Critters

Directed by Stephen Herek, Critters follows the residents of a small town, including Dee Wallace Stone’s Helen, M. Emmet Walsh’s Harv, and Scott Grimes’ Brad, as they attempt to battle small, vicious creatures from outer space. Filmmaker Herek, armed with a script written alongside Domonic Muir, delivers a perpetually half-baked and uninvolving endeavor that fares best within its small-scale opening stretch, as the movie, once it gets past its underwhelming prologue, boasts an appealingly low-key first act revolving around the aforementioned small town and its agreeable assortment of denizens  – with the relatively promising vibe heightened by the easygoing work of stars Stone, Walsh, and Grimes. (Billy Zane is, as well, a lot of fun as the dopey boyfriend of Stone’s character’s daughter.) It’s clear, then, that Critters begins its steady descent into irrelevance (and tedium) as it progresses into a seriously (and aggressively) lackluster midsection, with the egregiously emphasis on the protagonists’ dimly-lit efforts at battling the title monsters paving the way for a repetitive second half devoid of compelling attributes – which, when coupled with a fairly endless climax, ultimately cements the picture’s place as a mostly misguided disaster.

*1/2 out of ****