*. Or, Critters in Space. But since space is where they came from in the first place, and the alien angle was always kept in play in the other movies by the presence of the intergalactic bounty hunter Ug, going off-planet isn’t as big a jump as it would be in other horror franchises of the time, like Hellraiser: Bloodline, Leprechaun 4: In Space, and Jason X. But it’s also only fair to give the little furballs credit for being the first horror franchise I can think of to make this transition.
*. In my notes on Critters I mentioned that it was a movie made out of horror clichés but that nevertheless still worked. That’s the case again here, though I don’t think it works quite as well. Basically this movie is riffing off of Alien. Charlie has been frozen in a pod along with some Critter eggs, and is found floating in space by the scruffy crew of a salvage ship. They bring the pod on board and then head to a corporate space station to collect a finder’s fee. When they arrive at the station, however, it is deserted, and its nuclear core is melting down as the Critters hatch and go wild.
*. That’s a fair bit of plot to get through in just a short movie, and there’s actually more to it than this. There are also other borrowings, like a trip to a trash bin that’s modeled after the one in Star Wars. Indeed, there is so much going on here that I couldn’t follow it all. What was the significance of the experiments being done to create a bio-weapon? Did that relate somehow to bringing the Critters to the station? I feel like I missed something there.
*. While not as good as Critters or Critters 2, I at least thought this a better effort than Critters 3. What’s curious is that this movie follows as a direct sequel from Critters 3, even beginning here with the final minutes of the previous movie. But despite this connection, and the fact that they were filmed at the same time, this one feels completely different in tone. The comedy is almost all gone, and even Ug has turned into a bad guy. A transformation he only explains by saying that “things change.” Indeed they do.
*. Still, there are a few things that bring this up a notch from what you might expect. There’s one slightly gory kill, notable because the series has never gone for gore. There’s Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif as crew members. There’s an AI named Angela that only those of us with memories of early Windows operating systems may fully appreciate.
*. So not as bad as I was expecting, though I was expecting something very bad indeed. A horror classic it ain’t, but at least I didn’t have to suffer too much in hitting for the cycle.
Alex on Film 
An Alien rip off sounds fun, glad it wasn’t too awful for you. 😀
Certainly not as bad as 3, or of the recent reboot/sequel Critters Attack! Seeing Bassett and Dourif helped. Still, this is pretty cheesy. Odd that so many of these horror franchises went blasting into space around the same time, when it rarely made any sense. I guess there were a lot of space-themed sets available to shoot on.
Movies come in themes sometimes I think, lots of survival/isolation movies turning up at the minute, maybe a covid trend. 1992 was the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavour so maybe spacey things were trending in the build up to that?
That’s an interesting thought. It seems as though cheap SF was having a bit of a resurgence at the time. Not the good, inventive and expensive stuff, but the usual cheesy corridors and toy guns.
Do you think it would be worth you watching the whole franchise again, to straighten out these plot point issues?
Worth it? No. But I’m not saying I never will. I had the sense, as with many plot gaps, that something had been there in the original script that just never made it into the movie.
Do you think we should remake this film? Will you cover the reboot or tv show?
I will be writing up Critters Attack! Given how awful it was, I think any further sequels should be murdered in the cradle.
Are you drawing a line in the sand? Are you separating yourself from the critter movement?
One more movie (that you insisted I include, by the way). Then I’m closing the door and not letting any more Critters into the house.
Would you adopt one? Maybe as an assistant, like in the film I reviewed? Sort your notes out for you?
Absolutely not. They breed like rabbits and eat everything. I’m also not sure how good they are at taking lunch orders.
So your are prejudiced against critters? Not welcome in your workplace? You work at a paper, is your office biased against alien fireballs?
I’m just a freelancer now so I don’t engage with office politics. As far as I’m concerned the Critters can take over. Maybe they can save print. Nothing else has worked.
I’d vote for them, can’t see Lord Buckethead revitalising print media.