Critters
(New Line Cinema, 1986)

This movie is about one of the single most evil, hate-filled creatures in the galaxy.



No, not that one. I’m talking about the Crite. The crite is what you would get if you mixed a porcupine, an armadillo, and a blender, and then gave it a bad attitude. What’s worse is that they are almost always hungry. And don’t think you can give these guys any salad or bread to fill them up, because they are only interested in meat. Of course, they end up here on Earth.



This movie was the first that I saw as a kid that truly terrified me. I was eight years old, and this was the first “alien creatures come and eat people”-type movie I had seen. The only other horror films I had seen were the old black and white Universal movies. The fact that this movie takes place in a small rural town filled with barns, and I lived near a lot of barns, didn’t make it any easier. In fact, I refused to go in any barns by myself for nearly a year thanks to two scenes in the movie. Over time, the Critters series became some of my favorite movies in the genre, but I can still vividly remember my fear after seeing this movie.

It wasn’t until I was older that I started to appreciate the humor in this movie (as well as the rest of the series). Like the conversations between the crites. Or when one crite tries to talk to a stuffed E.T. There is a lot of funny moments in the film, but don’t let that fool you. There is also plenty of blood. There is a lot of biting going on.

This movie has a lot of what makes a horror movie fun, but then it adds to all of that by adding galactic bounty hunters, who have the ability to look like anyone they want to. There is a great scene with them at a bowling alley, which I won’t give away here(no spoilers, remember).



Tomorrow brings us Day 6, which means Critters 2 and the Giant Crite Ball.

ALSO COMING SOON:
Critters 3
Critters 4
The Frighteners
The Golden Child
Survival of the Dead