Directed by:Joe Dante
It’s more comic horror from director Joe Dante (PIRANHA and THE HOWLING) and executive producer Steven Spielberg (JAWS, of course). Everyone who was a child of the 80s knows the plot... Fumbling inventor Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) purchases a extremely cute, lovable and furry "mogwai" from Chinatown and gives it to his son Billy (Zach Galligan) as a Christmas present. When three rules (avoid bright light, don't get wet and don't feed after midnight) are ignored, the docile critter spawns vicious, evil, green, slimy, scaly monsters that terrorize and kill denizens of the picture-postcard small town right out of Norman Rockwell. Phoebe Cates is a bank employee who tells a very morbid story (for a kids movie, anyway) about her dad falling down the chimney on Christmas Eve and breaking his neck to add to the holiday spirit. Axton is great fun toying around with his botched inventions and Frances Lee McCain, as his wife, is involved in some of the more memorably nasty sequences when she freaks out and kills Gremlins using a blender and a microwave oven. Polly Holliday (the sassy diner waitress Flo from the Alice TV series) is great as crotchety old bitch Mrs. Deagle and also has the best death scene. Dick Miller is hilarious as a war vet neighbor who gets run over by a snow plow.
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Also in the stellar supporting cast are Scott Brady as the town sheriff, Keye Luke as the wise shopkeeper, Jackie Joseph (Audrey from the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) as Miller's wife, Corey Feldman (who'd just faced off against Jason in FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER) as a neighborhood kid, Belinda Balaski (from Dante's THE HOWLING), Glynn Turman, Judge Reinhold as a jerk bank employee, Kenneth Tobey (who is uncredited) as a gas station worker who gets one of the dad's smokeless ashtrays, as well as Spielberg and Robbie the Robot in brief cameos. Chris Walas did the excellent special effects, Jerry Goldsmith scored and Howie Mandel is the voice of Gizmo. This was a huge moneymaker, raking in over 148 million domestic gross during its initial theatrical release, and up until the mid-90s was listed as one of the top five highest-grossing horror films of all time (it's now just outside the top ten).
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Followed by GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990), which was nearly as good but was a box-office disappointment, and countless low-grade imitations (GHOULIES, CRITTERS and MUNCHIES to name a few) that were mostly made for the video market. GREMLINS should, and probably will, remain a holiday classic for many of us.
★★★1/2
Gremlins has been one of my favorite films since I was a teenager and still is to this very day! I watch it every Christmas, even though it's a horror movie, but that's why I like it. And I've always loved it because it's a unique, creative story with a mix of comedy, horror, and fantasy, the latter being so with the existence of this mogwai creature that must be cared for properly with three vital rules. But when those rules are broken, the consequences are severe, especially since they transform into monstrous gremlins when they eat past midnight, and we see them wreak havoc, even kill people, in a big location. It's amazing to think Gizmo, a sweet, adorable, kind mogwai, can spawn so much trouble and so fast when the rules are broken. I'm just glad Gizmo remained the good, benevolent mogwai he is, and still did for the sequel.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a merry Christmas!
Heck, THIS is the movie I should have given a proper Christmas review to, not the one I actually ended up doing! For some reason I always forget about this when I'm thinking about holiday horror, but it's definitely one of the best.
ReplyDeleteI do love how the mogwai parallels all pets in that parents will often get their kids dogs or cats for Christmas, then lay down the ground rules about the animal's needs and care, only to find those rules being neglected or ignored by the kids who so desperately wanted the pet in the first place! Now that I think about it, this is probably intentionally commenting upon all that.
Hope you had a great Christmas too and have a nice New Year as well!
Heck, THIS is the movie I should have given a proper Christmas review to, not the one I actually ended up doing! For some reason I always forget about this when I'm thinking about holiday horror, but it's definitely one of the best.
ReplyDeleteI do love how the mogwai parallels all pets in that parents will often get their kids dogs or cats for Christmas, then lay down the ground rules about the animal's needs and care, only to find those rules being neglected or ignored by the kids who so desperately wanted the pet in the first place! Now that I think about it, this is probably intentionally commenting upon all that.
Hope you had a great Christmas too and have a nice New Year as well!
Huh, I never thought about that regarding rules about pets, and that's probably why Mr. Wing refuses to sell Gizmo, because he comes with too much responsibility, and kids would easily mess up with mogwai care more than they would with dogs or cats.
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, I have maybe half a dozen other reviews/comments for you to see on some other horror films, including another for my most hated horror film in 1984 on which I commented over six months ago (which makes me so sick now with even just thinking about the illicit affair that takes place), and I hope you'll find and maybe answer them. ;)
Mr. Wing absolutely would not have sold Gizmo to anyone, but most especially not to anyone planning on giving him as a gift to a kid / teenager! Way too much responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI'm still working my way back through comments. I am backlogged 100s but will make sure to dig yours out and respond within this week sometime. My apologies for that! Not trying to neglect that stuff but 2022 was an annoyingly busy year for me and often times I just had time to do the reviews and that was it! Also going to try to get a proper Gremlins review up sometime this year since it deserves it.