Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1986. That movie is "Critters".
Now I mentioned this movie way back during my review of "Munchies", when I was listing certain movies that were trying to cash in on the success of "Gremlins". And I had mentioned that I had never seen any of the "Critters" movies. Well, that's gonna change, because for the next couple of months, I'm gonna be reviewing all 4 movies for this series. Now I know there's technically a fifth movie, however, aside from owning the first 4 movies in a combo pack, from what I've looked up, it's more or less a reboot of the first movie. So, I'm not gonna be reviewing that one anytime soon. Plus, I don't own a copy of it anyways, so it doesn't really matter regardless.
So anyway, let's get into the first movie here. Now aside from what I've already mentioned about this movie already, I don't know much about the plot. All I know is that it involves some weird-looking creatures that probably terrorize people. And...that's kinda it, really. I have no idea about the content of the movie itself, but that's what I'm here to find out. I'm hoping that this movie will be a good start for this franchise. And the only way I'm gonna find out if it is any good, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Critters".
14 minutes later
Well, guys, I will say this much. The song that I just heard a moment ago sounded pretty good. And I also learned something new about these bounty hunters. Apparently, their green blank faces can also morph into whoever they want, too. I will say the effects for it were kinda creepy and messed up, but still, it was sorta cool.
15 minutes later
OK...so even though we haven't seen physically seen these creatures yet, apparently they're strong enough to mutilate a bull and nearly devour it's corpse. I gotta say, that definitely looked a bit nasty there.
8 minutes later
So these furry bastards can also shoot spikes from their bodies. That's actually really cool! I mean, granted, it probably hurts like hell, but at least it is something a little unique.
13 minutes later
OK, so even though they don't technically speak our native language, there's something really funny about one of them just saying the word "fuck" after one of them was just shot at by a shotgun. I don't know why I find it funny, guys, I just sorta do.
12 minutes later
All right, I have a bit of a dumb question here, but how exactly do these creatures grow in size? Is it because they eat a lot? Or is that just a natural thing for them? I'm really kinda curious now, because I don't believe the movie has ever given any sort of detail on how exactly these demonic furballs are growing in size. I'm hoping maybe we'll get something resembling an explanation soon. Until then, I suppose it would be a good idea for Brad to get the hell out of there and find some help. Though how exactly he's gonna outrun the ever-growing creature is something I don't know at this time.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Critters". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where to begin with this one...? I suppose I can start by saying that this movie was pretty good. Mind you, it's not really a great film, and I'll get more into why in a moment, but I am gonna say that, just based on what I've seen, I am very interested to see where this franchise goes from here. So, at least I can say that much.
Now why don't we kick things off here with the writing. And I'm gonna be honest with you guys, the writing in this movie is, by far, the weakest point. And the first thing I have to talk about are the stars of this movie, the critters, or "Krites" as they're called in this thing. One thing I noticed right away about them is the lack of information about them. Now to give you guys a comparison, both in "Gremlins" and "Munchies", they explained about what those creatures were and how you should defeat them. With the Gremlins, their weakness was sunlight. And with the Munchies, their weakness was electricity. Now as for the Krites, well...they really don't have any specific weaknesses about them. They can be killed by conventional weapons such as gunshots or explosions. So while they do look threatening on appearance, they're not exactly hard to take down either. Well, unless they grow in size. Which then, yeah, they do become more threatening. The thing is, though, it only happens to one of the Krites, while the others never grow in size. Why exactly that is, is something that's never fully explained.
And that right there is my biggest problem with this movie is that these Krites come off as really generic and bland creatures. There's not really much about them that makes them unique, other than that one of them can grow in size and they can also shoot spikes from their bodies. Which is cool and all, but it's not really enough to make you care about them very much. The only semblance of backstory you get about them is that they escaped from prison facility that was set on an asteroid. Which then leads into our two bounty hunters, who I'll talk about later on, to go after and kill them. But aside from that, there's really nothing much about these Krites that makes them stand out as unique. Now who knows? Maybe they'll expand on them in the sequels later on, but as for their first outing, they just come off as being rather generic.
