After the huge success of Gremlins in 1984 a rival studio came up with a more grisly version of manic mini mutant monsters. Titled ‘Critters’ it came out in 1986 and had a bunch of hungry hairballs with teeth devouring everything they came across in a farming town. Critters 2,3 & 4 followed and ended in 1992 and from there on nothing. So now we have Critters Attack and like the sequels this has gone straight to video, or in the US, to TV.
What we have here is the story of 20 year old Drea (Tashiana Washington) reluctantly taking a job as a babysitter for a professor of a college she hopes to attend. Struggling to entertain the professor’s children Trissy (Ava Preston) and Jake (Jake Fulton) along with her own brother takes them all on a hike unaware that the critters have crash landed and started devouring everything they encounter – think Gemma Collins at an all you can eat buffet. At the same time the four of them encounter Bianca, a female critter, who is an exiled Royal fleeing the critter race and it all comes to a head at the college campus.
Critters Attack will please fans of the original in so far as the creatures remain as practical puppets effectively looking like furry basketballs with teeth and the film also sees Scream Queen Dee Wallace return to the franchise having been the star of the original. This is amiable enough fun directed by Bobby Miller who has a large number of short films to his credit and has worked in just about every department from Editor to DoP to producer and actor.
The disc has a number of featurettes about the making of the film which is an interesting insight to how certain scenes were achieved with the puppeteers one of which is covered with tattoos and looks like the notepad we keep at the side of our phone. There’s also a scene specific commentary with the director and a critter that talks which has some novelty value.
Far from being the best of film in the franchise Critters Attack is OK an has enough comically gruesome moments but is unlikely to re-energise any interest in further films.
Here’s the Critters Attack trailer…….
