Fandom, that is, one’s dedication to a particular topic, study or artistic exploit, is driven and often defined by discovery. Exploration. Finding something new… and taking it with you as your appreciation and understanding of the thing at hand grows and evolves.
I’m a horror fan— I think that’s probably pretty clear at this point— and discovery is a near daily component of my love of the genre. When I listen to podcasts, read articles or follow along on some like-minded horror fan’s Twitter feed, I am mining for titles. Searching for the next film that will help to define and expand the passion I already have for all things horror.
Of course, the best filmmakers tend to embark on a similar journey. A great horror filmmaker is usually a fan too, after all, and when they approach their art they carry that history with them. It’s how they execute their vision that determines whether such appreciation transforms into cheap imitation, impressive homage or something new entirely.
As I sat down to watch Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) the other night, some of these concepts were floating through my head. It was a sequel to a movie featuring small, furry, mischievous creatures that had come in the wake of several other films that were, well, about basically the same thing.
What sort of discovery was I in for, I wondered, something new… or more of the same?
While the script went through several iterations, originally coming from David Twohy before undergoing a rewrite by director Mick Garris, it has a straight-forward, comedically no-nonsense sensibility that matches the tone of the film. The words give way to the kookiness of the film which intermingles so well with the odd sweetness and occasional over-the-top violence the movie is at all times capable of. It’s an unpredictability that only heightens the sense of fun, humor and danger onscreen, driving the narrative constantly forward.
The film was a discovery that was made all the better by what had come before it, the various references and homages built in to both the script and screen working in tandem with my expectations and understanding of the genre sandbox it was playing in. While ever present throughout the runtime, this sensibility is most apparent during the scene in the diner where the two bounty hunters ambush the unsuspecting Critters. One part homage, two parts Warner Brothers style cartoon violence, the scene stands as an over-the-top celebration of genre cinema and yet something that still feels fresh and exciting.
THE SCENE
The bounty hunters enter The Hungry Heifer to find a gang of Critters feasting on the food. The creatures giggle and eat, unaware that the hunters have arrived and are preparing to slaughter them. Finally, the newcomers are spotted and several Critters mutter: “Uh-oh.” Guns blaze as the Critters are picked off, accompanied by silly sound effects, exploding food and additional Critter shenanigans.
THE SCRIPT
THE SCREEN
INT. HAPPY COW FAST FOOD JOINT — DAY
A huge amount of Critters have taken over the joint.
The language of the screenplay is casual and immediate, infused with a blue-collar feel. In one sentence, the scene feels loose, fun and grandiose, the scope of the huge amount of Critters suggesting a number we’ve not yet encountered.
The script goes on to describe the actions of the Critters, unperturbed and undiluted by outsiders, providing a glimpse into their social interactions and painting them as fun loving, mischief makers: One is on his back sunning himself in the BUN WARMER. One is BOBBING for FRENCH FRIES. Another two have the FREEZER open, and are munching their way through stacks of frozen BURGERS.
The film certainly provides similar glimpses, however with the added presence of bounty hunters Ug and Lee. The scene begins with a wide shot of the two bounty hunters entering the restaurant, unnoticed by the feasting Critters. Instead of bringing them in half way through the scene guns blazing as the screenplay calls for, they’re present from the start. In this way, the two serve as a point of view for the audience to bear witness to the Critters’ actions and help create a sense of mounting tension.
The camera pans up from the disheveled tables in the restaurant slowly, bits of food flying into frame from offscreen as The FEEDING SOUND fills the room. The sound, while not mentioned initially in the screenplay, resounds loudly from the moment the scene begins— as the screenplay refers to it loud and hypnotic. Then, the camera pans upward, passing by a buffet smeared with blood, we’re provided with our first glimpse of the aforementioned huge amount of Critters.
Digging grotesquely into mounds of food, each creature chews and gnaws in a spectacle of crazed gluttony. Instead of a montage of Critters doing silly things, the scene cuts back and forth from the bounty hunters to the Critters, juxtaposing their preparations to annihilate them with the unfettered indulgence of the beasts. While the film did not bring each individual Critter mentioned to life, it does provide us glimpses of giggling, impish things that have personality.
The only specific Critter that the script mentions which appears in this sequence is the one gingerly hopping around patties frying on the GRILL. It is not hopping, rather standing still, but it does flip burgers, a gag which seconds later evolves into the Critter frying one of his brethren when it falls atop the sizzling surface.
As the succession of shots progresses, the bounty hunters get closer and closer to their moment of attack. The Critters uproarious silliness continues to expound upon itself as their odd sounds of eating and mingling grows in volume. The script goes so far as to create a direct line of reference for the tone and situational sense of whimsy it’s attempting to foster:
[The FEEDING SONG] seems to draw more of them, each one joining in the EATING SONG… almost like the Seven Dwarfs singing “Heigh Ho…”
Drawing a not so subtle line to a similar scene in Gremlins (1984) and the sort of classic animation that film’s humor was rooted in serves to encourage the reader to draw on their past experiences, informing their visualization of the words on the page.
In the film one of the Critters squirts mustard on Ug, just as he is preparing to fire his weapon. In the screenplay, the bounty hunters CRASH into the joint blasting the shit out of the place! Regardless, the reaction of the Critters is both scripted and shot in precisely the same comical manner:
And then, in a quick series of CUTS, all their little HEADS TURN!
The film cuts to each of the Critters in the restaurant, their smiles fading and fear growing on their faces. The eating sound dies away and an awed silence sits in its place. An unscripted, breathy, collective “Uh-oh…” issues from the group, reminding the viewer, once again, that this is an extension of classic slap-stick, not horror alone.
