Video: Fans of gory yet goofball 1980s creature horror, rejoice: Critters are back!
The series, which began in 1986 with the cult classic Critters — and spawned several sequels of diminishing returns, plus a recent web series — continues with Critters Attack!, which heads to Blu-ray, DVD and streaming in the US this July. This first trailer suggests the film was made with a very low budget, but very high spirits:
Yes, that’s OG Critters cast member Dee Wallace-Stone, heading up a cast that’s mostly filled with a bunch of young newcomers (which is not necessarily the worst place to start; after all, 1991’s Critters 3 was the feature-film debut of some guy named Leonardo DiCaprio). Here’s a plot description that pretty much tells you everything:
Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), who starred in the original Critters as Helen Brown, will sink her teeth into the franchise for a second time in the mysterious role of Aunt Dee. Inspired by the film series from the ’80s and ’90s, Critters follows 20-year-old Drea (Tashiana Washington), who reluctantly takes a job babysitting for a professor of a college she hopes to attend. Struggling to entertain the professor’s children Trissy (Ava Preston) and Jake (Jack Fulton), along with her own little brother Phillip (Jaeden Noel), Drea takes them on a hike, unaware that mysterious alien critters have crash-landed and started devouring every living thing they encounter.
While being tracked by the ravenous critters, Drea and the kids encounter an adorable, seemingly harmless female critter named Bianca, an exiled royal fleeing the critter race. As the critters converge on the college campus, Drea and the kids, who are now inextricably linked to Bianca, rush to head them off. Will Drea discover her inner badass, and will it be enough to stop the critter onslaught? And is the critter princess as innocent as she seems?
Obviously not, kids — much like their suspiciously similar cinematic counterparts in Gremlins, it’s in your best interest to never trust a critter, even when they seem so very cute and harmless.
Critters Attack! comes to Blu-ray, DVD and digital on 23 July 2019 in the US. An Australian release has not yet been confirmed.