Critters (1986)

★ 6.5 1h 26m 1,083 votes IMDb
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Carnivorous aliens arrive unannounced at a Kansas family farm; two intergalactic bounty hunters soon follow, determined to blow them off the planet.

Critters

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Cast

Dee Wallace
Dee Wallace as Helen Brown Age 77 · Kansas City, Kansas, USA Dee Wallace (born 14 December 1948) is an American actress and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for her roles in several popular films. These include the starring role as Elliot's mother in the S...
M. Emmet Walsh
M. Emmet Walsh as Harv Died 2024 · Ogdensburg, New York, USA Michael Emmet Walsh (March 22, 1935 – March 19, 2024) was an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including supporting roles in dozens of major studio fea...
Billy Green Bush
Billy Green Bush as Jay Brown Age 90 · Montgomery, Alabama, USA William Warren Bush (born 1935) is an American actor, sometimes credited as “Billy Greenbush”. Notable movie appearances include Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972), Electra G...
Scott Grimes
Scott Grimes as Brad Brown Age 54 · Lowell, Massachusetts, USA Scott Grimes (born July 9, 1971) is an American actor, voice artist and musician. Some of his most prominent roles are his appearances on ER, Party of Five, Band of Brothers, and American Dad..
Nadine Van der Velde
Nadine Van der Velde as April Brown Age 63 · Toronto, Ontario, Canada Nadine was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is fluent in French. She made her film debut in 1983 in the film Private School.
Don Keith Opper
Don Keith Opper as Charlie McFadden Age 76 · Chicago, Illinois, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Don Keith Opper (born June 12, 1949) is an American actor, writer, and producer who has starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role as Charl...

Audience Reviews

Gimly 7/10 Aug 25, 2019
It's great when you re-visit a film you enjoyed as a kid and find that as an adult it still totally holds up. Sure _Critters_ almost definitely found its start as nothing more than one of the slew or various _Gremlins_ rip-offs that were being written up at the time, but it's precisely the differences **from** _Gremlins_ that make _Critters_ any kind of success. The more overt sci-fi elements of the film have become a mainstay in the franchise, and are a big part of what makes this thing worth coming back to.

_Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time._
Sheldon Nylander 6/10 Sep 02, 2019
"Critters" is one of those rare movies that comes along that, despite all odds against it, manages to strike just the right chord. A little-monsters mix of scifi, horror, and comedy, the film uses its low budget as part of its charm. It scales the film farely small, that being a family farm that's attacked by Crites, voracious little eating machines from outer space, rather than a world-spanning threat. This is likely due to the low budget, but it works very well because the lower scale gives the audience a chance to know and identify with the characters, including the Crites themselves. The Crites are more than just Gremlins from space. They have their own language (subtitled, of course) and given that there are only a handful of them gives the filmmakers a chance to give them some character as they interact with each other and the environment (watching one of them try to talk to an ET doll is worth a chuckle). It's not a great film, but it's still a fun way to spend an hour and a half. Just don't expect the same magic from the sequels.
Sheldon Nylander 6/10 Sep 02, 2019
"Critters" is one of those rare movies that comes along that, despite all odds against it, manages to strike just the right chord. A little-monsters mix of scifi, horror, and comedy, the film uses its low budget as part of its charm. It scales the film farely small, that being a family farm that's attacked by Crites, voracious little eating machines from outer space, rather than a world-spanning threat. This is likely due to the low budget, but it works very well because the lower scale gives the audience a chance to know and identify with the characters, including the Crites themselves. The Crites are more than just Gremlins from space. They have their own language (subtitled, of course) and given that there are only a handful of them gives the filmmakers a chance to give them some character as they interact with each other and the environment (watching one of them try to talk to an ET doll is worth a chuckle). It's not a great film, but it's still a fun way to spend an hour and a half. Just don't expect the same magic from the sequels.
Kamurai 7/10 Jul 10, 2021
Good watch, could watch again and do recommend.

This is a good one to jump into the way back machine for, and I'm waiting on a reboot to happen. (Actually...."The Tomorrow War" is sort of on the same track)

The critters themselves are (in a horrible way) cute and vicious looking, the acting is decent, the story is good, and I'm a big fan of the shape shifting hunters sent to kill them.

When it comes down to it, the movie is a lot of fun and worth giving a watch.
Wuchak 8/10 Dec 28, 2024
**_Entertaining popcorn flick from the mid-80s is both cartoonish and horrifying_**

Small, furry extraterrestrials harass a farm town in America while two bounty hunters try to capture them.

"Critters" (1986) takes the basic premise of 50’s alien-invasion flicks, like “The Blob” or “War of the Worlds,” but meshes it with the tone and furry creatures of “Gremlims” from two years prior. The Kansas farmhouse and small town setting recalls teen Clark Kent’s situation in “Superman” (1978). The movie expertly walks the balance beam between fun & amusing and deadly serious creature feature. The vibe is similar to "Neon Maniacs" from the same year, but this is superior, as well as superior to “Gremlims.”

Dee Wallace is a highlight as the wife/mother, never looking better, while Nadine Van der Velde is worth a mention as the brunette daughter. On the other side of the gender spectrum, a young Billy Zane shows up as the latter’s beau while Terrence Mann has a memorable dual role, not to mention impressively wrote the catchy song for the soundtrack, “Power of the Night.”

I like how this isn’t a typical alien-visitation flick. The addition of the galactic bounty hunters adds an interesting new dimension, a concept that would be ripped off the next year by “The Hidden.”

It runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot in Valencia, Santa Clarita, which is a 45-minutes drive northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

GRADE: B+/A-

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