31 Days of Halloween: Critters Attack!

 2019, Bobby Miller (The Cleanse) -- download

The original Critters movie(s) is something I remember fondly, but not with any strong recollection as to why. I do recall it being rather witty, if terribly stupid and gory. And the idea of these badly controlled puppet-like, evil versions of Fizzgig from The Dark Crystal still make me grin. We also heard, which I have to remind myself, should have been ignored because there is no worse judge of horror movies than horror movie fans, that it was a decent movie.

Drea and Phillip live with their uncle, the bumbling, drunken but good hearted Sheriff. Drea really wants to go to the same university her mom attended, and Phillip is obsessed with aliens. Then a shooting star, then another and yes, real aliens (critters) that pop out of their metal cannisters and start eating people immediately. After some unexpected encounters, Drea, her brother and the kids she was babysitting end up at the university, trying to defend themselves from the ever growing hoard of roley-poley fur balls of teeth. With some unexpected help from a character from previous movies, Dee Wallace (E.T. The Extraterrestial), they defeat the monsters.

Was it good? Gawds no. Was it terrible? Probably... but it was kind of fun, and to be honest, I was rather impressed with Tashiana Washington, played Drea. She just put more into that role than it deserved, providing a fuller character than most A-List movies have. I was hoping that they might take advantage of some of the 21st century movie making technologies, and create a less cute, and more scary monster, but who was I kidding, they had no money, and the nostalgic love for the bad practical effects is probably what got this movie made.