Which then leads me into talking about the characters. And really, guys, there's nothing much to say about these characters. They too come off as mostly bland and generic. Even the bounty hunters, who have the ability to morph their heads into whoever they like, don't have any sort of personality that makes them interesting. Which is really disappointing, because their first appearance looked really ominous and cool...and then they come on Earth and they also come off as really boring as a whole. The only character who has anything resembling a personality is Charlie, and that's mainly because he's just an alien conspiracy theorist. Which I know is not saying very much, but at least it's the most interesting thing about him. However, we are instead following Brad, our main child character, and his family, as they try to hold off the Krites that are attempting to kill them and destroy their home. Brad is basically an inventor of sorts as he can make unique weapons such as a flamethrower out of a drinking can and also has a slingshot, which was confiscated by his Dad early on when Brad lied about shooting at his older sister's ass while trying to cover for Charlie, who really was the one who shot at Brad's sister's ass.
But yeah, Brad is really not that interesting, in terms of child characters. At least the ones I've seen beforehand anyway. Now, you might think that with all of the problems in the writing, that I'm probably gonna say that it sucks or something. And obviously, that's not the case. Like I said earlier, I still think the movie's pretty good, and while the writing is certainly not as strong as I'd like it to be, I still think it is worth checking out. Because while the characters in this movie are pretty bland, the thing that sorta makes up for is that the movie kinda turns into a home invasion flick where Brad's family is trying to hold off the Krites as best they can. And you do sorta end up caring about them as they try to hold off these monsters. And the whole thing involving them is honestly some of the better parts of the movie. The only other negative I can quickly bring up is that the pacing for this thing is a bit slow. The first 25 minutes of the movie has almost nothing going on. It's only when the Krites spaceship crash lands on Earth is when the movie starts to get interesting for the duration of the movie.
Now with all of the problems I've talked about involving the writing, let's move onto the acting. And I'm gonna say that the acting here is also pretty decent, too. It's not great, as some of it is a little on the wooden side. Most of that comes from the actor playing Brad's Dad, who feels very wooden for a majority of this flick. Everyone else though. did an OK job. I'm even going to include the child actor playing Brad. Even though he sorta had big shoes to fill in terms of being a main child character, he did an OK job with the material that he was given to work with. And while it's obviously not perfect, I am in no way gonna say that it completely sucked either. So yeah, overall guys, the acting here is decent for what it is.
Special effects in this movie are really good. And one of the biggest contributing factors comes from the Chiodo Brothers. For those of you who don't know, they were the same guys who also did the special effects for one of my favorite horror comedies of all time "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". So when I saw their name credit for the special effects, I was hoping for the best when it comes to them regarding the special effects, and they didn't disappoint me whatsoever. The Krites in this movie, in terms of their design, look great. And the puppeteering is also really good. Now granted, it's not exactly on par with something like "Gremlins", however, it's still really good stuff, especially coming from the Chiodo Brothers. The blood effects are also really good. The sets involving the inside of the prison asteroid are decent, although they could've been better with some better lighting. But aside from that, the special effects overall are really good.
Camerawork here is also really good. The lighting here, aside from the darkly lit stuff I mentioned a second ago, is pretty good too. In fact, I'll also say that a good majority of this movie was shot at night, but at least most of it is still very viewable. Sound-mixing here is mixed fine. The music here is also really good, as it is composed by the great David Newman. So I kinda expected the music here to be just as good as some of the other movies he has composed music for.
Overall, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Critters"? For the most part, yes. As long as you go into it, knowing what to expect, then you're bound to really enjoy it. Now granted, the characters are all pretty generic and bland, as is our furry little creatures, but I still think it's worth watching, if at least just once. If you're someone who's into the creature flicks that are obviously trying to cash in on "Gremlins", then you're still most likely going to really enjoy it. Now obviously, I would prefer "Gremlins" and even "Munchies" to a certain extent, but "Critters" still has it's moments of campy goodness. I'm hoping that the sequels are gonna be just as good, if not even better than this movie was. But until then, I think I'm gonna go and watch something else. And seeing as how I talked about the Chiodo Brothers and "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", I'm gonna go and watch that next because I *love* that movie to pieces.
So yeah, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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