Plot:
A narrator mentions the horror of the killer shrews.
On a boat, Captain Thorn Sherman with his first mate, Rook, can sense that a hurricane is approaching. However, they are close to the island where they have to deliver a load of
cargo.
Dr. Craigis and the surly Jerry meet Thorn. They want Ann, Dr. Craigis�s daughter, to be taken to the mainland. Jerry looks awfully surly carrying a gun. They expect trouble with
animals. Thorn goes with them while Rook will stay at the boat.
Thorn sees how fortified the house is. Apparently, they didn�t know about the incoming hurricane. Thorn is offered his first of many drinks. Don�t worry; he doesn�t quite
consume as much alcohol as Richard Burton. Radford, an assistant to Dr. Craigis, spouts off about some breakthrough.
Dr Marlowe Craigis explains his research into overpopulation. If people were half as big, their metabolisms could be altered to live twice as long.
Ann is talking with her father. Thorn explains how dangerous the hurricane is. Radford comes back in the room. Dr. Marlowe explains about shrews while Ann is looking
frightened to death in the corner.
Rook takes the skiff to the dock.
Dr. Marlowe expounds on how shrews must eat 3 times their own body weight a day or die. Ann is very nervous about something.
Rook ties the skiff to the dock.
Ann is arguing with Jerry. His drunkenness left a cage door open and caused all the problems. He leaves as Thorn enters. Ann wants her father to leave the island, too. Jerry
renters and resumes the argument. Thorn is to leave Ann alone. She and Jerry are engaged.
Rook hears a noise and opens fire. He climbs a tree to escape the shrews.
Jerry and Ann are still arguing. They fight as much as a married couple. Jerry will keep experimenting with Dr Marlowe no matter what. I hate to say this, but Ken Curtis�s dialogue
seems to imply he�s more interested in soft candlelit dinners and kiddie pools of petroleum jelly with the Dr than test tubes and progress reports.
Meanwhile, up a tree, Rook cries for help. The shrews are trying to leap to catch him. Too bad, that hurricane stifles Rook�s cries. However, there isn�t any sign of a
hurricane. Rook picked the feeblest and smallest tree to climb. It breaks, and Rook is devoured by the killer shrews.
Thorn wants to head back to his boat. Ann draws a gun to prevent him from leaving. The gate is closed at dark and won�t be reopened until morning. Ann explains about the
shrews. 200 or 300 shrews weighing 50 to 100 pounds are loose on the island and are about to starve.
Thorn accepts this immediately as gospel truth without a question. Jerry swaggers in the room. Dr. Marlowe tells the rest of the story. Mutant shrews escaped 6 months
ago. The island is almost out of food. Soon, the shrews will devour each other. They just have to wait a couple of days.
Suddenly, the power cuts out in the house. They can�t get outside to the generator.
Jerry talks with Radford.
Ann tricked Thorn into staying at the house until after dark. She longs for him to cry cuh-cuh-cuh� (Sorry, how can you spell the sounds of Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane?) What
woman could resist the sheer animal magnetism of Thorn Sherman?
They hear noises outside. Thorn heads out to investigate when Jerry knocks him down. The gate must be kept closed. The shrews have finished off the livestock by digging
into the barn.
Dr. Marlowe has kept his experiment a secret. He didn�t want any government or military intervention. The shrews can�t swim and are trapped on the island. The food supply
has to be getting awfully low. The house walls are adobe which the shrews can get through easily. They have to wait until day because the shrews are nocturnal.
Someone stands watch throughout the night. Ann is staying in the living room.
Mario, the servant, checks on Jerry, who is drunker than frat skunk.
The shrews are searching for a way to get in the house.
Jerry wants Mario to stand his watch.
In the kitchen, the patrolling Mario finds a window open. He tells Thorn that a shrew is in the cellar.
Thorn has Ann watch the door. Thorn and Mario go into the cellar to find the hideous monster. Mario is attacked.
Caucasian is the other white meat!!!
Thorn checks on Mario�s leg scratch. He kills the shrew. The rest of the people come down and find Mario dead. Radford is sure it was
poison. Mario and the shrew are taken to the lab.
I won't go any farther wearing the throw rug on my back and these stupid fake fangs.
Ann is talking with Thorn. She blames herself for Mario�s death. Funny, you don�t see the guys who created the giant man-eating killer shrews take any blame?
Thorn learns from Dr. Marlowe a small scratch will kill anyone due to the poison in the shrews� systems.
The shrews are scratching at the walls of the house.
Marlowe, Jerry, Radford, and Ann are trying to think of a way to escape. Well rugged Thorn Sherman has a plan.
There aren�t any shrews out during the day. That hurricane didn�t do any damage at all. Thorn will go to check on the boat. Jerry will go with him.
Thorn and Jerry have to be careful about their limited supply of ammo. Jerry has a gun on Thorn�s back. Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane easily smacks down Festus.
Suddenly, the shrews start running for them.
Thorn can�t get Rook�s attention. They look for the skiff when Thorn finds the remains of Rook. The shrews are tailing them.
Cowardly Festus ensues. He gets back to the house and locks the gate. Thorn manages to climb over the fence. The next Festus beat down commences. In a blind rage,
Roscoe almost sacrifices Festus to the killer shrews.
Ann heads to the kitchen when a shrew rushes for Radford.
Is Timmy trapped in the well again?
Thorn manages to kill it.
Festus opens fire into the kitchen. At least, 4 shrews are in there. Radford falls over dead from the poisonous shrew bite.
Thorn tries beating some sense into Festus to no avail. The shrews are digging through the wall.
Dr. Marlowe, Ann, Jerry, and Thorn retreat to the fenced-in patio area.
We see the shrews fighting each other in the wild.
Thorn has the bright idea to use some empty barrels as tanks against the venomous shrews. Jerry gets a shotgun. Thorn is burning eye holes into the tanks. The shrews are
closing in on them.
The barrels are ready and tied together. Jerry climbs to the roof and refuses to go due to the many shrews.
Thorn, Ann, and Dr. Marlowe climb under the barrels and march through the gate.
The shrews are lunging at the barrels to no avail.
Civil War historians refuse to acknowledge killer shrews hassled Sherman's Duck Walk to the Sea.
Jerry is still on the roof.
Ann is getting freaked out by the shrew attacks.
Jerry watches the tank. He gets off the roof and runs to the beach. The shrews easily outrun him and have a FESTUS-ival of Ken Curtis.
Back to the barrels, the shrews are trying to flip the barrels. Reaching sand, they�ve gotten to the beach. They keep going into the sea until it is too far for the shrews and swim
to Thorn�s boat.
Ann and Thorn embrace as Dr. Marlowe ponders about the overpopulation of shrews compared to humanity. Ann and Thorn begin sucking face.
