Kill More Crites: An Annual Easter Tradition

 

Who has the bigger blaster?

Not a lot to say this year that wasn't mentioned plenty of times over plenty of blog years during Easter weekend. This year my daughter wanted to watch Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) with me, so I thought that made this particular viewing all the better. I was years younger than my daughter, though, when I would catch it on HBO or a recording off of HBO on a videotape I borrowed from my uncle. I don't recall ever seeing it in the videostore, though. As far as videostores go, I always wish that Lee had turned his nothing face and nothing body into Freddy Krueger. That would have been so cool. I imagine plenty of Nightmare fans still sigh in disappointment that Charlie interrupted and halted Lee's transformation. But in the form of Roxanne Kernohan was an a-okay substitute. I will never feel too slighted. As far as Karnohan goes, I always have this bit of sadness seeing her because of how her life was cut so short at 32. Still, she'll always be remembered since a lot of horror and Critters fans watch the sequel almost annually. This wasn't as much an Easter weekend must-see annually for me when I was a kid and teenage youth as it has been since probably 2002-ish. I've noticed that some of the podcast horror community I follow faithfully actually prefer this sequel to the first Critters film. I still can't quite join them in that regard, the sequel is still a fun revisit just the same. Garris had the right cast to keep me coming back to them. Ug and Charlie returning, too, has always been a check mark in the positive category. But Scott Grimes returning certainly was a major check mark...when I was a kid, and because I love the first film, the main star coming back for the sequel was a big deal. Even if his family left Grover's Bend, Kansas, Bradley Brown's trip back home for Easter weekend to see his "nana" was the perfect excuse storyline-wise to have him once again at odds with those damned Crites. There's enough Easter holiday ingredients (the sheriff in bunny costume becoming Crite bait and the Crite eggs colored before they hatch, and just the bright sunny weekend with plenty of bunny and egg aesthetic throughout the small town, including the preacher at the church talking about "resurrection day", all make up the weekend for Grover's Bend) accompanying all the furry fiend monster mayhem. Liane Curtis as Grimes' cute love interest is appealing and they do make an adorable pair of Critters vanquishers. And redheaded Lin Shaye looking for the big scoop when she's not beside spit-chewing, insult-wielding former sheriff, Barry Corbin. There is just something extra to an insult when Corbin calls the townsfolk arguing with Bradley Brown about fighting the Critters a bunch of pussies.