The Comedic Antics of the Crites

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Critters? Not necessarily the movie but the critters themselves? Probably their appearances as ‘cute’ balls of fur with razor sharp teeth, however when I think of them I think Loony Tunes. It’s sort of strange and you’d think that I would choose a more popular critter like movie, like Gremlins, to compare that to but no… I think Critters is dark Loony Tunes; that’s not to say that Gremlins isn’t dark. Personally, when I think of Critters I think of that scene where one of them gets blown away from a shotgun and the other one watching says, “Fuck!” and rolls off. In fact, it sort of reminds me of when one of the Loony Tunes says something like “Dang nabbit” or when they say, “Son of a…” and it cuts away from them.

There are several little things that the Crites do that sort of mirror any given cartoon. They don’t mirror that many actions but it’s enough to consider them a cartoon brought to life. One of these instances comes when one of them gets caught on fire and they roll to the bathroom and bounce into the toilet. It always seems that when somebody or something gets caught on fire, the best way to put it out is by taking a nice little dunk into the toilet. But what’s funnier is that once the Crite puts himself out, its followed by a slow sounding sigh of relief. What I like even better about this scene is that the other Crites look on with amazement as they watch their friend roll into a toilet. It’s a perfect formula.

If you want to look further into this, you can look at the relationship the Crites have with each other. They are always bickering, arguing, swearing and picking fights with one another. Their task is to try to eat the humans or at least take one with them for the road, but they do it half ass. The Crites have such a unique bond with one another I can’t help but think they bare a resemblance to Marvin the Martian or even the non Loony Tunes characters Mutt and Jeff.

One of the trademark quarks of Loony Tunes, or any cartoon for that matter, is that you can’t really kill them. Aside from blowing them up, the Crites are almost unbeatable. There is a scene right out of the Loony Tune handbook of one of them grabbing a stick of dynamite and eating it. Does it blow them up? No! In fact, the bomb goes off in their stomach… followed by columns of smoke rising from its mouth. I half expected him to say something like “That’s a spicy meatball!” in Crite. I loved it, it just reassured us that this movie is campy and it knows it.

Perhaps all this support isn’t enough to say that it’s a tribute to Loony Tunes or cartoons, that’s something for Gremlins, but it just enough to say that the Crites are pretty much cartoon characters brought to life. Their humor is unintentional but at the same time… they are very dark. Critters is part comedy, and it would be a lie if the creators didn’t admit they got some of the quarks from the Loony Tunes. What I can be sure of is this: I would love to see a spin off TV show where the Crites go from planet to planet trying, in vain, to conquer it. I could foresee myself laughing my ass off from it.

Critters: The Antihero

Today’s post is going to be a little short because it’s something that I want to address about the Crites. Yes, those of you who saw the post I made on Twitter last night know that I watched Critters again. Thanks to that movie I have the ‘Critter Skitter’ stuck in my head but I also realized something about the Crites in this movie. I stated it before on Twitter but this time I want to elaborate on what I meant.

See, the Crites are very interesting ‘characters’ because they have personality, they are smart and they lovable to a point. Unlike most alien invader movies, the aliens are always reptilian looking or weird looking but the Crites are so simple and so ‘down to earth’ that they look like little balls of fuzz with teeth. You love them but you hate them because they are vicious little monsters. I guess what I am getting at here is that the Crites are an antihero, more or less. In some way, you want them to win and you want them to succeed but you also want the real heroes of the story to win as well. It’s a bittersweet relationship and its one of the main reasons why I love Critters. What makes their personality even more identifiable is that they swear and they beat each other up, something that you rarely see in any alien invader movie.

I compared them to the aliens in Mars Attacks because the aliens in that film are also antiheroes to a point because they are wacky, bumbling and you become attacked to them. You want to see them blow shit up and scream ‘ACK! ACK! ACK!’ The same thing can be said about the Crites. Out of all the aliens that I have seen, they have to be the best when it comes to their personality and their appearance.

Horror... IN SPACE!

