CREDIT: NEW LINE CINEMA
If you are into low budget, stereotypical horror films, then this is for you.

When I was in the second or third grade, I became obsessed with the ‘80s film Gremlins after discovering a toy replica of Gizmo, the movie's furry little monster sidekick, equal parts adorable and unsettling which I think was the appeal for me. Since then I have become aware of the existence of many Gremlins rip-offs piggybacking on the success of the original, one of those movies is Critters. The 1986 film had the best score on the various rating systems, so I figured it would be a good place to start.

I was surprised to discover that the movie actually has little to do with Gremlins. Director and writer Stephen Herek asserted that he conceived his film long before the existence of Gremlins, a credible claim considering the films have little in common besides the premise of little mischievous monsters who delight in chaos and destruction.

The film begins in outer space with the commander of a prison asteroid: a man who floats around in a circular hover chair looking like someone who hangs out with Jabba the Hutt. It is made clear that the critters have broken out of jail and hijacked a space ship.

The commander hires two bounty hunters, identical faceless humanoids with glowing green heads, to pursue them. The critters land their ship on earth near a farm inhabited by the most unrealistic one-dimensional family ever conceived. They terrorize the family the next night after all earthbound characters have been established.

April Brown is a boy-crazy teen girl. Brad Brown is her mischievous brother who delights in annoying his sister and misusing fireworks to generate explosions. Helen Brown is their stereotypical breakfast making, apron-wearing mother. Jay Brown is their hard working, out of touch farm dad who bowls regularly. Steve Elliott is April's cool, brainless boyfriend with sunglasses hanging from his V-neck and a silver sports car with a license plate that reads “2 GR8”.

Herek has stated that it was his intention to create a horror movie “genre parody”, and with this in mind the flat characters sort of make sense. Without the extra genre parody context it can be hard to tell when the humor is intentional. Unhelpfully there is a total lack of character development. Helen Brown is hysterical and helpless for the entire movie, except for a brief episode where she summons enough courage to use Jay's gun to fight off the critters, but then she almost immediately reverts to her previous state of hysteria. April seems to instantly get over her critter- slaughtered boyfriend, quickly reverting back to the bored teen girl archetype.

The special effects in this movie are surprisingly impressive though somewhat inconsistent. The alien costumes are your typical tacky low budget sci-fi affair, but the quality of both the interiors and exteriors of the space ships make up for it. The bounty hunters transform at random into people they see. A scene where one of their faces melts and transforms into fictional ‘80s rock star Johnny Steel is particularly impressive.

The actual critters are effectively creepy, well designed puppets, though their movements can seem a bit limited and unnatural at times. At one point Brad notes that the critters are growing bigger. One of them grows to be as tall as the house, though we never see the entire monster at once, only strategic shots of its face and limbs, which comes across as a bit cheap.

Critters is a fun movie for anyone who takes pleasure in low budget horror films as it's essentially a vehicle for little monsters destroying things and tormenting people. With quite decent special effects and a functional plot, it does what it's meant to do fairly effectively. However, if you're looking for a movie with complex characters and compelling drama, this is certainly not the movie for you.