inside, they find a large grabber, and make a narrow escape.  They call the mainland, but their superiors tell them that the Coast Guard has forbidden further sea voyages until the storm passes.


5. Back at the lab, an attack on Ciaran, who's been drinking despite being on duty, fails mostly because his blood had alcohol in it.  They check with Paddy, and yes, he was drunk when he fended off an attack.  Now they have a working theory on defense, but very limited resources to deter the anticipated attack.


6. They organise an party at the pub, with the drinks free.  Many people come, and there is a lot of drinking.  The grabbers do show up, and the battle is something to behold.


7. Will our heroes prevail?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Monsters, music, comedy, and community action on Erin Island.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Fine except for a few low-light situations.


2. Sound: 10/10 The sound on this film is mostly symphonic, with intelligent pieces chosen to accentuate the action in the film.  This is quite a welcome relief from poorly done pseudo rock music or an amateur effort made on a third rate synthesizer program.


3. Acting: 8/10 Richard Coyle and Lalor Roddy were great. Ruth Bradley, Pascal Scott, and Russell Tovey were enjoyable as well.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Interesting approach to mixing comedy and horror.