Dee Wallace

M. Emmet Walsh

Billy Green Bush

Scott Grimes

Nadine Van der Velde

Don Keith Opper

Lin Shaye

Billy Zane

Ethan Phillips

Terrence Mann

Jeremy Lawrence

Michael Lee Gogin

Art Frankel

Douglas Koth

Montrose Hagins

Roger Hampton

Chuck Lindsley

David Stenstrom

Adele Malis-Morey

Corey Burton

Stephen Herek

Rupert Harvey

David Newman

Tim Suhrstedt

Larry Bock

Elisabeth Leustig

Gregg Fonseca

Philip Dean Foreman

Anne H. Ahrens

Sara Risher

Robert Shaye

Domonic Muir

Steven Lambert

Debbie Lynn Ross

Teresa M. Austin

Nedra Hainey

Kathy W. Estocin

John Criswell

Thomas Floutz

John Goodwin

John Naulin

Cary Howe

Julie Mauger

Steve Patino

Frederique Schafer

Gerald Quist

Daryl Kass

Perry Husman

Whitney R. Hunter

George Parra

Richard Beggs

Robert W. Glass Jr.

Dale Johnston

Chuck E. Stewart

Michael Cassidy

Vince Deadrick Jr.

Bill McIntosh

John Nowak

Denver Mattson

Packy Smith

Bobby Porter

Frank Ceglia

Kevin Brennan

Tim McGinnis

Christopher Tufty

Nina Padovano

Hilary Wright

Ernest Farino

Adrienne Hamalian-Mangine

John Krenz Reinhart Jr.

Leon Dudevoir

Bob Esposito

Lisa Girolami

Mark Karen

Adrian Licciardi

Marla Darling

Che Zuro

Laura Goldsmith

Bob Field

Dave Ferrara

Kevin Galbraith

Scott Guthrie

Elwin 'Bub' Greer

Kenneth J. Jones

Shunil Borpujari

Richard Kuhn

Dave 'Foots' Footman

Michael Haney

Don Summer

Steve Sollars

Timaree McCormick

Dorree Cooper

Don Diers

Abbee Goldstein

Elizabeth Flaherty

Hilarie Roope

Len Morganti

Michael Becker

Tammy Billik

Robert Zoller

Richard McGuire

Scott Noblitt

Fredrique Gallen

Greg Johnson

Casey Cavanaugh

R. Bruce Steinheimer

Ray Massara

Steve Chiodo

Matia Karrell

Linda Graeme

Russell Carpenter

Albert Malvaez

Critters Collection

Comedy

Horror

Science Fiction

Critters

New Line Cinema

Smart Egg Pictures

Sho Films

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

spacecraft

small town

sheriff

bounty hunter

sibling relationship

barn

toilet

kansas, usa

alien

creature

explosion

alien invasion

family

exploding house

brother sister 

alien fugitive

alien creature

Gimly

It's great when you re-visit a film you enjoyed as a kid and find that as an adult it still totally holds up. Sure _Critters_ almost definitely found its start as nothing more than one of the slew or various _Gremlins_ rip-offs that were being written up at the time, but it's precisely the differences **from** _Gremlins_ that make _Critters_ any kind of success. The more overt sci-fi elements of the film have become a mainstay in the franchise, and are a big part of what makes this thing worth coming back to.

_Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time._

Sheldon Nylander

"Critters" is one of those rare movies that comes along that, despite all odds against it, manages to strike just the right chord. A little-monsters mix of scifi, horror, and comedy, the film uses its low budget as part of its charm. It scales the film farely small, that being a family farm that's attacked by Crites, voracious little eating machines from outer space, rather than a world-spanning threat. This is likely due to the low budget, but it works very well because the lower scale gives the audience a chance to know and identify with the characters, including the Crites themselves. The Crites are more than just Gremlins from space. They have their own language (subtitled, of course) and given that there are only a handful of them gives the filmmakers a chance to give them some character as they interact with each other and the environment (watching one of them try to talk to an ET doll is worth a chuckle). It's not a great film, but it's still a fun way to spend an hour and a half. Just don't expect the same magic from the sequels.

Kamurai

Good watch, could watch again and do recommend.

This is a good one to jump into the way back machine for, and I'm waiting on a reboot to happen.  (Actually...."The Tomorrow War" is sort of on the same track)

The critters themselves are (in a horrible way) cute and vicious looking, the acting is decent, the story is good, and I'm a big fan of the shape shifting hunters sent to kill them.

When it comes down to it, the movie is a lot of fun and worth giving a watch.

**_Entertaining popcorn flick from the mid-80s is both cartoonish and horrifying_**

Small, furry extraterrestrials harass a farm town in America while two bounty hunters try to capture them.

"Critters" (1986) takes the basic premise of 50’s alien-invasion flicks, like “The Blob” or “War of the Worlds,” but meshes it with the tone and furry creatures of “Gremlims” from two years prior. The Kansas farmhouse and small town setting recalls teen Clark Kent’s situation in “Superman” (1978). The movie expertly walks the balance beam between fun & amusing and deadly serious creature feature. The vibe is similar to "Neon Maniacs" from the same year, but this is superior, as well as superior to “Gremlims.” 

Dee Wallace is a highlight as the wife/mother, never looking better, while Nadine Van der Velde is worth a mention as the brunette daughter. On the other side of the gender spectrum, a young Billy Zane shows up as the latter’s beau while Terrence Mann has a memorable dual role, not to mention impressively wrote the catchy song for the soundtrack, “Power of the Night.”

I like how this isn’t a typical alien-visitation flick. The addition of the galactic bounty hunters adds an interesting new dimension, a concept that would be ripped off the next year by “The Hidden.”

It runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot in Valencia, Santa Clarita, which is a 45-minutes drive northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

GRADE: B+/A-

<em>'Critters'</em> is <em>'Gremlins'</em>-esque fun overall, though it isn't supremely enjoyable all the way through; I felt some pacing issues. The titular aliens do look the part though, even all these years later. The practical effects are nice, that house explosion is particularly great.

Scott Grimes is the actor that stood out most to me whilst watching. I do like how the kid is written, usually in these sorta films they tend to be only annoyingly bratty but here there are a couple of moments where you can see Brad's good; e.g. with Charlie, or with his mum. A nice touch, I thought.

It is a movie that I'd say lacks consistent thrill, but all in all it's one I'll still be considering as passable. Hopefully the sequels are more critter-centric than human-centric though, that's the only way I reckon a franchise like this could avoid bad follow-ups.

Original Trailer

Critters( 1986)

The battle began in another galaxy. It's about to end in the Brown's backyard.

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A review by Gimly

Written by Gimly on Sun Aug 25 2019

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