The Killer Shrews

The Killer Shrews is a 1959 American independent science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg, and produced by Ken Curtis and Gordon McLendon. The story follows a group of researchers who are trapped in their remote island compound overnight by a hurricane and find themselves under siege by their abnormally large and venomous mutant test subjects. The film stars James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis, McLendon, Baruch Lumet and "Judge" Henry Dupree. Shot outside of Dallas, Texas, it was produced back-to-back with The Giant Gila Monster. Now in the public domain, the film has been issued multiple DVD releases and was lampooned in the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Plot Captain Thorne Sherman and first mate Rook Griswold deliver supplies by ship to a research compound on a remote island. The station inhabitants (consisting of scientist Marlowe Craigis, his research assistant Radford Baines, Marlowe's daughter Ann, her fiancé Jerry Farrel, and a servant Mario) give them a cold welcome and direct them to unload the ship and leave immediately with Ann, even though a hurricane is approaching the island. Thorne insists that the storm will be too severe for them to leave that night and so instead goes to the compound, while Rook stays with the boat. Marlowe explains he has been trying to isolate the genes responsible for growth and metabolism in order to shrink humans to half their size so as to reduce the impact of human overpopulation. He uses shrews as test animals due to their short lifespan, allowing him to track results over multiple generations. As Thorne and Ann talk that evening, Jerry becomes jealous and confronts Ann. She tells him their engagement is off in light of his earlier cowardice. Thorne opts to return to his boat and avoid the uncomfortable atmosphere, but Ann pulls a gun on him and orders him to stay. She explains that Marlowe's experiments have created a batch of mutant wolf-sized shrews that escaped due to Jerry's drunken negligence and are now reproducing in the wild. The group barricade themselves inside their compound every evening before the sun sets due to the creatures' nocturnal feeding habits. They have not contacted the coast guard so that they can complete their research, predicting that the shrews will cannibalize each other once they have consumed all other food on the island. Rook comes ashore and is killed by shrews.