Horror Movie Review: Crabs! (2021)

A comedy horror film that gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on, Crabs! is stupid, Crabs! is fun, and Crabs! is one to remember, even if it’s so far from what many would call a great film.

Written and directed by Pierce Berolzheimer, the story of Crabs! is B-movie monster mayhem 101. Where a load of crabs (the horseshoe kind) get into some nuclear waste and transform into blood-thirsty monsters. For a small coastal town and its inhabitants, these crabs gone bad offer more than just food-poisoning, and as Prom night gets under way, the entire place comes under attack.

Will the nerdy Philip McCalister (Dylan Riley Snyder) be able to stop them? Alongside this older brother, Hunter (Bryce Durfee), his best-friend Maddy (Allie Jennings), her mother, Annalise (Jessica Morris), and the odd Radu (Chase Padgett), he must try.

There isn’t enough butter in the world to deal with this many crabs though and, one in particular, just seems to keep on growing and growing…

Of course, it’s expected that this film would end with a battle against a giant version of the film’s monsters, and in this and so many other regards, Crabs! delivers on the cliches. It’s part of the film’s charm because it is purposefully playing up to these cliches, and adding plenty of on-the-nose satire too. Pierce Berolzheimer might be mocking the tropes, but it’s done from a place of love and because of that, Crabs! is able to embrace them fully as well.

Something both the writing and the cast are capable of doing. In the case of the former, Crabs! is delightfully entertaining throughout and even though all its plot points can be seen coming a mile away, it aways delivers them with aplomb. In the case of the latter, everyone here understood the assignment and wanted to give it their all. The cast, their characters, and the absurd situation they are in is very reminiscent of something like Night of the Creeps.

Except Crabs! starts to veer out of control as it goes on and takes the absurdity to a level that might just be too much for many. Throwing in more and more pop culture references, many of which are very dated already, and setting up a finale that is… different to say the least. Chances are though, if you’ve made it this far, you’ll be all in on the uber-silliness of it all. Especially as what preceded it was so entertaining.

The cherry on top? The fact that much of the film utilises practical effects, which is so impressive when you see what they were capable of doing here. Even the bits that are CGI (mainly blood) blend well enough to not distract.

Crabs! is not a great film, but you’d have to be one seriously sour person to not at least recognise it’s a good film with more aspects that work than don’t. Go into it knowing that it is very silly, that it gets sillier as it goes on, and you’ll come away pleased with the experience. It’s a monster B-movie about killer crabs after all.