The bounty hunters open fire and, indeed, blast the shit out of the place. Food and Critters alike explode onscreen in quick succession, the intercutting focusing on the terror and ludicrous violence directed at what were, moments ago, silly, cartoonish monsters eating lunch. The playful sensibility of the scene persists, however, as we watch one particular Critter’s eyes bug out of his face with a loud, reverberating “BOING!”
The screenplay mirrors this, calling for a general sense of silly, violent chaos:
Burger buns and Critter buns alike go flying, with chunks of tile, glass and concrete!
Critters are shown with their mouths agape in shock, desperate to avoid their demise and suddenly being painted like innocent victims. The Critters have personalities, a will and desire to live; one Critter is shown ducking behind a counter, forlorn and shivering in fear. We watch as several Critters attempt to help one another before being BLASTED into SMITHEREENS! One Critter snarls as his hair is blown off, causing him to take a beat and glance at himself in the mirror.
For a second or two, the chaos seems to halt. The Critter in question regards it’s own, newly hairless visage and remarks in Alienese (which has been so kindly subtitled for our viewing pleasure): Bitchin’! While not in the script, the moment feels perfectly in line with the film’s broader intentions.
This is a scene all about balancing a multitude of conflicting tones into something that miraculously works. The script describes a Critter who is thrown screaming into the BOILING OIL! In the film, the Critter is shown bobbing in the fry cooker, hairless and raw from the burning oil, its mouth open as it screams in unbearable pain before succumbing and sinking beneath the grease. Horrific and upsetting, this scene is followed by a Critter attempting to escape, only to roll into the door with a loud, cartoonish “BOING!” As he sits, his head lolling from side to side, the classic sound of tweeting birds resounds.
The moment is frivolous and whimsical, an ideal bit to juxtapose against the more darkly affective image of the tormented beast drowning in boiling poison. The screenplay continues with a scene where a Critter LEAPS at Ug, and chomps on his WRIST thereby severing his hand, but the film forgoes this, rather concluding with the remaining four Critters forming a ball and exiting.
Three or four Critters JUMP TOGETHER into a large Critter BALL, and ROLL out through the door!!!
The scene ultimately stays Critter focused, landing on their continued means of survival and the sentiment that when it comes to Critters, there is power in numbers. The scene is quick and to the point. An outlandish, exciting few minutes which perfectly sets the stage for the back half of the film.
THE BLOODY CONCLUSION
“That took days,” director Mick Garris recalled on the documentary The Main Course: The Making of Critters 2 found on the Scream Factory blu-ray disc.
“[We made] a lot of specialty puppets,” Special Effects Supervisor Charles Chiodo remarked on the same documentary, “for each individual cut and for each individual gag.”
Ever since I first became a horror fan, I have been searching. Mining the depths of the genre for my next, undiscovered favorite. It’s a process that builds upon itself, creating my own personal narrative thread through the genre. All of us take different paths and discover movies at different times. Some movies benefit from having seen less, and some expect you to have a working knowledge to get to the heart of what makes it tick.
From the script to the screen, the scene in the Burger Joint represents this mentality better than most in the film. Not dissimilar from something that could’ve been seen in Gremlins only four years prior, but infused with a different sense of science-fiction storytelling, action and grindhouse grit than its predecessor.
On his Blumhouse produced podcast Post Mortem with Mick Garris, in an episode titled “Critters 2 — 30th Anniversary” posted on May 2, 2018 (Found here), Mick Garris commented:
“I was inspired by [Gremlins] because [Joe Dante] was inspired by the Warner Brothers cartoons and how can you make a movie about little munchie Critters without going back to the Gremlins of the Warner Brothers cartoons? You just can’t.”
This carried forward to small things in the scene too. In reference to the “BOING!” which resounds when the Critter’s eyes pop out, Mick Garris commented on the documentary mentioned earlier, “that was my voice sped up.” He thought it gave the moment that “Warner Brothers cartoon feel that it went for and the cartoon chaos of it.”
In the documentary, Steven Chiodo goes on to explain that the scene required “8 or 10 puppets working” with an equal amount of puppeteers. He continues that they specifically gave each one a “personality” and would often have to “spend all night cleaning them” due to the intake of food and fake blood. All of this for a scene which runs less than two minutes.
Sometimes the process of discovery can turn us fans cynical. Push us to be unreceptive. Unwelcoming. Likely to write a movie off as imitative as opposed to referential. A rehash instead of a fresh take.
Critters 2 reminds us that the horror genre is vast, varied and layered with history which, when correctly applied, can strengthen and solidify as opposed to weaken and dismantle. From the simplistic, sometimes silly word choice on the page, to the wacky, darkly comic physicality that ended up on screen, the scene in the diner represents what homage and genre evolution has to offer.
I did not expect to discover something I loved in Critters 2, but that’s the great thing about horror and fandom in general. If you keep an open mind, you never know what you might discover.
After all, what is cinema but a collective of artists trying to tell new stories in the historied medium that they love. In the words of Mick Garris from the “The Main Course” when talking about his approach to the sequel:
“[We wanted to] recreate what people liked about it and make it new and fresh.”
Something new. Fresh. Evolved. A novel approach— and one I think that most of us fans who find ourselves in constant search of discovery can appreciate… and relate to.
Critters 2: The Main Course (1988): Written by David Twohy and Mick Garris & Directed by Mick Garris
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