WildEye Releasing, the mavericks of the sci-fi and horror genres, unleashes Queen Crab upon humanity, to the delight of no to low-budget filmmakers everywhere, as Brett Piper helmed with a complete insane production. Piper’s exploits though new to many, still have conquered many with tales of woe such as, Arachnia (2003) and of the legendary movie, which just missed the 1990’s Oscars, A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell. This all accumulates to say that his latest film fits the mold perfectly of outrageousness most likely found from Fred Olen Ray’s master designs. The movie created on an estimated budget of $75,000, complete a giant monster terrorizing gun-toting country folks allows for the understanding of the groaning agonizing fun contained in just one seating of the film.

Now the summary on the back of the DVD, states a dormant monstrous creature awakens from a deep lake due to a meteor striking it, however, the actual story told in the movie differs greatly from this one, and this only becomes one of many plot holes – correction vast chasms in this film. First the location, known as Crabbie Creek, in nowhere USA, and a couple with a child name Melissa live in cabin and lighthouse in the middle of the countryside, her father a scientist trying to create a growth serum to feed the millions of starving individuals worldwide. This normal plot-point finds itself in creature feature films often, for example, Tarantula (1955) just to name one soon enough the lab explodes killing her parents, but only after Melissa makes a mental connection with a crab living in the lake and feeds it the tainted lab grapes. One must note that Melissa is a strange child and even nicknames the crab – Peewee, and later raised by the town sheriff (Ken Van Sant) who doesn’t age one bit as she reappears in the story as a woman in her twenties. Many low-budget horror fans will note Ken who starred in Jurassic Prey (2015) and Amityville Exorcism (2017); he is one of many actors that have worked with Piper before and for producer of this movie, Mark Polonia (Sharkenstein [2016]). Melissa (Michelle Miller) does a convincing job of a quirky woman, with the oddest mindset and rules including shooting a smug deputy Sonny (Rich Lounello (Johnny Gruesome [2018])) with rock salt, all to protect her only friend in Crabbie, Peewee.  In addition, rounding the misfits of characters a state representative Stewart (A.J. DeLucia) and Moe (Steve Diasparra (Bigfoot Vs. Zombies [2016])) with both actors having close interactions with the Crab’s offspring. Once again, like Ken, Steve career in horror focuses with him working only with Polonia or Piper, and his role becomes a comedic highlight even if very limited.

The fans of both giant creatures going mad and killing everything in sight, such as Them! (1954), Tarantula (1955), It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), and the legendary stop-motion techniques of Ray Harryhausen will find some interest in this film. Monster movies, have practically included every species of some viciousness to larger beasts, and this Queen Crab, not the first from her crustacean, others include Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) from the legendary director Roger Corman and Island Claws (1980) by Hernan Cardenas.  Brett definitely works some movie magic, with the limited funds and the best assets of his cast including the fictitious backstory on the b-movie actress Jennifer Kane (Kathryn Metz ) and plenty of extras that went far above the mark of many others on movies. Needless to say, the work production levels does match well with other indie movie styles and in part surpasses the attitude of large studio creations, everyone tries to handle the roles with seriousness and less smirks, just like the predecessors in the same field.

An endless list of errors occurs on the movie, and nitpicking could take over a thousand words, however the glaring ones to overlook the acting with stiffness and proper balance, but the fight sequences were much less believable. Although, one might infer that the horrendous attributes might have had an intentional cause, leading from character Kane’s bragging of training for action films, especially when fighting Sonny with half kicks and phantom punches landing on their targets. Either way it works to some degree, except the sound effects, with a vast array of sounds techniques, Foley equipment and samples available no excuse for having the crabs attacking to mimic chirping of birds.

Many know of the A-list, b-movies and so on, here this movie resides in the z-grade, with incredible DVD artwork and appealing to the low-budget fans, sadly won’t gain much traction in gathering new followers up for this adventure.

This review was originally published on Rogue Cinema’s now defunct website in February 2016.

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IMDb Rating: 4.0/10

Baron’s Rating: 4.0/10