Power of the Night

Growing up in the 80s was always bound to leave some marks in a young boy's mind. Or perhaps it wasn't as much the decade itself, but more the experiences of childhood, which I would assume most people remember as somewhat surreal no matter what decade they belong to. I don't know.

Anyway, back then my neighbourhood was blessed with cable TV, so unlike our less fortunate brethren of the same generation who were merely left with one channel, me and the other kids were always up to date with the ongoings in the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, life on Eternia and not least Pat Sharp's mullet. And things were great.

My memories from back then more often than not involve kindergarden. Among the most memorable moments was the time me and three friends found a gun under the porch in the back. But I also remember an intensely warm summer, and dad would pick me up in his old, but really nice Renault 4, the kind with black leather seats that become too hot, which made a boy with typical 80s shorts show extreme caution while getting seated. On the way home we would stop at the gas station for some ice cream. Boysenberry ice cream that is. I've never seen a boysenberry, much less tasted one, but I'll be damned if that ice cream wasn't the best I'd ever had. And sometimes, probably not on those hot days though, we would go to the video store.

Now, I'd always choose something like Robotech or SuperTed. Safe stuff. But bigger things lurked in other parts of the store. And Critters was the holy grail. I have no idea why I so clearly remember that cover staring me down throughout my childhood, but it did. Needless to say I never really saw the movie itself. The cover was all I needed to get my imagination going. Up until now.

So yes, I just saw Critters. And what can I say? Is it good? In a Cannes sense of the word, it probably isn't. But this isn't a movie made for Cannes. It is a movie made for those of us who grew up being the first generation of mass market consumers, those of us who got up at 8 in the morning on saturdays to watch 3 hours of cartoons and one hour of toy commercials, those of us who still love strange action figures from distant galaxies and cartoons from the days when nobody cared about tv violence and its possible effect on kids all over the world. In other words; it was made for me. And even if it's only a matter of 80 minutes, for those 80 minutes it did take me back to long gone days when nothing and everything mattered. I can't really ask for more than that.