Gremlins is a nearly perfect franchise that made the world fall in love with its titular movie monsters. Arguably, the only thing wrong with Gremlins is that we only got two flawless films and haven’t had any new onscreen adventures with these pint-sized terrors since 1990.
If you’ve been wanting to fill that Gizmo-shaped hole in your heart, though, I’ve got good news: you can now stream Critters (the 1986 spiritual sequel to Gremlins) for free on Tubi.
Welcome To Earth
The premise of Critters is that toothy alien criminals escape imprisonment and head to Earth to cool their fuzzy heels. There, they terrorize rural residents while trying to evade the alien bounty hunters who have come to bring the Critters back to space jail. Unless the hapless humans can figure out how to drive these monsters back to the stars, the entire planet may just get stuck in a nasty war of the worlds.
The cast of Critters is surprisingly good, including Dee Wallace (best known for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) as a matriarch trying to keep her family safe from alien visitors who are dead set on causing chaos. Meanwhile, M. Emmet Walsh (best known for Blade Runner) plays a local sheriff who suddenly has to deal with violent criminals from another planet.
Neelix! Everybody loves Neelix.
Most surprisingly, an impossibly young Billy Zane (best known for Titanic) plays a young man who just wants to make time with his girlfriend, but he has to deal with crazy Critters who are ready to give new meaning to the term “sucking face.”
A Bite To Remember
As great as the actors are (and we do get some very solid performances, especially from the veteran character actors), the real stars of this movie are the titular Critters. They have a great design (it’s the perfect balance between spooky and silly) and are very expressive, which is great for any Gremlins fans who want to see more minuscule monsters manufacturing mayhem.
Throw in some very memorable kills at the hands of these space invaders, and you have a freaky little film that you’re never going to forget.
While Critters wasn’t a critical smash (more on this soon), it proved relatively successful when these awful aliens crash landed at the box office. Against a budget of only $3 million, it earned a bite-tastic box office of $13.2 million.
This was enough monstrous moolah to kick off a franchise. We later got four sequels (of admittedly varying quality) as well as a bonkers reboot web series.
Critics and Critters Don’t Mix
When Critters came out, film critics were decidedly mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a score of 52 percent, but critics’ main complaint was that the titular Critters weren’t really that scary. Otherwise, they gave the film props for having a solid cast and a satisfyingly screwball tone.
To me, this reveals the simple truth that critics didn’t really know what they wanted from this freaky creature feature. After all, the film’s comedic tone is largely due to the Critters who are (like the Gremlins before them) generally used for laughs even when (or perhaps especially when) they are killing their victims.
Iff you want a serious horror movie with genuine scares and buckets of blood, you should go watch Terrifier. If you want to see well-designed monsters wreaking infectiously silly havoc on hapless townies, though, Critters has exactly what you’re looking for.
Unelevated Horror At Its Best
Plus, while the sequels are a mixed bag, this first Critters film deserves full credit for its delightfully chaotic and unpredictable script. From the first creative kill to the last gasp of bounty hunter shenanigans, this is a movie that never does exactly what you’re expecting it to do. That makes it perhaps the rarest film of all: a B-movie schlock fest that nonetheless feels fresh and original at every turn.
Will you agree that Critters is a hilarious spiritual sequel to Gremlins, or will you want to send this freaky little film back to space? The only way to find out is to pull up Tubi and stream this vintage creature feature for yourself. Fair warning: by the time the credits roll, you may want nothing more than to curl up in a cozy Critter ball and binge-watch the entire franchise!
