Critters (1986) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Eating your town this summer!

Critters is a low-budget, unique hybrid of science-fiction and horror. It follows a trend of films dealing with destructive little monsters and the people that are terrorized by them.

First Impressions

The narrator of the trailer lets the audience know that of all the planets in the galaxy, the Critters have chosen ours. Equal parts campy and scary looking, there are small, furry round aliens that attack a family at their house. Much mayhem ensues with explosions, gunshots, running and screaming. In a tagline worthy of the 80s, the narrator says that “they bite,” which means they both attack with their teeth but is also used as a term of disgust.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

At the Prison Asteroid-Sector 17 a prisoner transfer ship arrives with eight Crite prisoners. They escape by commandeering another ship and take off. The prison warden hires two shape-shifting bounty hunters to follow and return or kill the prisoners. On Earth, just outside the town of Grover’s Bend, Kansas, Brad (Scott Grimes) and April (Nadine Van der Velde) sit down to breakfast with their parents, Jay (Billy Green Bush) and Helen (Dee Wallace Stone), just before they leave for school. At the local police station, Sheriff Harv (M Emmet Walsh) says good morning to his dispatcher Sally (Lin Shaye) before letting the town drunk, Charlie (Don Opper) out for the morning.

One of the featureless aliens scans television channels from his ship before deciding to change his appearance into rock star Johnny Steele (Terrence Mann). The second alien opts to stay as is for now. Charlie believes that aliens are contacting him via the fillings in his head. Jay just wants him to help fix the family pickup, and for Brad to stop distracting him with his homemade firecrackers. New transfer student Steve (Billy Zane) stops by for dinner and is then dragged into the barn by April so they can make out. Jay and Brad see a meteorite land nearby and go to investigate. Instead they find a partially eaten cow.

Deputy Jeff (Ethan Phillips) runs off the road as a furry ball rolls in front of his car. Getting out to investigate, he is pulled under the vehicle by an unseen creature. Several POV shots depict small creatures getting into the basement under the Browns house. The power goes out, and Jay finds the fuse box chewed through. He is attacked by a small, round furry Crite with dozens of sharp teeth. Helen and Brad help him into the house. In the barn, Steve is attacked and eaten but Brad shows up with a homemade firecracker and blows one of the creatures up, saving April.

The bounty hunters find the abandoned police cruiser. The second alien takes the shape of Jeff, but the dead-Jeff, with contusions and broken bones. They crash the car into a local church, where the Jeff-looking alien now takes the guise of the Reverend (Jeremy Lawrence). Jay convinces Helen it’s safer to get out of the house, even with his injuries. When they get to the Jeep, they find it partially eaten, and are chased back inside by more Crites, who appear to be getting larger.

At the town bar (inside the bowling alley), Charlie is drinking and talking about aliens again, when the two bounty hunters enter. Several of the local townsfolk make fun of them, so they pull out their big alien guns and blow up the television. The preacher-looking alien takes its final face change by becoming Charlie, which freaks the real Charlie out. The Crites shoot small needles that cause Helen to become paralyzed, but Jay and Brad protect her. Brad convinces his dad he can bike into town for help.

Brad finds the bounty hunters in the police car, believing them to be the sheriff. He directs them to his house where the actual Sheriff has arrived. The aliens use their large weapons to blow up the Crites. One has grown to human size and takes April to their ship. Brad tosses a humongous firecracker inside, and the real Charlie, knowing that he was right about aliens, tosses a molotov cocktail in after it, which blows up the prisoners’ ship. Just before it explodes it attacks the farm house, destroying it. One of the bounty hunters gave Brad a communication device which, when pushed, rebuilds the house as good as new. The bounty hunters depart as the camera drifts into the barn to see three Crite eggs on a nest, just about ready to hatch.

“Jeez, these folks could use a good exterminator.” – Sheriff Harv Trout

History in the Making

While Critters may seem like a reaction to the small, vicious monster releases of the time like Gremlins or Ghoulies, it was actually written prior to the release of either of those. This was the first film for both writer Domonic Muir and director Stephen Herek. Prior to this they had worked as assistant editors on a film called City Limits. Muir would work on several lower budget assignments including The Gingerdead Man and Evil Bong, while Herek had a number of larger films including his next hit Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure as well as The Mighty Ducks and Mr. Holland’s Opus. It was also the breakthrough film for the special effects team, the Chiodo Brothers. Stephen, Charles & Edward Chiodo were credited as the Critters Crew, designing the creatures and supervising the effects on this, and all of the Critters films. They would go on to work on elements of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Robocop, and UHF before helming their own film, Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

The film is decidedly low-budget and harkens back to smaller alien invasion films of the 50s and 60s, but has a lot of unique elements as well. It was the debut film for actor Scott Grimes who went on to play Will Scarlet in the Russell Crowe Robin Hood film, and is currently a regular on the sci-fi series The Orville. It was the second credited film for Billy Zane, who had worked on Back to the Future as one of Biff’s gang. But the film probably had its biggest draw with Dee Wallace, who is famous for playing moms and moms in horror films. She was probably most identified at this time as Elliott’s mom from E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, but was also known for Cujo and Popcorn, as well as dozens more horror films throughout her career. The film also was an early role for Lin Shaye, who appeared in bit parts in a number of horror films, including A Nightmare on Elm Street. Her horror career continues in earnest in her later years including the Insidious and Ouija series of films. Finally, Ethan Phillips would go on to play another alien, named Neelix on the TV series Star Trek: Voyager.

