Critters (DVD)

There are few movies I recall more fondly from my childhood than the Critters series. Right up there with the Monster Squad, I feel Critters and it's 3 sequels really got me kick-started into the horror genre, despite not actually being all that much of a horror movie straight itself, really taking in just as many elements from Science Fiction, and splicing in some comedy for good measure. Often dismissed as a cheap Gremlins knock off, but in the sleeve to my old VHS copy, director Stephen Herek,of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure fame, claims that the script was written long before Gremlins release, and that he actually had to change parts of the script, because it ...  Read the complete review

The success of Gremlins brought a host fo 'nasty little beastie' movies to the movie screens in the mid to late 80s. None matched Gremlins in terms of style, humour or special effects but Critters at least did have something 'fun' about it which set it slightly above the others. Its an 'ok' movie, but perhaps not one to rave about too highly because of its major short-comings. The story begins with the local loony seeing a craft plummeting to Earth and crash-landing in a field. He has been telling people for years that aliens talk to him so of course no one belives him now. However, a craft has landed on a large farm and its occupants are ...  Read the complete review

The success of Joe Dante's 'Gremlins' (1985) spawned several glove-puppet slasher movies without the wit or bite of that film, but the only alien entry was much the most successful. While 'Gremlins' ranged far and wide, spattering targets as disparate as Walt Disney and bar-room drunks, 'Critters' (1986) is a concentrated piss-take of the traditional small-town B-movie. The town loon who claims that aliens are transmitting through his teeth is by now a familiar character in sci-fi movies, and Critters does contain that cheesiest of lines "..they're getting bigger..", but generally, the film kicks in with superb ...  Read the complete review

i think this was one of the first horror films i saw as a child, well teenager i guess, and i still remember it perfectly. being a mix of comedy and horror makes this film so good and fun to watch. a "classic" from my experiences. watching this at an early age made me like the films i like today. that may sound weird i guess. everyone must have seen critters before, and i am sure that someone will not like it and see it as "horrible and grotesque" but it is meant to be funny and taken in good homour which is how i see these types of films today. and yes, i do play grand theft auto. ...  Read the complete review

First in the series [3 more were released!], this is still the best. A group of dangerous aliens called Krites escape from an intergalactic prison, and land in the American Midwest circa 1988. The aliens eat everything in sight, starting with the cattle and the moving on to the rednecks in nearby farms. Earth's only hope is a teenage boy who builds dynamite for fun. The Krites are pursued by a couple of shape-changing Bounty Hunters. One of them is played by genre favourite Terrence Mann. ...  Read the complete review