Critters (1986)

Critters 

Release Date: 1986

Rating: * * 1/2

By John Engell August 8, 2012 
 
Many horror films claim to be an homage to a past classic. Most however, are blatant plagiaristic rip-offs intended to profit from a successful brethren. Stephen Herek’s 1986 horror-comedy “Critters” would likely fall into the latter category, though it is not without its merits.

“Critters” begins in a faraway place in space where creatures called the Krites are bound for termination on an alien penal planet. But before the Krites can be executed they hijack a fueled-up ship and make a break for the nearest habitable planet, which just so happens to be Earth. Shape shifting bounty hunters are sent to retrieve the prisoners in a race across the galaxy.

“Critters” is said to be New Line Cinema’s answer to Warner Brothers’ “Gremlins.” At the time New Line was a fledgling American film studio that had only come to prominence two years earlier with its first commercial success in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street;” A film which was made for a song, but grossed millions.
 
New Line would employ the same low budget ingenuity as its riposte to Spielberg’s 1984 blockbuster. With only $2 million to work with, California’s Chiodo brothers were hired to create the film’s namesakes. The Krites share their distant green cousin’s gregarious appetite and unfriendly disposition, yet they look somewhat like Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog, with red eyes and a bad attitude, and are armed with poisonous porcupine-like projectiles.

Genre vet Dee Wallace (“The Howling”) stars as the matron of the secluded Kansas farmhouse were the Krites take refuge once they crash land their stolen ship. After father and son discover the wreck the film becomes rather light on plot and particularly heavy on action, as the soldiers comically search the small town, including the local church and bowling alley, for the Krites who are busy terrorizing the farm’s family. “Critters” is relatively subdued, although a young Billy Zane (“Titanic”) gets offed off-screen and one of the Krites humorously drops an F-Bomb. There is little blood, but there are some solid explosions thanks to the son’s homemade firecrackers and the soldier’s futuristic weapons.

“Critters” features no elaborate sets, no large ensemble cast,  and no effects that couldn’t be whipped up in someone’s garage. “Critters” may be the poor man’s version of “Gremlins,” but with its unassuming charm, this clone has found its own cult following.