Genre-fication

This month the sci-fi films featured here are not just science-fictiony, but also part of the horror genre. Critters fits into both categories nicely, but is probably seen as more of a horror film based on its shelving in video stores at the time. As with last week’s Night of the Creeps, the film opens in space. And while the Crites aren’t seen at that point, a few moments are spent on the prison asteroid with the alien warden and the shape-changing bounty hunters. There are spaceships and laser blasts, both from the space ships as well as the huge guns the bounty hunters carry. Additionally, Grover’s Bend–the town in Kansas where the film takes place, is an homage to Grover’s Mill, the town from The War of the Worlds radio play where the aliens are first sighted. The Crites are an alien race, not an experiment as the slugs in Creeps were, and seem to consume almost anything in their path (much like The Blob or more accurately, the tribbles from Star Trek). The film doesn’t set any records for cutting edge special effects or groundbreaking sci-fi elements, though the shape-changing bounty hunters are a cool addition, but that’s not its reason for existing.

Critters is really a horror film with these other sci-fi elements thrown in–possibly to be topical. The small farmhouse and family is terrorized by an invasion of monsters (aliens in this case), and must survive the night. They lose power and phone service, and must make due with improvised weapons and limited ammunition. Besides one of the cast being injured, the film also features kids amongst them, raising the level of tension. It follows many of the basic tropes for horror films, like don’t go into the basement. Or the characters having sex get killed (this one is sort of turned on its ear, since April is the one that entices Steve into the barn, yet he’s the one that ends up getting eaten). But overall the film isn’t too scary. It’s not on the same level of fright as The Babadook or Malignant. It is probably a little less scary than Gremlins, and was probably made for teen and pre-teen boys as a gauge.

Societal Commentary

The depths that Critters goes to is not much beyond a kiddie pool. There’s barely much more than the basic plot of characters avoiding getting attacked by these tribbles with teeth. The closest thing to a character arc is Brad and April learning to get along with each other. As the film opens, the rift between these two siblings is wide. The younger brother tormenting the older sister. But Brad is not really a bad person. In fact, he takes the blame when Charlie accidentally shoots April with the slingshot. Brad feels bad for Charlie who is not only a drunk, but may have some learning disabilities as well (it’s unclear in the film, though Opper plays the character a little more simply than he might actually be). Even though Brad has adequate moments to admit that it wasn’t him, he stays strong and takes the punishment. The rift mends relatively quickly once the Crites begin attacking, as brother and sister begin to work together. She even wishes him luck when he heads out to get help on his own.

Charlie also has a small element of what might be an arc. His story may also fall into the category of the “boy who cried alien.” As the town drunk, he does not command a lot of respect. Add to that the frequent claims that he can hear aliens talking through his dental fillings, and he seems like quite a crackpot. However, this particular time he was correct. But then again, a stopped clock is right twice a day. He does manage to save the day in the end. Brad’s giant firecracker (which was at least the size of a stick of dynamite) gets in the ship, but the fuse goes out. Luckily, Charlie always carries a bottle of alcohol on him, and is able to make a quick molotov cocktail that he gets through the gap on the closing door of the ship. Boom! He’s a hero!

The Science in The Fiction

I often look at the fantastical elements or future predictions in the movies I review, but since this is mainly a horror film, let’s check out how technology failed the Sector 17 prison system. While viewers know nothing of the Crites, one would imagine that the intergalactic prison system would have data about this particular group of aliens. The prison transport informs the warden that they are down to eight Crites, from 10, due to them having to kill two of them for eating everything in sight. They had to make the food last longer, so two had to go. Why did they not know this in advance? After seeing the Crites, it then also becomes interesting how they managed to take over and fly the ship to Earth. As they get bigger (from eating more) they do seem to grow feet and arms (as witnessed by the alien dragging April onto the ship), but the small furballs that land on Earth didn’t appear to have appendages.

And while it’s a trope for aliens to land on Earth and be infatuated with women, why does the remaining Crite drag April on to the ship? These critters have been eating everyone and everything else they can get their teeth on–except Jay, who manages to get extremely lucky (though for gosh sakes, get him a doctor! They spend time reassembling the house, and it seems like he’s in danger of bleeding out). Certainly the filmmakers didn’t want to kill April, but did want to provide a final moment of concern and a way to have the humans destroy the ship. So having the alien take Brad’s sister was probably more a plot convenience, than a sign of anything else.

The Final Frontier

Critters was the tip of the iceberg and launched a relatively successful, if poorly named, group of sequels. Critters 2, 3 and 4 appeared between 1988 and 1992, with Scott Grimes also appearing in the second installment. Terrence Mann and Don Opper are the only actors to appear in all four of the films. Mick Garris had his directorial debut for Critters 2 before directing television films like Psycho IV, The Stand and The Shining. A reboot of the series called Critters Attack premiered in 2019 (written by comic book writer Scott Lobdell) and featured Dee Wallace (again) as Aunt Dee.

For the beginning of October, this is a fun horror film to get started with. It has a few jump scares, but mostly it’s a light romp through the standard elements of a horror film such as the cat knocking over trash cans, or people scaring each other accidentally after the audience thinks they see a monster. Come back every day this week for more horror films during 31 Days of Horror, and next Saturday for another sci-fi film on Sci-Fi Saturdays.

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