There’s no denying Leonardo DiCaprio‘s talents . He has won one Oscar and should have several more (Wolf of Wall Street, surely!), along with a killer filmography of critical and commercial successes. But his first role was in an utterly disastrous ’90s horror movie.
Before Leonardo DiCaprio was a guarantee of Hollywood success, he starred as the son of a dodgy landlord in the 1991 creature feature sequel Critters 3. It was undoubtedly one of the worst movies that year and came loaded with putrid cheesiness, bringing together cheap effects and stilted dialog. Unsurprisingly, it never saw the inside of a cinema and went straight to video. That’s unthinkable for DiCaprio’s new movies today, given he’s one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading man.
As a mark of how terrible it is, Critters 3 has a 0% approval rating from critics on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Even among the usually kinder audience voters on that site, it has just a 23% approval score.
For context, DiCaprio is currently wowing cinemas with his latest Martin Scorsese collaboration in Killers of the Flower Moon. You can check out our Killers of the Flower Moon review, in which we gave it five stars and called it one of 2023’s best movies. Where Critters 3 got 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, Flower Moon has positive reviews from 92% of critics. Night and day.
In fairness, DiCaprio himself is no fan of Critters 3. Even just two years after its release, the star told the New York Times that he considered his character to be “your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair”.
In Douglas Wight’s 2012 DiCaprio biography, he quoted the actor slating Critters 3 as “possibly one of the worst films of all time”. DiCaprio didn’t hold back at all, adding: “I guess it was a good example to look back and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
So if you’re holding out hope for DiCaprio to return to the Critters franchise after its reboot in 2019 with Critters Attack!, then we’re afraid you’re totally out of luck. The star hasn’t ventured into his spooky side since, though we think he’d now give us one of the best horror movies of all time if he was given the chance.
Speaking of that movie, find out why Robert De Niro was unimpressed by DiCaprio’s improv on set and learn about the time DiCaprio became outraged with James Cameron while making Titanic. For more oceanic romance, you can read our Titanic review, and for Cameron’s next movie, find out everything we know about Avatar 3.