Twelve kinds of taste
Which one are you?
Rate five things you know, from any shelf. Your archetype shows up in about a minute, and gets sharper with every log.
Rate five things you know, from any shelf. Your archetype shows up in about a minute, and gets sharper with every log.
Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction 86 min PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes52%Metacritic52IMDb
The battle began in another galaxy. It's about to end in the Brown's backyard.
Carnivorous aliens arrive unannounced at a Kansas family farm; two intergalactic bounty hunters soon follow, determined to blow them off the planet.
Sign in to log this.
Resolved, unpretentious, effortless and plot-driven.
No profiled raters yet.
From critics we follow, and from Buds here.
Critters | Anatomy of a Franchise
In Praise of Shadows · Sep 2025
No reviews yet. Yours would be the first word on it.
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
<em>'Critters'</em> is <em>'Gremlins'</em>-esque fun overall, though it isn't supremely enjoyable all the way through; I felt some pacing issues. The titular aliens do look the part though, even all these years later. The practical effects are nice, that house explosion is particularly great. Scott Grimes is the actor that stood out most to me whilst watching. I do like how the kid is written, usually in these sorta films they tend to be only annoyingly bratty but here there are a couple of moments where you can see Brad's good; e.g. with Charlie, or with his mum. A nice touch, I thought. It is a movie that I'd say lacks consistent thrill, but all in all it's one I'll still be considering as passable. Hopefully the sequels are more critter-centric than human-centric though, that's the only way I reckon a franchise like this could avoid bad follow-ups.
Read the whole review on TMDB**_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
Read the whole review on TMDB"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.
Read the whole review on TMDBChecking availability…
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Taste Buds. Other media included when they land close.
Recommendations from TMDB. Opening one adds it to Taste Buds
Answer first; then see how everyone, and your circle, split.
“Is Dee Wallace the best thing in Critters?”
Sign in to answer.
Be the first to answer.
“Has Critters aged badly?”
Sign in to answer.
Be the first to answer.
| Stream | |
|---|---|
| Free | |
| Rent | |
| Buy |
US availability, powered by JustWatch via TMDB. Each chip opens that service’s search for the title. Other regions on JustWatch
