Fourths Of July: CRITTERS 4 (1992)

I suppose it is a bit of a backhanded compliment to say that CRITTERS 4 has no business being as good as it is. Still, when talking about the fourth entry in a series of films that began as a low-budget knockoff of GREMLINS, any compliment should be welcomed, and I cannot ignore the fact that CRITTERS 4 does hold up as a shining example of what I love about low-budget B-movies. In this case, great casting, a decent script that borrows (ahem) ideas from better movies, and an understanding by the filmmakers of what worked best from the previous three movies.

CRITTERS 4 follows the tried-and-true formula of good, low-budget genre movies that came before it and shamelessly rips off ALIEN for its central premise: in this case, a salvage crew finds a mysterious pod floating in space and makes a deal with a shady mega-corporation to return it to their nearest space station. Of course, the corporate overlords who the crew have never met are just as much the villains of the story as the destructive titular creatures who start picking off the crew one-by-one on the deserted space station.

Franchise producer turned first-time director Rupert Harvey is smart enough to keep the story contained to a handful of locations, wisely spending his budget on the impressive space station set and a cast mostly made up of veteran character actors who can nail their scenes with a minimum of takes. In an interview on the 2018 CRITTERS Blu-ray collection from Scream Factory, special effects artists The Chiodo Brothers lament how little the creatures were used in this sequel. They have a point that the ravenous little space monsters are what the audience expects to see and enjoy in these movies. What they miss is how Harvey and screenwriters Barry Opper, Joseph Lyle, and David J. Schow optimize the clearly limited funds at their disposal by focusing on the suspense of a group of characters dealing with unexpected threats in a hostile environment. Yet another smart lift from ALIEN.

Spending money on established veterans like Brad Dourif and Anders Hove, then-recent Twin Peaks alum Eric DaRe, and the up-and-coming Angela Bassett (who was only a year away from her Oscar-nominated turn in WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT) works in two very important ways.

The first is that this cast ensures that while the characters may be speaking futuristic techno-babble nonsense half the time, they are damn well going to sell the hell out of that futuristic techno-babble nonsense. The second is they are able to create the important illusion that the crew have been stuck together on a small spaceship for far too long with the appropriate level of antagonism and begrudging teamwork.

All of this is a slightly long-winded way of saying that it does not matter if your movie lacks enough creature work, should be running on creative fumes at that point in the franchise, or does not have enough money to do a space adventure, as long as you have interesting characters and the actors to bring them to life. It also helps to have an ace in the hole. In the case of CRITTERS 4, I have yet to talk about the movie’s not so secret weapon: Don Opper.

The character of Charlie (Opper) appears in all four of the CRITTERS movies (let us please just ignore the existence of 2019’s wretched reboot CRITTERS ATTACK!).

While he never fully takes over as the lead in any of the films, he is the beating heart of the franchise and provides some consistency beyond its destructive alien creatures.

Ostensibly a comedic character, from the first film, Opper gives Charlie a sad dignity that makes him stand out as his character arc takes him from alcoholic farmhand to bumbling would-be bounty hunter, to a real deal hero forced to make a tough decision in the startling dark conclusion to the franchise.

While CRITTERS 4 works just fine as a stand-alone siege in space movie, what makes it memorable (and my personal favorite of the sequels) is that the filmmakers trust the audience to have not only enjoyed the previous three films, but also to have emotionally invested in Charlie.

SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED THE MOVIE

The climax of CRITTERS 4 has Charlie confronting his old friend Ug (Terrence Mann), the only other character to appear in all four of the movies. Corrupted by power and wealth, Ug no longer cares that the Crites destroy everything they encounter. He wants them as a weapon and will kill anyone who gets in his way. Forced to decide between stopping the Crites for good and putting a bullet in Ug’s brain, Charlie chooses the latter.

When found by the salvage crew, Charlie learns he has been in a cryogenic sleep for fifty years and, therefore, everyone he ever knew is probably dead.

Killing his only friend left in the universe is killing a part of himself. It is too bad that the franchise ended here (again, the abomination known as CRITTERS ATTACKS! should be scrubbed from the minds of all unlucky enough to have watched it) because it would be fascinating to see how Charlie evolves from such a traumatic moment. Would he have remained his bumbling, yet heroic self? Would he have gone dark like Ug? Intriguing questions that will never be answered.

Yet it is better that such an overall solid genre franchise went out leaving the audience wanting more instead of overstaying its welcome.