Shaky Shivers brings sweetness to the sticky gore of a monster movie with pleasant results. It’s billed as a werewolf movie, but I wouldn’t expect too much lycanthropic action. Even so, there’s plenty of icky goodness to enjoy in its 82-minute runtime.
Sung Kang, best known for his role as Han in the Fast and Furious movies, makes his debut behind the camera in a very different kind of beast that’s also sort of about family.
The story of Shaky Shivers sees friends Lucy (Brooke Markham) and Karen (VyVy Nguyen working at an ice cream parlor by day, striving to be something more than the losers they’re made out to be. In the film’s opening, however, we meet them in more unusual circumstances as Lucy is handcuffed to Karen’s car steering wheel and the pair have a slightly off-kilter heart-to-heart. The conversation unfurls to reveal Lucy believes she is to become a werewolf when the full moon appears that night.
The outcome of this conversation is somewhat grisly, but before we venture too far, the story is dragged back to the day before at the Friendly Freeze ice cream parlor. It turns out a rather eccentric woman of the woods (Erin Daniels) has cursed Lucy after being denied an ice cream (she offers some pine cones as payment to be fair). Biting her arm with a weirdo puppet.
Back to the present, and Lucy has awoken the morning after the handcuff incident naked and still attached to the steering wheel (sans car). We didn’t see her change, but the evidence appears to be there. From there is an often farcical tale of magic spells, zombies, cults, and even an unexpected appearance along the way.
While there’s plenty of monster fun to be found, the movie’s chances lie in the hands of its central duo of Lucy and Karen, and for the most part, the chemistry between actors Markham and Nyguyen is present and correct. Their nonsensical banter lifts some of the quiet stretches, and there are times when the delivery of comedic lines is superbly landed. The dialogue has misfires, but these two keep the hit rate fairly high.
I enjoy the pair’s bumbling ways as they try to reverse the curse. The darkly amusing consequences of their lackadaisical actions are fitting, and the unusual test on their friendship brings plenty of hilarity. Maybe everything is resolved too sweetly after a surprisingly dark start, and the constant mishaps start to feel repetitive as it reaches the final stretch, but Markham and Nguyen kept me invested.
The monster action is sporadic, but even with a limited budget, Kang gets plenty of juice from it. The sole werewolf transformation scene is handled well and looks pretty effective. The zombie design was a highlight for me. The grey-skinned undead have misshapen jaws, twisted rows of monstrous teeth, and hands fused with twigs and branches. It looks impressive and refreshing in terms of zombie design.
There’s some gore and goop in Shaky Shivers that punctuates the talk-heavy nature of the film, but gaps are also filled in nicely by some delightfully disgusting sound work. There’s a scene that involves drinking blood and the audio does just as much lifting as the humble yet effective practical effects to test anyone with a squeamish side.
If there’s a real downside to Shaky Shivers then it comes from how it structures its story. There’s no issue with its angsty narrative walking a predictable path because it’s flavored with a grim eccentricity, but Shaky Shivers tries to do too much with too little otherwise.
Would it have been stronger if it just focused on the werewolf dilemma? Perhaps. It adds a few layers to what should be a simple curse story and essentially shoves the werewolf curse to one side long a while before the credits roll. There’s only a handful of actors and characters involved, but some didn’t need to have the extra backstory they received. It’s clear where the strength of the story lies, and it’s not in the mad woman of the woods or the ice cream parlor owner.
Shaky Shivers isn’t the kind of horror comedy I initially thought I was getting, and that’s largely a welcome revelation. It flits from silly banter to icky moments without a care, and instills some much-needed warmth without becoming sticky-sweet. There’s a little too much going on by the end, and that took my eye off the chemistry between its leads when it should have mattered most. Still, this is a goofy goopy horror comedy that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Score: 6/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.