EDITOR’S NOTE: Critters 2: The Main Course was on USA Up All Night on June 9, 1997.

The first film Mick Garris directed, Critters 2, brings the evil aliens back to Earth as a hidden number of eggs hatch, bringing Ug (Terence Mann), Lee (Roxanne Kernohan), and Charlie McFadden (Don Keith Opper) back to the planet to stop the Critters. However, when the evil creatures eat Lee, Ug begins to grow depressed and transforms from his rock star form to his actual alien appearance.

This time, the Crites have a new power to form a giant ball of black fur. It’s pretty intense, and this movie was intended to be scarier than the first one. Did they succeed? Roger Ebert said, “Unlike the original film, which was a genuinely entertaining ripoff of E.T., Starman, The Terminator and Gremlins, this movie is not even a competent ripoff of Critters.” He followed that up with this: “The makers of this film could not generate a single idea that was not provided for them by the makers of the original film. They went into the project with a ripoff on their mind.”

But hey — Eddie Deezen is in it!

They also made at least three more after it. As someone who has adopted two chihuahuas, I like these movies. Obviously. I lived with these aliens before.