More than a ripoff of Gremlins, Critters is a fun, Amblin-esque family adventure with plenty of amusing sequences and extremely memorable titular creature design, though at times the events at the farm and in the town feel disconnected

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 4, 2024

Charming gateway horror film in which the human characters somehow manage to outshine the titular alien furballs.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 2, 2024

The lead monsters are sort of endearingly nasty and the movie has fun with its small town setting, but the film is perhaps a little too derivative to pass muster with the best of retro-chic [science fiction].

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 28, 2021

Critters resemble oversize hairballs and roll like tumbleweeds when prodded into action, the perfect menace for this irritatingly insipid and lightweight film which unfolds with plodding predictability and leaves few cliches unturned.

| Oct 28, 2021

Gremlins does exist and Critters is simply a drive-in exploitation version of it, likable in a blue-chin, blue-collar way, but lacking the original's moral and magical qualities.

| Oct 27, 2021

It's so pitifully plain that the budget won't stretch to showing bigger Critters that the pathetic effect becomes laughable.

| Oct 27, 2021

The picture provides a fair amount of knockabout fun, with some sprightly incidental jokes of a suitably unsubtle variety.

| Oct 27, 2021

Clichéd in every department, with predictable plot, stage-managed coincidences, and a widgee-faced boy hero. Critters is saved From a Z-rating by its sly, tongue-in-cheek humour and expertly-created munchkin stars.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 27, 2021

Once all the cards are on the table, the movie quickly becomes little more than a human meat-fest.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 27, 2021

Critters is a low-budget suspense film with fairly successful special effects and a story that keeps you on tenterhooks.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 27, 2021

Don't expect much from Critters and you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. No big deal, but some nice chuckles.

| Oct 27, 2021

The film has some nifty special effects (particularly for a low-budget feature) and a healthy chunk of comedy and scares. Of the vast lot of rip-offs, Stephen Herek's production rates quite highly.

| Oct 27, 2021

If Gremlins worked, it's because their killers seemed real. But it's hard to get worked up over hairy tittle toys.

| Oct 27, 2021

Indigestible, if not toxic, entertainment.

| Oct 27, 2021

Unfortunately, the directing, writing and acting in Critters will only give you nightmares.

| Oct 27, 2021

Four stars. Best of '86. Joe Bob says check it out.

| Oct 27, 2021

So it's mostly derivative. So it ends just as predictably as it possibly could. We don't care. We like this movie a bunch.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 27, 2021

Gremlins wasn't my kind of movie, and neither is Critters. The mixture of sitcom and gore is too cruel for my tastes.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 27, 2021

When the film is trying to be scary -- which is most of the time -- it's not particularly successful. Indeed, its clumsiness in that respect is such that it's downright laughable. It's occasionally redeemed, however, when it's being deliberately funny.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 27, 2021

There are only so many ways to play out this scenario, and we've seen them before

| Original Score: 2/10 | Oct 27, 2021