Alright, fellow tape-heads, slide that worn cassette into the VCR, maybe give the tracking a little nudge, and prepare for lift-off… sort of. Remember scouring the Sci-Fi/Horror aisle, past the big hitters, and landing on something that just screamed "late-night cable"? Sometimes you found gold, sometimes you found… Critters 4. Released direct-to-video in 1992, this wasn't quite the explosive finale some might have expected for our favourite fuzzy alien carnivores. Instead, it blasted the franchise into a setting so unexpected, it felt less like a sequel and more like someone accidentally spliced the wrong reels together.
Houston, We Have a Krite Problem
Picking up directly – and I mean directly – from the cliffhanger ending of Critters 3 (thanks to being shot back-to-back to save those precious pennies), our perpetually unlucky hero Charlie McFadden (Don Keith Opper, the heart of the series) finds himself cryogenically frozen alongside the last two Krite eggs. Fast forward fifty-odd years, and they're picked up by a salvage crew in deep space. Cue the inevitable thawing, hatching, and low-budget interstellar mayhem aboard a dilapidated space station. It's Alien, but swap the terrifying Xenomorph for ravenous space hedgehogs with attitude, and replace the Nostromo's budget with whatever they found behind the studio couch cushions.
The shift from small-town America to the cold vacuum of space is… jarring. Gone are the familiar fields and farmhouses of Grover's Bend, replaced by generic corridors, blinking lights, and ventilation shafts perfect for Krite-sized ambushes. Director Rupert Harvey, who also helmed the previous, Leonardo DiCaprio-starring entry, does what he can with limited resources. The claustrophobia of the station could have been effective, but often it just feels cramped and repetitive. Yet, there’s a certain charm to its B-movie ambition, a feeling that they were really trying to make "Critters in Space!" happen on a shoestring.
Familiar Faces (and Fangs) in Zero G
Despite the change in scenery, the film wisely keeps Don Keith Opper front and centre. Charlie remains the relatable, slightly goofy anchor in this increasingly absurd saga. His bewildered reactions to waking up decades later in space provide most of the film's intentional humour. Also returning is Terrence Mann as the shapeshifting bounty hunter Ug, though his role feels somewhat diminished here, popping in more sporadically. It’s always great to see Mann, who brought such cool menace (and rockstar looks) to the earlier films, but you wish he had more to do.
The real casting curiosity, looking back through our nostalgia-tinted glasses, is the presence of a pre-superstardom Angela Bassett as Fran, one of the salvage crew members. It’s fascinating to see her here, bringing professionalism and intensity even to this goofy sci-fi scenario, just a year before her powerhouse, Oscar-nominated turn in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). Keep an ear out too for the distinctive voice of Brad Dourif (Child's Play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), who provides the gravelly tones for the final Krite communicating through a translation device – a slightly bizarre plot point that feels pure 90s sci-fi schlock.
Puppets in Space: The Practical Effects Angle
Let's talk Krites. By the fourth outing, the puppetry, while still charmingly practical, perhaps shows its limitations. The rolling, the chomping, the glowing red eyes – it’s all there. We get some decent Krite-on-human action, and the practical gore effects, when they happen, have that satisfyingly squishy, tangible quality missing from today's CGI blood spray. Remember how those little monsters felt genuinely menacing back then, despite looking like demonic Tribbles? There's an undeniable tactile reality to seeing those puppets interact with the actors and the sets, flimsy as those sets might be. They might not have had the budget for elaborate animatronics, but the team leveraged good old-fashioned hand puppets and rod puppets for all they were worth. It’s a far cry from the seamless digital creations of modern blockbusters, but there's an undeniable artistry and effort involved that commands respect.
Direct-to-Video Destiny
Unsurprisingly, Critters 4 didn't exactly set the world on fire. Skipping theatres entirely, it landed directly on video store shelves, often bundled as a double feature rental with its predecessor. Critics weren't kind, and even many fans felt the space setting was a jump too far (or perhaps, jumped the space shark?). The plot essentially becomes a repetitive cycle of hide-and-seek on the station, lacking the escalating chaos of the earlier films. There's a sense of the franchise running out of steam, or perhaps just budget. A rumour persists that the original script was a standalone sci-fi horror called 'Critters 4: They Bite Back in Space', later tweaked to fit the existing Critters narrative after the back-to-back filming decision was made, which might explain the slightly disconnected feel.
VHS Heaven Rating: 4/10
Justification: While it boasts the essential presence of Don Keith Opper, the welcome return of Terrence Mann, and an early glimpse of Angela Bassett, Critters 4 suffers from its low budget, repetitive space station setting, and a plot that feels thin even for a creature feature sequel. The practical Krite effects retain some charm, but the overall execution feels cramped and lacking the destructive fun of the originals. It's a noticeable step down in quality and ambition.
Final Thought: A curious, budget-challenged detour into orbit that mostly serves as a franchise footnote, Critters 4 is the kind of deep-cut sequel you’d rent when all the copies of Aliens were checked out – watchable for die-hard fans and 90s sci-fi completists, but approach reentry with lowered expectations.