Monday, October 7, 2013

HMM '13: Critters

It's October!  The doorway to not only the start of the greatest food season (early October to Christmas), but also to sexy nurses, zombies, and grown men dressing up like ponies.  That also means it is time once again for Halloween Movie Madness!  This year, I'll be taking a look back at the movies of my youth.  Every movie this year was released before I turned eighteen.  These are the Halloween movies that shaped me into the man I am today.  Some of them are scary.  Some are funny.  Some are fantastical.  Some are just weird.  And not all of them are good.  But to me, they are all Halloween movies.  Now, stand back, for your own safety!


Critters
1986

This movie is about one of the single most evil, hate-filled creatures in the galaxy.


No, not that one.

I’m talking about the Crite.


The crite is what you would get if you mixed a porcupine, an armadillo, and a blender, and then gave it a bad attitude.   What’s worse is that they are almost always hungry.   Just don’t think you can give these guys any salad or bread to fill them up, because they are only interested in meat.   Of course, they end up here on Earth.

This movie was the first that I saw as a kid that truly terrified me.  I was eight years old, and this was the first “alien creatures come and eat people”-type movie I had seen.   The only other horror films I had seen were the old black and white Universal movies.  The fact that this movie takes place in a small rural town filled with barns, and I lived near a lot of barns, didn’t make it any easier.   In fact, I refused to go in any barns by myself for nearly a year thanks to two scenes in the movie.  Over time, the Critters series became some of my favorite movies in the genre, but I can still vividly remember my fear after seeing this movie.

It wasn’t until I was older that I started to appreciate the humor in this movie (as well as the rest of the series).  Like the conversations between the crites, or when one crite tries to talk to a stuffed E.T. This movie has a lot of funny moments, but don’t let that fool you, as there is also plenty of blood. There is a lot of biting going on.

This movie has a lot of what makes a horror movie fun, and if you have never seen it, you are doing yourself a great disservice.

Time for some more Gifs Without Context!