Well that’s the end of the “Critters” franchise review.

I was really, really happy to re-visit this franchise as I often feel it get’s very much overlooked these days.

Believe it or not, the “Critters” franchise was quite a hit for its time. New Line Cinema’s venture was even gaining more popularity than “Gremlins” at one point but alas these deranged fur-balls seem to have been sadly forgotten by many. Talking of “Critters” and “Gremlins”, there’s the age old debate about who do you prefer, if they where to fight who’d win etc. For me It’s the “Critters” they’re more my style, there’s no cute ‘Gizmo’ character when it comes to the ‘Crites’, and not only are they intelligent but they’re also humorous and blood hungry.

The ‘Critters’ were a fantastic creation, they were highly humorous and just so entertaining. They’re just ravenous, yet slyly intelligent, creatures. It’s hard to pinpoint what animal they’re similar to, I’ve heard all the comparisons, from porcupines, rats, badgers, opossums, hedgehogs, rabid cats, tasmanian devils and a slew of other similar creatures.

One character I can’t leave out is our beloved hero, ‘Charlie McFadden’, Don Keith Opper was perfect casting for the role, if you look at the stereotypical heroes of that time he was the complete opposite. He was a bumbling village idiot who’s life was changed I’ve often wondered what happened to Don as he just seemed to disappear into obscurity, I always thought he’d have a great career after these films.

I thought the same for Scott Grimes, though he has gone on to have a great career and I’m really glad to see it as he fully deserves it. Grimes has also never shied away from talking about his time in the franchise, in a positive way, a refreshing thing to see in this day and age. You do get actors who don’t like to talk about the early days of their careers, especially if it involves Horror.

A talk of a reboot in the franchise was talked about for so many years and fans were hopeful of something happening, then in 2019 news came out of a possible “Critters” TV series, I was ecstatic. I thought a TV series would be absolutely brilliant, a great way of introducing the franchise to a new generation. As I stated in my reviews, the old saying comes to mind “be careful what you wish for”.

What we got was an eight episode series called “Critters: A New Binge”, it was absolutely horrific. Each episode was only ten minutes long, the acting was horrific and was like a slap in the face to fans. It was honestly like watching somebody do a parody of the franchise, I just couldn’t understand understand how this had managed to get made and still made its way onto our screens.

In that same year we also got the abysmal film “Critters Attack!”, if you read my review of the film then you’ll know what I’m talking about. It was so sad to see my beloved franchise became a joke, I know it’s known as a b-movie franchise but to me it seemed that the writers wrote their scripts based on someone explaining the films to thwm without watching it,

Yet, I’m still hopeful that one day we will see a return to form for our beloved franchise, what can I say I’m an optimist. It would be perfection to see the return of Don Keith Opper as ‘Charlie’, Scott Grimes as ‘Brad’ and even an appearance by Terrence Mann would be great, though I don’t think he’d be a ‘bounty hunter’ these days but to see an appearance by him would be great for fans.

“Critters” is a truly fun filled franchise that I urge you to give another watch, it might be better than you remember it to be. Maybe just stick to the first four films though, you’ve been warned.