QUEEN CRAB (2015)

Queen Crab (2015)
Directed by: Brett Piper
Written by: Brett Piper
Starring: Kathryn Metz, Michelle Simone Miller, Rich Lounello

QUEEN CRAB (2015)
Written and directed by Brett Piper
On Region 1 DVD and VOD from 29th September 2015

Now a young adult, Melissa is living by herself in a cabin by the swamp on Crabbe Creek Lane. After a farmer’s cow is devoured and a giant hole smashed through the side of his barn, the Sheriff and his deputy investigate and find some unusual trails that lead to Crabbe Creek. After sending the prints off to the wildlife agency, a wildlife officer comes to the town to investigate what he believes is the culprit.

All my dreams came true at once when I saw the poster art for QUEEN CRAB. A lover of creature features, I knew that this would be up there with the many shark and hybrid creature flicks we’ve seen these past 15 years. Did it live up to my expectations? You betchya!

QUEEN CRAB is a homage to the B-movies of old, especially the stop motion animation ones. Employing a cast, some hit and some miss, with tongue-in-cheek dialogue and corny jokes aplenty, the film revels in its own budget approach which I found quite endearing. Put it this way, if you’re expecting a serious film with Oscar-worthy performances then you’re looking at the wrong film. It was never going to be that, nor should it. This film very much caters to the fans of a specific genre – one that has a very loyal and loving following that will lap up what QUEEN CRAB has to offer.

Whilst there are various characters to take a shine to in QUEEN CRAB, such as Melissa, the wildlife investigator or Melissa’s Sheriff uncle, it’s the crab that steals the limelight. The little crab eating grapes in the early scenes of the movie made my heart melt with its utter cuteness, especially when, after eating all the fruit which Melissa brought for it, it shuffles up to her and rubs its pincer on her arm in an affectionate manner. Awww! Who says crabs don’t have emotion? Cos this little one certainly does! However, it’s not little for long when the modified fruit turns the crab into a giant crustacean who could easily smash up a car, no problem. When this big beastie is on the loose, you sure don’t wanna piss it off!

To create the magnificent crab scenes, the stop motion animation technique has been applied and, boy, is it glorious! Layering techniques are used to put two seperately shot scenes together to give the desired effect and a giant prop pincer used for close up shots. Some CGI is used too to create a hole in the barn and the explosion at Melissa’s childhood home. Some other effects used involve miniatures and it reminded me of my own efforts when creating short films at high school. If I’d have continued, I wish I could have made something akin to this.

Whilst watching the film to review, I noticed that QUEEN CRAB experienced some sound issues which muffles the dialogue audio in some parts of the movie but overall the quality was good enough to watch without problem. Whether this issue will translate to DVD, I’m unsure.

Embrace the loving warmth of creature features and you’ll thoroughly enjoy QUEEN CRAB and the hard work and fun that has been put into it. There’s cool death scenes, a bit of action and a heartwarming tale about the bond between a girl and a crab. What’s not to love?

Rating: