In 1986 “Critters” catered to the crowed that loved ’84’s “Gremlins”, and ’85’s “Ghoulies”, and the crowed that found Gremlins a little tame for there gory tastes. Though “Critters isn’t an all out ‘horror’ film, it carries the fine line between Sci-Fi-Horror affair much like “Alien”.

The difference between “Critters” and “Gremlins” are subtle, but enough to make this a worthy picture for mass concumption. “Gremlins” was intended to be a comedy, but fell on the fine line with it’s realistic violence. This ofcourse was helped though by the films sequal “Gremlins 2: The New Batch”, but “Critters” is more strait forward sci-fi, without trying to cuddle you in. The story is pretty basic, you could run the first 10-15 minutes of “Wizard of Oz” and then splice into “Critters” where the action begins, and you really wouldn’t notice much of a difference other than Dorothy gets much older real fast, and one of the Lolly Pop Guild is our protaganist.

The Brown family, a farm family outside of a small town in Kansas is invaded by small “Popple” like creatures from outer space that escaped from a prison hold on the other end of the galaxy. The “Krites” as they are called by the bounty hunters that follow them, begin to feed and grow on cops, cattle, and unsuspecting boyfriends. This low budget romp is fun, and funny, I think that the bluntness with the gore and sci-fi/horror atmosphere makes this stand apart from “Gremlins”, but let’s all face it, the pitch for the movie was: “Gremlins” meets “Alien”! Scott Grimes plays our young hero by the name of Brad. Don Opper plays his friend, and father’s employee Charlie, whom part isn’t as large here as it is in the sequals, other than the crazy guy running around warning everybody, ala’ “Friday the 13th”, and so on. Dee Wallace Stone plays her typical scared mother role, with M. Emmit Walsh chewing up the screen as Sheriff Harv, and rocker Terrence Mann as the ultra cool Bounty Hunter, Ug. “Critters” is fun as long as you don’t take it too seriously.