A likeable low-budget homage to 50’s monster movies complete with a title accompanied by an exclamation mark and wildly ambitious DVD cover art that the film itself gamely attempts to live up to. Michelle Miller’s childhood crab friend “Pee Wee” grows to mammoth proportions, leaving livestock dead, the Sheriff bemused and a state wildlife commissioner on hand to deliver Crab Facts. Even worse, Miller’s former school friend shows up to talk about her B movie career (LESBIAN VAMPIRES FROM MARS!) and do some female bonding (“You have adorable boobs!”).
Pleasantly meandering in the vein of old-school drive-in fare like THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, this builds to hugely enjoyable crab action winningly styled in the fashion of a typical A-bomb-era sci-fi creature feature. The stop-motion giant crab looks particularly good in long shots, and there’s a fine second half in which the crab rips the least sympathetic characters in half, gets threatened with a military bombing and even enjoys a ride from our heroine as she does whatever she can to protect her monstrous buddy. More sympathetic to the monster than the gun-happy townsfolk, it’s a fun romp from monster movie veteran Brett Piper.

Review by Steven West