Critters Attack! Review: The space-dwelling Crites return to munch their way through the Earth’s population in the long overdue new entry in the Critters series.
Image Courtesy of Fantasia Festival
‘What is this, 1986?’ is a line uttered several times during Critters Attack! and in many ways, this question is what the audience themselves are asking. Director Bobby Miller has clearly been so devoted to sticking true to the feel of the original films that it’s hard to believe that it was made in the modern day. It’s great that Miller wants to try and capture that feeling, but at times it swamps the film, making it dated rather than nostalgic. He also sticks so close to the original feel that it falls into the same pitfalls.
The Critters films have never been viewed as the most prestigious of the horror world, but they do hold a sentimental place in the hearts of many. They wormed their way in with their over-the-top comically violent and cuddly killers, and at a time when so many genre films were flooding the market, plot wasn’t deemed important. Similarly in Critters Attack!, there’s not much plot to go on. The Gremlins from space format gets repeated again, this time with the downtrodden Drea as our heroine. Drea is a sushi worker desperate to get into the college her late mother attended. In a bid to get in the good graces of the admissions board she agrees to babysit one of the lecturer’s children. The timing couldn’t be worse though as they encounter a crashed spaceship full of Krites. There’s also the return of original star Dee Wallace (though this time in a different role) whose enigmatic character, Aunt Dee, exists almost completely outside of the rest of the film. There’s not much more to go on, no satisfying character development and no conclusion to anyone’s story arc, leaving the viewer feeling rather dissatisfied when the end credits roll. Furthermore, all the dialogue throughout the film is clunky and forced.
Where Miller and his team excel though is with the Critters themselves. Miller’s previous movie The Cleanse, was a stand-out at Fantasia film festival a few years back and included some rather interesting creatures. The whole film felt very much of the eighties era, Miller opting for practical effect creatures rather than generating them on a machine. It’s something that Miller follows through with here, so don’t worry folks, the Critters still have that extra dimension to them. There’s even the inclusion of something brand new, that we haven’t seen before and, be warned people, it’s utterly adorable. Sadly the new creature, as cute as it is, cannot save what is just another rehash of the tried and tired Critters format.
Critters Attack! was reviewed at Fantasia 2019. It will next screen at Arrow Video Frightfest in August 2019.
