2019 is shaping up to be the year of the Critters. Not only is new TV series Critters: A New Binge on the way, there’s also a brand new Critters movie arriving this summer — and it’s just released its first trailer.
Critters Attack! sees the franchise returning to its ’80s roots, not in setting but in style. The trailer features ultra-low budget effects (including lots of practical effects), campy humor and gore, a pitch-perfect ’80s style narrator, and even the return of original Critters star Dee Wallace. While Wallace portrayed Helen Brown in the original film, this time around she’s playing a new character named Aunt Dee, who looks to have some knowledge of Crites and is prepared to take them down Sarah Connor in T2-style. The movie also has the fun twist of one Critter being a good guy — think Gremlins‘ Gizmo — which should make things a little more interesting. Here’s the film’s official synopsis, courtesy of io9:
Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), who starred in the original Critters as Helen Brown, will sink her teeth into the franchise for a second time in the mysterious role of Aunt Dee. Inspired by the film series from the ’80s and ’90s, Critters Attack! follows 20-year-old Drea (Tashiana Washington), who reluctantly takes a job babysitting for a professor of a college she hopes to attend. Struggling to entertain the professor’s children Trissy (Ava Preston) and Jake (Jack Fulton), along with her own little brother Phillip (Jaeden Noel), Drea takes them on a hike, unaware that mysterious alien critters have crash-landed and started devouring every living thing they encounter.
While being tracked by the ravenous critters, Drea and the kids encounter an adorable, seemingly harmless female critter named Bianca, an exiled royal fleeing the critter race. As the critters converge on the college campus, Drea and the kids, who are now inextricably linked to Bianca, rush to head them off. Will Drea discover her inner badass, and will it be enough to stop the critter onslaught? And is the critter princess as innocent as she seems?
Get all that? Now, here’s the trailer, which is sure to give you some major ’80s throwback vibes as soon as you hear the opening narration:
The Crites will return to our world on July 23 when Critters Attack! becomes available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.
