Critters (film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Stephen Herek |
| Produced by | Rupert Harvey |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Domonic Muir |
| Starring |
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| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
| Edited by | Larry Bock |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million |
| Box office | $13.2 million (US) |
Critters is a 1986 American science fiction comedy horror film starring Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Green Bush and Scott Grimes. It was the directorial debut of Stephen Herek who co-wrote it alongside Domonic Muir (story) and Don Keith Opper (additional scenes), with creature effects by the The Chiodo Brothers.
It is the first film in the Critters series. Although widely believed to have been inspired by the success of Joe Dante's 1984 film Gremlins, Herek has refuted this in interviews, pointing out that the script was written by Muir long before Gremlins went into production and subsequently underwent rewrites to reduce the apparent similarities between the two films.
The film begins on a prison set on an asteroid, from which a group of 'Critters' are set to be transported to another station. When the Critters kill two guards and injure three, hijack a ship from the station, and escape, the commander of the station hires two shape-changing bounty hunters to pursue them.
On Earth, the Brown family are living in a rural Kansas town: the father, Jay; the mother, Helen; the teenage daughter, April; and the son, Brad, who keeps company with mechanic Charlie McFadden. When he and Brad are outside, shooting off homemade fireworks and playing with Brad's slingshot, Charlie accidentally hits April with a slingshot pellet, and Brad assumes the blame on himself to protect his friend (one of his apparent only friends throughout the movie). When on the roof later, Brad mistakes the Critters' spaceship for a meteorite. The ship thereafter lands, causing the ground to shake. Investigating, Jay discovers Brad in a tree, and allows him to come along.
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