Critters

Critters (1986)

The movie opens with a group of interstellar criminals breaking free from a prison. They end up heading to Earth in a stolen ship with a couple of bounty hunters in pursuit. The Critters land near to the Brown farm and start to eat everything in site. This includes any locals that are unfortunate enough to get in their way! After tearing thru the town the bounty hunters finally find the Brown farm and come to the rescue, sort of… See even the good guys are very destructive and make a big mess. In the end though the Critters are done away with and most everyone gets to live happily ever after. That is until the sequel!

I’ve always enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It has a very nifty ‘50s science fiction vibe to it with the look of the aliens and the way that they “invade” an isolated part of the country. Beyond that the story is paced extremely well and keeps the action and mayhem coming pretty much from start to finish. The movie does take a few minutes of screen time establishing the characters, but that pays off later on. In fact it wasn’t until I sat down to watch Critters again for this review that I noticed how well the characters written. They are likeable and the Brown family comes off as realistic and sympathetic. This makes them vs. the Critters all that more interesting later on in the movie.

I would be remiss in going on about the writing if I also didn’t mention the cast as well. First up lets just all admit that no one plays the mom in horror films any better then the amazing Dee Wallace. Other then her you have genre veteran M. Emmet Walsh, who is always fun to watch, as the sheriff. And while he is a pretty good actor as an adult, Scott Grimes was excellent as a child actor. Finally I was really amused when I realized that a very young Billy Zane shows up as the boyfriend doomed to be on the Critter’s menu.

As a nerd for creature features I would say that the creature design is every bit as important as the actors in a movie like this. If you monsters don’t look dangerous the movie simply won’t work. The Critters are pulled off perfectly here. They aren’t too elaborate and the idea of making them roll around in a ball was pure genius. This gets around the awkward walking that plague so many other creature themed flicks. And while the gore is a bit light I still love the effects work. I mean if you think about it the Critters really are one of those iconic creatures that were introduced. Most non-genre fans will be able to identify the movie just by being shown a picture.

If you haven’t taken the time to check out Critters then you really have to. This is one of the better genre movies to come out in the ‘80s. I recommend it.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer