‘Critters: A New Binge’ Recap

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

It always hurts to see a proud horror franchise fall from grace, especially when earlier films in the saga had so much potential, and for a fine example of this kind of problem, look no further than the Critters series of motion pictures. For the original film, released in 1984, featured a fun plot that saw a farming family fight off hungry little furballs that ate everything in sight, and the sequel actually managed to take things one step further by creating a perfect blend of comedy and scares and well…it was all downhill from there. Parts three and four were simply goofy and awful and well, they were bad enough that the franchise in essence faded into oblivion.
 
But these are strange times for the horror industry, and with the wealth of updates, reboots and sequels that are flooding the market, it only made sense for this particular series to receive that all-important second chance that it’s been waiting for and well, that shot at redemption arrived the other day, when the horror streaming service SHUDDER launched a brand new chapter in the saga entitled, Critters: A New Binge. If anything, I have to admit that I was excited to learn that this series was arriving on SHUDDER, simply due to the fact that I’m a huge fan of the franchise to begin with, but, I also have to be honest in mentioning that part of me was concerned that this second chance for the series was going to be squandered and the end result would be lack luster in nature, like the two sequels that came before it. So, imagine my surprise when I settled in to watch this, and ended up loving every single second of it.
 
Because it’s inherently clear that the folks behind the scenes took a good long look at the franchise as a whole, and looked at what worked and what didn’t work and worked to keep the problems that plagued the later sequels out of this story, which means this series locked its focus upon two key elements, scares and giggles, with a heavier emphasis on the latter. Because the jokes come fast and furious in this one, and by latching on to the more campier notions of Critters 2, the series wins you over by keeping you smiling before delivering on some genuinely eerie moments or some quality gore and well, while this alone could have carried this latest entry in the franchise, A New Binge has plenty more to offer.

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​Take for example the fact that there are some surprisingly big names in this one, lending a sense of legitimacy to the story and well, Gilbert Gottfried and Thomas Lennon deserve some serious credit for their work in this series, since Gilbert is perfectly cast as the wacky Uncle and Lennon does a magnificent job of playing both the straight arrow Principal Weber and an iteration of the Bounty Hunter Holt and they aren’t the only acting standouts present here. For Stephi Chin-Salvo and Bzhaun Rhoden do a fine job as Dana and Charlie respectively, providing the audience with a genuine sense of surprise as their world changes upon the discovery of the existence of the Crites and a special shout out goes to the lead in this series, Joey Morgan, who plays Christopher, since he does a phenomenal job of driving the impressive plot.
 
In fact, the plot is the centerpiece here since in essence, the story revolves around Christopher’s surprising discovery about his heritage, which I don’t want to spoil here. But Joey’s performance, in combination with some top-notch writing allows for these reveals to surprise the audience perfectly, and I honestly didn’t have a clue what kinds of twists and turns were headed my way, and this impressive plot is only further enhanced by the format of the series. For A New Binge is broken up into eight easily digestible episodes that only run an average running time of ten minutes, a decision that quite frankly sucked me in because I needed to know more and needed to see how it was going to end and really, this ended up being quite the delight when all is said and done.
 
Because it is clear that everyone behind the scenes finally realized that the only way forward for the Critters franchise was to embrace its weirdness and make those love-able and starving furballs the focus of the story and by giving them a juicy plot, and personality, this series is a home run as far as I’m concerned. I simply had a blast watching this one, and I found myself laughing heartily on multiple occasions, and I definitely cringed when the Crites feasted and well, you really cannot ask for much more than that from this storied series, and I do hope that this will serve as the beginning of a brand new run for the franchise, for this one did a fine job setting up a second season for the show, and it would just be wonderful to see these fun little monsters continue their triumphant return.   

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