Critters is often described as a quick imitation of Joe Dante's Gremlins, which became a major hit in 1984 and helped popularize the mischievous small-monster movie. The production history tells a more complicated story. Writer Domonic Muir completed the first draft of Critters on September 9, 1981—roughly two months before Gremlins entered production—although Muir's screenplay then sat in storage for approximately three years. By the time director Stephen Herek encountered it while the two men were working as assistant editors on City Limits in 1985, Gremlins had already become a visible cultural phenomenon, making the resemblance between the projects appear suspicious even though Critters had originated earlier. Herek and Muir subsequently revised the script, in part to reduce its apparent similarities to Gremlins, before taking it to Sho Films and beginning principal photography in Valencia, California, in July 1985. The result was a film that arrived in theaters on April 11, 1986, marketed in the shadow of Gremlins but not demonstrably conceived as a copy of it. The historical resolution is therefore less a plagiarism scandal than a case of parallel development complicated by timing, delayed production, and studio-era marketing expectations.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The 'Critters Copied Gremlins' Myth Collapses Under the Production Timeline
Critters / 1980s
Critters is often described as a quick imitation of Joe Dante's Gremlins, which became a major hit in 1984 and helped popularize the mischievous small-monster movie. The production history tells a more complicated story. Writer Domonic Muir completed the first draft of Critters on September 9, 1981—roughly two months before Gremlins entered production—although Muir's screenplay then sat in storage for approximately three years. By the time director Stephen Herek encountered it while the two men were working as assistant editors on City Limits in 1985, Gremlins had already become a visible cultural phenomenon, making the resemblance between the projects appear suspicious even though Critters had originated earlier. Herek and Muir subsequently revised the script, in part to reduce its apparent similarities to Gremlins, before taking it to Sho Films and beginning principal photography in Valencia, California, in July 1985. The result was a film that arrived in theaters on April 11, 1986, marketed in the shadow of Gremlins but not demonstrably conceived as a copy of it. The historical resolution is therefore less a plagiarism scandal than a case of parallel development complicated by timing, delayed production, and studio-era marketing expectations.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.