Wednesdays get weird when Late Shift at the Grindhouse hosts Ross Meyer, Joe Derderian, and Aaron Holmgren dig up low-budget b-movies, horror and gore-fests, and camp classics for your viewing pleasure. Buy your ticket and take a ride in our Time Machine! Punch in and earn a bonus! $4 Pabst Blue Ribbon & Hamm’s tallboys, $4 small popcorn, small soda and candy! $1 off beer/wine/soda/popcorn/candy for FilmScene members. PLUS -- special custom trash trailer reel curated by Ross with cheap swag and prize giveaways!
Critters (1986)
Directed by Stephen Herek (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)
Featuring: Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Zane
They bite! The battle began in a galaxy far away … but it's about to end in small-town America. It's man against a hoard of small, furry, voracious aliens—the Critters!
"Exciting, funny, and imaginative." - Michael J. Weldon, The Psychotronic Video Guide
"Critters is one of the smoothest fake-Spielburg pastiche movies so far. The director and co-writer, Stephen Herek, has turned in a noteworthy audition film." - David Chute, Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"The mixture of sitcom and gore is too cruel for my tastes." - Joseph Gelmis, New York Newsday
"Full of giddy, ghoulish touches." - David Edelstein, Village Voice
"A funny science fiction horror film. Two thumbs up!" - Ebert & Siskel, At the Movies
"Scary and enjoyable!" - Michael Medved, Sneak Previews
"Movie theaters are full of clones of box-office hits, but with Critters the gene splicing experiment is a success. No tired retreat here. This mutation has a soul." - Jerry Bokamper, Arkansas Gazette
"Well played and unexpectedly entertaining." - Eleanor Ringel, The Atlanta Journal
"What a pleasant sense of humor Critters has and it is this attribute that is most responsible for making this playfully scary film more satisfying than most of the other items on the monsters-from-outer-space-come-to-Earth-and-try-to-kill-everybody menu." - Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune
"A thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi thriller." - Pia Lindstrom, NBC
"Like Gremlins' horrid cousin." - Jazmyne Moreno, Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of The American Genre Film Archive
"Perennially harassed by creatures of all sorts, Dee Wallace is once again put upon by little toothy, foul-mouthed furr balls from outer space in this refreshing, unexpectedly clever, mini-monster movie." - Chas. Balun, The Gore Score
"Critters is a pastiche of shameless lifts not only from Gremlins, The Terminator, and The Brother From Another Planet, but from such already secondhand sci-fi fare as Empire's Ghoulies and TerrorVision." - The Phantom of the Movies
"A well-made, well-acted, well-thought-out and often funny furry creature feature." - Richard Harrington, Washington Post
"There's an undeniable charm in the plentiful practical effects here, be it the Critters themselves, explosions, and even a brief music video sequence that will give viewers of a certain age intense flashbacks." - Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital
"The creature effects, courtesy of the Chiodo Brothers (the same guys responsible for Killer Klowns From Outer Space) is pretty solid here, the goofy little monsters move well and once they sink their teeth into something, manage to attack with an appropriate amount of ferocity." - Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!
It's no picnic for the Brown family when a lethal litter of carnivorous aliens arrives unannounced at their Kansas farm. Trapped in a deadly nightmare, the terrified Browns fight for their lives against the attacking bloodthirsty monsters. But it's a losing battle until two intergalactic bounty hunters arrive, determined to blow the hellish creatures off the planet! It's an alien adventure, full of action and just crawling with Critters!