Tremors / Critters

TREMORS, 1990, Universal, 96 min. Dir. Ron Underwood. When desert handymen Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward search for work, they find something else instead: giant underground creatures that turn out to be man-eating worms. This wildly inventive homage to 1950s creature films is scary and hilarious in equal measures, with terrific special effects and surprisingly sharp dialogue.

CRITTERS, 1986, Warner Bros., 82 min. A spaceship filled with the fuzzy alien monsters of the title lands in a Midwestern town and proceeds to wreak havoc, while a pair of intergalactic bounty hunters on the critters’ trail causes even more chaos. What could have been a mere GREMLINS rip-off becomes a witty comedy as well as a swiftly paced action film in the hands of director Stephen Herek.