Stephen Herek's CRITTERS was released in the summer of 1986 and was immediately jumped upon as a genuine pastiche of the old B-movie horrors of the 50s; but is it a good film?
An asteroid somewhere in outer-space is home, or prison, to some very nasty creatures who manage to escape when they hijack a spaceship. They crash land on Earth, in a small American town, and soon start wreaking havoc amongst the community, first on a cow and then on a farm. Meanwhile, intergalactic police are on their trail. They send to Earth two bounty hunters who have the ability to morph into anything they see fit, one a famous rock star and the other of various disguises, to aid them in their hunt of the increasingly deadly critters.
I remember enjoying this low-budget film much more the first time round but, if truth be told, I still somewhat enjoyed it some years later. If by a genuine pastiche of the old B-movie horrors of the 50s they mean crudely directed, crudely written and crudely acted then I'd have to agree with them, whoever they are, because this quirky film is nothing if not crude; however entertainingly so. From the destructive critters terrorising the all-American family, to the two bumbling bounty hunters, to the outcast local always hearing aliens through the fillings of his teeth, I could happily ignore the film's cheapness for the eclecticism of it all, and I had none of the problems I usually have when sitting through horrors, that they're made purely for horror sake. Afterall, a horror that is scary is nothing particularly special, just like a comedy that is funny is nothing particularly special; a horror should be scary anyway and a comedy should be funny anyway. Indeed, I had less of a problem sitting through the tat of CRITTERS than I had sitting through some of the more popular horror films today simply because it is, unlike them, reassuringly humble. It knew it wouldn't have the originally of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN or the metaphorical brilliance of David Cronenberg's THE FLY. It knew the best it could do was to entertain and it knew the best way to entertain was to take the best bits of the best films, including from the best horrors, and reconstruct something that wouldn't be original, certainly wouldn't be groundbreaking, and in result wouldn't take itself too seriously, which is the film's saving grace. CRITTERS is a poor film because it didn't try to be what it knew it couldn't be, and in effect this lack of ambition on the filmmakers part amounts to the many reasons why the film isn't a good one, why it isn't a good horror, but it is still hugely enjoyable anyway and with horrors being made now with nothing but horror, and comedies with nothing but comedy, I often like to watch something that isn't trying to be anything specifically than what it is: even if what that is, like CRITTERS, is escapist nonsense.
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Advantages: Collection of four films, fun to watch, comedy horror, and a past-time. Disadvantages: NO special Features included, like commentary, and directors cut etc...
![Critters [DVD] [1986]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78492551.jpg "Critters [DVD] [1986]")
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