Review of Critters (1986) by Bill M — 20 Aug 2010

"Ah, the critters", I used to be strangely obssesed with the ongoing, shamelessly gremlins pilfering saga of these little furry, man eating poisonous barb shooting, space ship stealing ("and navigating") "Back to the future era Billy zane" devouring, cheeky, slightly foul mouthed intergalactic killer furballs, I had and still have an inexplicable undying warm affection for the little bastards and this overall somewhat hit and miss series of films as a whole.

I still cant entirely put a finger on what exactly it was that made me love the films, or indeed makes me come back to them for a revisit, "in the end maybee it's because they are simply just fun".

On rewatching this first installment with older (not so much wiser) eyes, it's actualy suprsingly well made, it's decently shot, unusualy well acted, it has a great score, is sometimes even kinda scary ( the red eyes out the window still have the hair raising power to shit me up, who hasnt looked out their kitchen window at night, half expecting a pair of glowing eyes to suddenly pop out from the blackness) it's also occasionally quite funny, especialy when a critter (or "krite") eats a firecracker, ensuing a cartoonishly amusing demise, it's also sometimes inventively fun, which brings us to the films stand outs, the super cool, tooled up, shapeshifting, badass pair of faceless (literally, they have no face's, they have white shapeless heads that are canvases for other faces to transform into) alien, space bounty hunters who have come to destroy all "the krites" and anything else in their peripheral, including most of the sleepy town of "Grovers bend".

These awesome motherfuckers elevate the film whenever their on screen, weather it be one of them transforming into the fictional rockstar johnny steel ( played with dark coolness by terrence mann, who also performs the origional song "POWER OF THE NIGHT", I need this on my ipod!) destroying half a church, and in one blackly funny scene, eerily transforming into a dead, mutilated body and walking around in said form for a chunk of the film like some heavily armed zombie, brilliant!.

Also another factor in not just this film but really the series as a whole is the character of charlie mcfadden (played by Don kieth opper) a loveable loser and the town drunk, for whom, although he isnt really in this one much ("he is the one who blows up the critters at the end though"), the series ultimately becomes as much a saga about his journey becoming a hero and a man as it is about the critters and their outright eradication and (by the fourth film) final extinction from the universe as the ultimate pest.

This is a good, fun creature feature, ripping off gremlins as it goes for sure, but still with very much it's own identity as an entertaing mini horror classic of the 80's. Maybee "classic" is too strong a word, but do u know what? I still love it so I dont care.

I probably always will.