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Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys, because we’re talking about 1986’s Critters and 1988’s Critters 2: The Main Course.
First and foremost, we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thank you also to Essex Coffee Roasters, our newest sponsor. Head to www.essexcoffeeroasters.com to check out their fine assortment of coffee, and enter CINEPUNX in the promo code for ten percent off your order! And as always thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally thankful. If you would like to become a Patron, head to patreon.com/cinepunx. Thanks in advance!
We start by talking about what we’ve done involving horror recently. Liam talks about seeing Climate Of The Hunter and revisiting The Exorcist II: The Heretic. Justin talks about the films Sator and Synchronic and the series The Stand.
Up first is Critters. We start by talking our initial experiences with the film and Justin talks about much of what he liked about the film was him misremembering Critters 2.
We talk about the phenomenon in horror and sci fi films of aliens possessing advanced technology such as space travel and yet acting wildly feral when they get to Earth and how the first film in this franchise neatly subverts that while the second film largely abandons it in favor of visual gags and FX shots. We then dissect the idea that this film is a Gremlins ripoff and thoroughly reject it.
The franchise as a whole being a continuation of the “weird ravenous things from space” subgenre is touched upon. We talk about the tragic story of Charlie McFadden, the films fool character, and how such a story is surprising given the fact that this film could have done away with any sort of human drama.
We again touch upon how the film stands above actual ripoffs of the Gremlins films, mostly due to the quality of the visual effects but also due to the somewhat complex backstory for the Krites as well as the character development.
Up next is Critters 2. We briefly compare the film to the beginning of Night Of The Creeps.
We give a brief summation of the film and have a prolonged and violent verbal confrontation in which Liam wrongly claims this film is better than Gremlins 2. (it was a very good joke- liam)
We talk about some of the films unexpected dramatic moments, such as the scene in which Ug reacts in rage and sadness to Lee’s death. We briefly discuss the career of director Mick Garris.
We touch upon the film stumbling with Charlie’s character arc. We conclude by talking how the film is overall a fun film that expands upon the original and how it was by far a financial decision rather than an artistic one.
First and foremost, thank you to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening and donating. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to [email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com and on Twitter), Essex Coffee Roasters (www.essexcoffeeroasters.com) and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, check out our Spotify account at Cinepunx, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers! Check out www.cinepunx.com for more info on some of our other podcasts, some ultra stylish Cinepunx related merchandise, and how you can donate to our Patreon! Until next time…thanks!
