Often dismissed, not entirely unfairly, as a clone of 'Gremlins,' this little monster movie is an altogether nastier affair with an appeal all of its own. The Krites, essentially carnivorous hedgehogs from outer space, escape from their galactic prison and head for the nearest convienient eatery: Hicksville, USA. And where should they land but the home of ET's mom herself, Dee Wallace Stone, and her classic hillybilly family: hay-chewing bowlerama Dad, trampy big sister, and our hero, slingshot weilding, firecracker loving little brat Brad. The ensuing mayhem is perfect family entertainment, so long as the parents don't object to their kids seeing the occasional sap get a chunk bitten out of them, and small aliens using the dreaded 'f'-word. (Oh, how daring it seemed at that age!)

Put simply, this is good old-fashioned dumb monster movie fun. Not the best monster movie of its era - that honour goes, of course, to the mighty 'Tremors' - but great fun nevertheless. For me as a kid it was a great introduction to horror; along with the aforementioned 'The Monster Squad,' I watched this movie repeatedly between the ages of about nine and fifteen. It's not too scary or gory, but it was just enough to show me the appeal of being scared, preparing me for such later favourites as Freddy, Jason and Romero's zombies. Sure, it's largely pretty basic, disposable entertainment, but there are at least three things that make 'Critters' noteworthy: firstly, an early appearance by Mister Dead Calm/Titanic/Phantom himself, Billy Zane; secondly, director Stephen Herek, who went on to give us the legendary Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure; and thirdly, one truly awesome special effects sequence, in which the green-headed faceless alien bounty hunter transforms into Terence Mann, without the benefit of CG. A genuine masterpiece of make-up effects, the film is worth seeing for that alone, assuming flesh eating furballs are not enough to sell it to you.

If you're a nostalgic child of the eighties, buy it and revisit those halcyon days. If you're a child of today, just getting into horror - buy it and stay well away from such godawful tripe as 'Van Helsing' or whatever else they're passing off as horror these days.

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