# Critters

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Entity type: review
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Content type: movies
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## Description

Critters is as old as I am, which is either a charming piece of personal trivia or a brutal reminder that both the film and I now qualify as vintage. Either way, watching it again feels properly mid-80s. Practical monsters, enormous explosions, small-town America and absolutely no embarrassment about any of it. Released in 1986, Critters arrived during that wonderful period when cinema had discovered there was money in small creatures with terrible manners. Gremlins had already shown what could happen when cute-looking monsters were allowed near suburban families, but Critters has its own scruffier identity. The creatures here are Krites, escaped alien prisoners who make their way to Earth and immediately begin eating. That is pretty much their entire economic model. They land around the Brown family's farm, turning what begins as small-town family life into a siege involving furry extraterrestrial mouths with an impressive tooth-to-body ratio. Two intergalactic bounty hunters follow them to Earth, although 'helpful visitors' might be stretching the definition considering their approach to property damage. The Krites themselves are still the reason to watch. They are nasty little practical puppets, all glowing eyes, snapping teeth and fur. You can occasionally see the rough edges because this was made in an era before every creature was digitally scrubbed until it looked like it had been manufactured inside a graphics card. Good. The physical creatures have weight. They roll, bite, bounce around and occupy the same space as the actors. Their mouths open too wide, their fur looks filthy and when several of them appear together they resemble somebody's deeply unsuitable collection of carnivorous footballs. There is CGI today that looks infinitely more convincing, but convincing is only part of the job. The Critters are memorable because somebody had to build the horrible little things. Charlie is Critters' secret weapon Don Keith Opper's Charlie could easily have been disposable comic relief. He is the local drunk, believes in aliens long before anybody sensible wants to listen and wanders through the story looking considerably less prepared for an extraterrestrial invasion than the job description would ideally require. Then Charlie keeps being useful. His slingshot proves surprisingly effective, his belief in aliens suddenly makes him one of the better-informed people in town, and the character becomes increasingly difficult not to like. Critters would still have monsters and explosions without him, but it would lose a lot of its personality. The rest of the film moves quickly enough that there is little time to question anything. The Brown family is under attack, the bounty hunters are hunting and the Krites are hungry. Critters does not stop for a serious discussion about extraterrestrial biology because there is another furry ball with teeth about to come through the window. That pace helps enormously. Plenty of cheap creature features have a great monster and then hide it for seventy minutes because the budget only allowed somebody to operate the puppet on alternate Tuesdays. Critters knows what people came to see and keeps the creatures involved. The success of the idea eventually produced three sequels during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Critters 2 brings Charlie back, Critters 3 contains a very young Leonardo DiCaprio, and Critters 4 eventually sends the creatures into space because apparently Earth had suffered enough. The franchise gets stranger as it continues, but the first film remains the easiest one to love. Everything is still simple. Alien prisoners escape, land near a family and start eating things. Bounty hunters arrive. Charlie gets his slingshot out. Nobody needs a mythology lecture. There are bits that have aged, of course. Some effects wobble and the film belongs unmistakably to the decade that made it. That is part of the appeal rather than something we need to apologise for. The practical work, gooey violence and slightly rough production give Critters a personality th

## Image

https://planetofthecapes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/zLL6nX13AfigvvNQ9GyNXhKVrmg.jpg

## Short Description

Little furballs from space with teeth like chainsaws and a taste for chaos—Critters is the ultimate reminder that sometimes horror doesn’t have to be clever, it just has to bite.

## Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGyKnW3zW4