We’ve all been there, sitting on the sofa, proximal to one’s better half, or perhaps alone with only tears to sweeten one’s Ovalteen, infuriated with Netflix. “Just choose something”, “But what do you want to watch?” “I don’t know, what do you want to watch?” and so it goes as if the Gods mock you and your eternal reoccurrence. Little do we know that Netflix, like all the others, is designed to maximise screen time looking for content, hence it’s deliberate obfuscation of rationale categories. Oh the horror, oh the torture. “Ah horror” you say, now there is an idea. The minor herculean act of finding the category overcome, one can browse. Yet choice might still bewitch you, smashing you on the rocks of indecision with the siren song of many temptations. Tonight will be yet another consummated disaster, forfeited to the paradox of choice. And on his throne, Zeus laughs, mocking mortals before he transforms into a bull or a swan or whatever to go and defile some poor King’s virgin daughter, to thunk out another demi-god (lovely fella). But hark, Athena the grey eyed huntress, does whisper in your ear. Fingers alights upon a movie absurd in name, and ridiculous in description. And like a randy preternatural swan, you think “Fuck it, why not” and a smile creeps upon your face – but no virgins will be dishonoured here. “How about this?” you said. “It’s called Grabbers. It’s an Irish horror movie from 2012 ago about an alien monster that terrorises the inhabitants of an small Irish island.” “Seriously?” “Well I can’t find anything else.” “Fine, shove it on, we’ll give it 10 minutes.” And thus begins a wonderful night of cinematic gold.

As the night draw out, you could do worse than check out writer Kevin Lahane and director Jon Wright’s movie. It has the similar humour of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg offerings such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuss and The World’s End. Plenty of homage is paid to genre, from the sun logo on the bill board at the start of the movie referencing Jaws, camera angles from American Werewolf in London. Night of the Living Dead plays on late night TV in one scene. And there are nods to Alien, Aliens, Gremlins, Predator, John Carpenter’s The Thing and probably some others I’m now forgetting or missed.

The premise is simple. A storm is rolling in on a small Irish island trapping the inhabitants just as a face hugging, water loving alien has crashed to Earth right off their shore. As the plot unfold, by luck the feckless islanders and drunk local policeman discover that the alien is allergic to alcohol – like middle class people and wheat… only real. In such circumstances, how does one convince a whole island to go to the pub for a lock-in and keep them their until the storm passes. Can they manage it and survive? What could possibly go wrong? Well, you’ll just have to watch it and find out.

If you are looking for something fun to watch for Halloween, and you missed this one the first time around, then you could do worse than check out Grabbers. So if you’ve got Netflix don’t let the God’s of choice play dice with your evening. Make a positive choice and hit play.

Review by Daniel Soule

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