Grabbers (2012) - 3/4

Making an independent, quirky horror-comedy that 'hits the right spot' is hard to do. More and more filmmakers try to do it, leaving more and more failures to wash onto our shores. Grabbers is another independent, quirky horror-comedy, this time from Ireland, and it's mostly a success.

The plot starts typically enough. A meteor, an island, a small town, and a hideous, tentacle monster from another planet, bake at 350 until golden brown. The fun quirk is that the locals--a charmingly grumpy alcoholic policeman, an uptight rookie from off-island, the village drunk, and a marine biologist--discover that the blood-sucking tentacle-beasts just can't hold their liquor. In fact, it kills them. So the village has to remain drunk while they take on the molusc menace.

The idea is great on its own. But it works especially well with its cast of characters. Each one, however insignificant to the overall plot, seems to have a fully fleshed-out personality. You almost imagine you could visit to island and see these people living there, unaware their encounter with space monsters was ever filmed. In fact, it's the characterizations of the supporting locals that are the most endearing.

As with many movies of this sort, the need to 'have a heart' and give us a coy romance has both advantages and disadvantages. Because--and only because--the characters are likeable, the romance is mildly charming and will put a smile on your mother's face. As a subplot in an already-packed, relatively short film, it is necessarily rushed, with little dramatic satisfaction as a consequence. I also think the need to include a romantic subplot when there isn't really time to develop it may come across as syrupy and ingratiating, which it is.

Also rushed is the pressure to reach a conclusion. The creatures are destroyed too easily as soon as the protagonists really have to get killing and have their big kiss. There is never any serious suspense, nor any serious monster mayhem--a shame given how well-designed the monsters are.

However, with such likeable characters, what screenwriter would want to do serious killing? The real fun with Grabbers is hanging out with these locals as they drunkenly struggle with tentacle monsters and their own personal issues. They're hilarious folk inhabiting a film with plenty of well-written jokes. No-one could go wrong visiting them once or twice and having a pint.