Everybody knows that once your horror franchise starts to lose steam you head to space. Pinhead in Space, Leprechaun In Space, Regan from the Exorcist in Space,  Damien From the Omen in Space, The Wickerman in Space, and of course Suspiria in Space or Spacespiria.  

For this entry in the franchise, it is possible there was a small influence from Aliens, in that the script was entirely lifted from Aliens. But...with Critters. It's probably the worst of the first 4 Critters movies, making it approximately the 4th best movie ever made.