YMMV / The Killer Shrews

• Fair for Its Day: Rook might be a very clear example of Black Dude Dies First in a subordinate role to Thorne, but their friendship is very earnest and Rook's death is treated as horrific with Thorne very clearly distraught at finding his best friend was eaten by the shrews. A black man being a business partner to a white man in the American South was very rare at the time in cinema. The sequel also shows that Thorne still hasn't fully recovered from the loss, even decades later. Similarly the doctors, while examples of the Funny Foreigner trope, are all rational men of science with benevolent goals. It's the drunken, rowdy American Jerry that causes the problems.
• Special Effect Failure: Big time. The "giant shrews" are clearly dogs with haphazard welcome mats placed over their backs. While they're actually surprisingly effective in some shots when they're obscured by motion and scenery, it's not enough to outweigh the hilariously bad puppets used for close-up shots of the shrews' heads.
• So Bad, It's Good: An endearingly cheesy low-budget monster movie best-remembered for its amusingly awful special effects, mentioned above.

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