Blu-ray Review: Snatchers (2019)

February 10, 2020

Written by DanXIII

Daniel XIII; the result of an arcane ritual involving a King Diamond album, a box of Count Chocula, and a copy of Swank magazine, is a screenwriter, director, producer, actor, artist, and reviewer of fright flicks…Who hates ya baby?

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

Sara (Mary Nepi) thinks she’s hot shit; it’s senior year in high school and she’s finally become one of the in-crowd (thanks to completely giving up everything that made her unique), had a lil’ of the ol’ in n’ out with her bohunk boyfriend, Skyler (Austin Fryberger), and got her self a little alien bun in the oven, as those wacky-ass teens oft do amirite?

Anyway, ol’ Sara gives birth with the quickness, and some sort of symbiotic beastly bug rockets from her socket… a bug that immediately goes on an unreasonably violent killing spree. Soon it’s up to Sara and her former best friend and nerd’s nerd Hayley (Gabrielle Elyse) to figure out how to stop her offspring from destroying the entire town!

First of all, Nepi and Elyse make for a truly dynamic duo; they are funny as all shit, have great chemistry, and most importantly are believable no matter how batshit things around them become… and holy hell do things around them become very batshit indeed! Also strong in the performance department are J.J. Nolan as Sara’s mother Kate, who in turn was a young parent herself… which leads to some surprisingly heartfelt moments among the chaos, and The Mighty Boosh regular Rich Fulcher as the only weirdo around that can actually make sense of the goings-on… oh and Ashley Argota as the most popular girl in school (though perhaps not as popular as she thinks) Kiana, is a hoot and a fuckin’ half!

Speaking of the insanity at hand, co-writers (Scott Yacyshyn)/directors Stephen Cedars and Benji Kleiman have chosen to give us some of that sweet, sweet practical creature and gore work (only augmented by CG) that makes the alien antic so much fun to lay out putrid peepers upon! We get head explosions, gnarly creatures, slime, blood, and so much more! It’s a gore-hounds gore-met feast for sure!

Speaking of the fine folks mentioned in that paragraph, I have to give them much praise for delivering a script that is actually funny as fuck while being disturbing as well. It’s a delicate balancing act, and it’s performed here to absolute perfection. We have hilarious situations, creature-feature tropes, and immensely likable characters (even the school’s “mean girls” are enjoyable)… and it makes for a strong viewing experience… and one I wager you will want to repeat many times. Oh, and the way this whole alien mess gets started is suitably ridiculous (and features some great nonsense courtesy of Fryberger).

As great as Snatchers is, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment have included a few bonus features on this Blu-ray/DVD combo to sweeten the preternatural pot. Included are: a behind-the-scenes featurette, a blooper reel, and a hilarious audio commentary featuring Cedars, Kleiman, and Yacyshyn.

Snatchers is pure creature-feature bliss; it’s funny, fun, full of heart… so get yer eerie eyeballs on it post haste boils n’ ghouls!

 

 

 

Share This Article

You May Also Like…