The term ‘jump the shark’ referrers to an episode on Happy Days when Fonzie attempted a jump over a shark after a challenge against his bravery. The term often describes when a TV show has reached a point where the story spins off into absurd story lines, adding new and weird characters or twisted the story. It often marks when a TV show reached its prime and the show continues despite low ratings and viewership. It often marks when a TV show is nearing the end of its run. The same can be said for horror movies too… when a franchise has reached it’s prime but the greedy studios want to dish out even more to keep the franchise thriving. I found that the ‘jump the shark’ moment in most horror movies is when the franchise goes to space.

The more infamous franchise that has gone to space was the Friday the 13th franchise when Jason is frozen at Crystal Lake Research Facility and makes his way to space and slays everybody aboard. Why is this movie ‘jumping the shark?’ Because Jason went from a psychopathic killer at a camp in the middle of nowhere to goddamn “Uber Jason” in space! Plus, one of the corniest moments is when one of the people aboard the ship states, “What is this hockey?” C’mon! Now that is stupid. The story is pushed to space, which doesn’t make sense, and then they change the look and the character of the killer… two indications of when a franchise is dying out. However, the series was jumping the shark in Friday the 13th Part V and so on.

I can’t really say much for Critters 4 because I haven’t seen it in a while but it’s not really complain worthy because they did start off in space. The only thing that is ‘jump’ worthy is the idea that they returned back to space. The movie was great because it took place in a small town but in a dramatic turn of events they end up back in space. They couldn’t just leave it alone after taking over New York.

Another notorious franchise that went to space was the Leprechaun series. Now, the second and third and fourth one were all pretty bad and cheesy but to see the Leprechaun running around in a space station was just comedic and not even horror. It was nice to see Davis reprise is role as Leprechaun but this movie swerves into the world of DNA, mutations and computers… three things that never needed to be in the Leprechaun movies at all. However, they didn’t stop there… they went ahead and jumped the megalodon with Leprechaun: In The Hood.

It seems as though space is the final frontier in horror, when the series has become boring in landscape and more and more ridiculous in plot… so they move to space because there is so much to play with in space and a chance of landscape. What they don’t understand is that space is probably one of the cheesiest place for a killer to wind up. How can you explain a killer, who originated in Podunk, Iowa, end up in space without creating an absurd plot turn? You can’t! When a franchise goes to space, it normally means that they are running out of ideas and can’t keep the franchise alive that long.

What we can expect for future films? Well, thank God Nightmare on Elm Street, Phantasm and Texas Chainsaw have not gone to space but I am sure we can expect Saw eventually leading to space. It honestly won’t surprise me. However, I think the Power Glove scene in Nightmare on Elm Street was the jump the shark moment.

I still hang on the idea that they should make A Nightmare on Elm Street 8: Nightmares In Space; when Freddy goes to space in the Bernal Sphere Space Colony where Elm Street has moved. Then he kills all the teenagers of the people who work on the space colony because their ancestors were the kids of the kids of the kids of the kids of Elm Street. That is cinematic gold!!

Note: I think the Freddy In Space image is actually from the Freddy In Space blog.

Soundtracks - Critters (1986)

From Blogger Pictures

It has been a very long time since I did a review on a soundtrack and this time I will do a short review on a certain track from the movie Critters. David Newman composed the score for this movie and the track is titled… “Critter Skitter.” The other tracks in the soundtrack were okay but I enjoyed “Critter Skitter” a lot more since it paralleled “Gremlin Rag” in many ways. They both are synthesized but more importantly they are both fast paced and sound as though they belong in a cartoon… but “Critter Skitter” has something that “Gremlin Rag” doesn’t have: the use of a strong guitar and bell chimes.

The track starts off with electric drums and then the electric piano begins and that’s when the guitar and the bells come in and they are all fast pace. What I also like about the “Critter Skitter” is how it sounds like it belongs in an action sci-fi movie, which is rightfully so since “Gremlin Rag” sounds like a cartoon jingle. “Critter Skitter” is more dark and gloomy… more space themed. I am not ripping on Gremlins; I am simply comparing the two. It’s funny because I can just imagine the Crites running and rolling around to this song.