5 Reasons Why You Should Stream Grabbers This Weekend
The weekend is for streaming, and I have the movie you need to stream the weekend before your family descends upon your home to eat all the things next week. It’s called Grabbers, it’s on Netflix and it’s extremely silly. Check your brain at the door levels of silly (that’s a compliment, trust me). Grabbers is a little Irish movie with a cool monster, a town of eccentric characters and a nonsensical plot that just so happens to make for a great horror movie hook– the monster can’t eat extremely drunk people. As you can imagine, hilarity most certainly ensues.
If I didn’t get you with drunken townspeople try to fight monster, I have five more reasons why you need to stream Grabbers below.
Tremors is my ideal horror movie. It’s mostly a comedy, the creatures are underground creating an element of surprise, Kevin Bacon is at the height of his sexiness, no one ever bothers to truly explain where the giant underground sandworms with a taste for flesh come from (Dune?) and it takes place in an isolated town which brings the community together, so it’s also kind of heartwarming. See, perfect?
Grabbers basic plot is similar. A pretty woman comes to town, random creatures with a taste for flesh come rolling out of the sea and grab the townsfolk with their tentacles, the community comes together and it too is far more comedic than it is truly scary. What makes it unique is its Irishness. A country notorious for producing tasty beer and consuming it like champs would come up with a movie where the only true defense against a giant sea creature is to get so drunk you laugh in its tentacle-covered face.
To follow up on my last point: there are drunk people fighting sea creatures. This leads to classic moments involving completely unnecessary attempts to light a flamethrower, a town drunk who revels in a night of free drinking despite the imminent peril that triggers it and a killer performance by Ruth Bradley who plays our straitlaced co-hero, Lisa.
She’s the new guard in town sent to keep Richard Coyle’s O’Shea (who is an alcoholic) in line for the weekend while his partner is away. Once the sea creatures show up and O’Shea and Lisa realize the creatures don’t like blood with a high alcohol content level, Lisa has no choice but to get drunk for the first time. Watching her try to defend the town without dissolving into a giggling fit is definitely a highlight and she still gets to be heroic despite her intoxicated state. It’s a win-win.
Russell Tovey is an excellent reason to stream something, and I say this because the only thing I knew about Grabbers going in was that Tovey was in it. Look, I know some of you may be staring at the picture above with no clue which one of those three people is this Tovey guy I’m talking about, but you’re clearly not watching enough British television. (He’s the one in the lab coat for the record.)
Tovey is best known for playing the werewolf George on Being Human, but you might have also seen him in Him & Her, Gavin & Stacey, Sherlock, The History Boys or Doctor Who. He has amazing range as an actor; he can be funny or rip your heart out when his adorable face crumbles into tears. I’m a fan, if you can’t tell.
In Grabbers, Tovey plays the arrogant, British scientist who is psyched about discovering a new creature. “I just want a picture for ‘National Georgraphic,'” he says. “And Facebook.” He may not be the star of the film, but he makes a good go of stealing it out from under Coyle and Bradley.
Isn’t he a beauty? Just look at that thing, it’s a giant, rolling ball of deadly coolness. Is it Cthulhu? A particularly resilient Kraken who feels safe on land as long as it’s raining? Who cares. It’s a worthy monster for our drunken comrades to face. Also, did I mention the part where it gets around by rolling on its billion tentacles?
Next week is Thanksgiving, Christmas is just around the corner, we’re all stressed out– if you’re going to stream something, why not make it a horror romp?
All kidding aside, Grabbers is the best horror comedy I’ve seen since The World’s End. There’s not a lot of explaining, the plot is straightforward, the acting terrific, it’s low on gore and high on laughs. I promise, if you watch it you’ll come away satisfied and if you hate it, you can tell me about it on Twitter and I won’t complain. You have nothing to lose here and a movie about sea creatures invading a town to gain.
If you stream Grabbers, I want to hear about it. Let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter. Go forth and have an intoxicating, sea creature-filled weekend, dear readers.
Follow me on Twitter @sljbowman
