Snatchers

I watched this during it's run at SXSW. This film was surprising and soulful despite its ridiculous premise. It stabs at everything from female sexuality to bro culture and women's relationships. I could see this being the next Gremlins or Critters.

Comedy horror Snatchers' patently silly premise promises to be a lot of fun: after pretty teen Sara (Mary Nepi) has sex for the first time, she finds that she is pregnant with an alien. An enthusiastic cast give it their all and some decent creature effects help immensely, but a hit and miss script means that the film is only a partial success.

It didn't come as much of a surprise to learn that Snatchers started life as a short: it definitely feels as though writers Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman and Scott Yacyshyn struggled to stretch their initial six minute project to feature length, with much of their material failing to have the desired comedic effect. Nepi makes for an appealing lead, and she is given able support by Gabrielle Elyse as Hayley, the schoolfriend who helps Sara with her unusual predicament; it is largely thanks to these two girls that Snatchers is as enjoyable as it is, even with its flaws, their likeable characters sharing a breezy rapport that prevents the film from completely stalling during its more awkward moments.

A nifty alien spider creature gives the film a much-needed lift towards the end, but it is short lived, being dispatched in a disappointingly unspectacular fashion.

5/10. Passable fun, but ultimately fails to fulfil its potential.

When horny teens have sex for the first time then the girl accidentally gets pregnant and gives birth, it's a tragedy. But what if it all happened in just two days and the offspring was a resurrected Mayan monster? That's the whole idea of the film and, spoiler alert, the title does not refer to a verb. But it's fun, with the usual tropes of the horror movies all present, but contextualized in an entertaining way. Is it perfect? Hell no! But I've seen a lot of horror comedies that are not even close to the level of hilarity of this. If it have had just a little bit more budget, the gore would have complemented perfectly the plot. As such, it was just a lot of blood and two horrifying monsters.

If you like tongue in cheek horror, this is a film you should probably watch.

I wasn't expecting too much from this movie, horror and comedy mixed together isn't really the genre where you find a lot of gems. But in all fairness I was pretty surprised by the outcome. I had more laughs then with a standard comedy so for that alone it's worth the detour. The "lobster in the neck" had me in tears, that's going to be a cult phrase, for sure in my entourage. Storywise it is what it is, some people are entertained by this kind of stories (I was for sure), others will think it's ridiculous. The horror wasn't bad at all, the acting neither, but the humoristic touch is what makes this movie stand out from the rest. I recommend this movie, especially if you're a stoner and like an odd and weird story, nothing to take too seriously.

Snatchers may not bring home top scores neither does it try to. It's campy, gory, dumb and fun. The actors are overall great and the lead role played by Mary Nepi does an excellent job! Will most definitely keep an eye out for more of her (hopefully) upcoming roles. I would give it 6.5 but since that's not an option I will settle for 6. Absolutely worth a watch if you like a mix of comedy and gore.