CRITTERS: A FOUR COURSE FEAST!

4 stars

Arrow Video. Limited Edition Blu ray Box set

We had had Gremlins and Ghoulies, so why not CRITTERS in 1986, a fun monster movie from New Line Cinema featuring spiky alien balls of malice with fearsome gnashers which gave rise to, in modern parlance, a franchise.

In the first film, eight of these menacing mini monsters escape from a prison asteroid and land on earth at a farm near a small town in Kansas. Shape shifting bounty hunters are sent out to try and track them down. This initial outing keeps the creations by the Chiodo brothers out of site initially, as they skittle about and this is slow to start – but once it gets going there is much gory fun to be had as mayhem ensues. Of course it takes a youngster, Brad (Scott Grimes) to fight back as is kin d of tradition in this kind of story. The cast includes familiar faces such as Dee Wallace, M Emmet Walsh and even a young Billy Zane.

The first film was clearly successful enough to warrant a sequel. The follow-up in 1988, CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE (on-screen simply Critters 2) has Brad returning to the small town to visit his grandma – which is big news locally as all the townsfolk remember the alien invasion. It’s Easter and among the annual hunt for chocolate are the deadly, about to hatch, Krite eggs left at the end of the last movie (sorry, spoiler!). The Easter bunny is attacked and there are loads more of the marauding munchers killing indiscriminately. This is an enjoyable continuation, up there with the original. It was directed by Mick Garris in his feature debut.

With part 3 we are in direct to video territory with both this and number 4 being shot at the same time. Diminishing returns beckon. Possibly the most notable thing here is Leonardo DiCaprio in his debut – I am guessing this film probably doesn’t appear on his CV. This time out they are putting the bite on the residents in an apartment building – apart from the setting there’s nothing new here.

Did we need a part 4? Probably not… Wouldn’t you know it this one ends up in outer space, with a couple of eggs retrieved from Earth. Bet you can’t guess what happens next – trust me this is no ALIEN, that’s for sure. The cast includes Brad Dourif and Angela Bassett. The sets are quite good for a low budget affair, though some of the visual fx are shonky.

Not included here are the eight episode Critters: A New Binge or the TV movie Critters Attack (both from 2019)

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

If you are a fan these are stacked out with special features – each film gets a talking heads making of plus various archival bits and bobs and the usual trailers, image galleries and the like plus a 60 page book, posters and reversible sleeves

All in all a comprehensive package.