Critters 4 - Critters in space

Yes, those nasty killer rolling fur-balls did technically come from space, so seeing them back there isn’t that much of a stretch.  However, it does just seem like a bit of a gimmick by the film-makers to try and keep a – slightly – tired horror film franchise going.

Critters 4 was made back to back with Critters 3 (a fact that you’ll probably have guessed if you watched the ‘in-credits’ scene that preceded Marvel’s in-credits scenes by nearly twenty years), therefore it does follow on perfectly.  The last of the Crites’ eggs are sent up into space, but naturally they hatch and cause mayhem.  Basically, if you’ve seen one ‘monster-on-a-spaceship’ film made after ‘Alien’ then it’s basically like this.  Or, another way to describe it would be a ‘slasher/monster film in space.’

You have a load of disposable characters who are there to be killed off by the escaped Crites, a few that you’re supposed to care about (but probably don’t!) and Charlie – the only major character who’s been in all four movies (and this time he’s been given top billing!).  He’s just about the only person you’ll care about, as he’s from ‘our’ time and is even more of a fish out of water in space than he is on Earth.  However, one good actor can’t really help how mundane the overall package is.  It just feels rather cheap overall.  The sets all look – well – like a set!  And I read online that some of the external shots of space and spaceships have been reused from a previous sci-fi movie.

As I’ve said, if you’ve seen any monster-in-space film made after ‘Alien’ then you’ll probably have seen this, or better, as it will give you all you need to know about the genre.  The kills aren’t much to write home about and long time fans of the franchise may disapprove of the way they’ve changed one of the other long-running characters (or was that just me?).  If you love the Critters franchise that much, you may like this.  I own it because I have the four disc DVD box set, so I kind of watch it out of duty when I’ve already seen the first two (same could be said for the third, but this one doesn’t even have Leo as a kid to laugh at).

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back