Gremlins (1984)

Film: Gremlins (1984)

Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Frances Lee McCain, Corey Feldman, Polly Holliday, Howie Mandel

Director: Joe Dante

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

Every movie that I've watched this month, as I just mentioned, I am seeing for the first time.  That's probably not true for Gremlins, at least not wholly true.  I know we had a copy of the movie that we taped off of a free HBO weekend when I was a kid, and we had a read-along tape of the movie (or a children's novelization of the movie) that my brother liked growing up...but watching it again, I'm fully convinced that I never actually watched this in full even if I've seen it in parts.  Gremlins is one of two movies (along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, both with the guiding hand of Steven Spielberg, who executive produced this picture) that basically launched the PG-13 rating, as at the time it was either going to be PG (which it was) or R-Rated.  Watching it now, the PG-13 rating uproar doesn't feel as warranted as it did for Temple of Doom, but it is definitely something that would've happened had the rating existed in 1984.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses initially on inventor Randall Peltzer (Axton), visiting a shop in Chinatown where he buys a small creature that eventually is known as Gizmo (Mandel), whom he gifts to his son Billy (Galligan).  Billy is told there are three rules when it comes to taking care of the mogwai: 1) don't get them wet 2) don't let them get a lot of light, especially sunlight which is lethal and 3) never feed them after midnight.  Of course, Billy ends up doing all three before the movie is over, given that he's a well-meaning but sexually-distracted (by his love interest Kate, played by Phoebe Cates, with both Galligan & Cates getting their all-American 1980's heartthrob status on in this movie) young man.  Once Gizmo is wet, he multiples into a much less docile mogwai creatures, the leader of which is Spike, and after they are fed post-midnight, they turn into nasty gremlin creatures who terrorize the town (and kill a few people, including Polly Holliday's ruthless Mrs. Deagle), before they are stopped by the sunlight, save for Gizmo who goes back to his Chinatown owner, but not before a heartfelt goodbye with Billy.

The film is a silly blast.  I know people oftentimes lump this in with Poltergeist, as both are sendups of the Reagan Era with Steven Spielberg's involvement, but I don't quite buy that this has as much political cache as Poltergeist's damning (and extremely well-acted) look at the consumerism of the 1980's, but it's definitely there.  Instead, it's just a wholly original work, with adorable, comical creatures that in many ways are more family-friendly incarnations of what Chucky would be a few years later in Child's Play.  The film feels very much in the vein of the Spielberg/Kathleen Kennedy/Frank Marshall machine that would dominate movies from the early 1980's all the way to the MCU era, and like most of those films, this was a massive hit in 1984.

The movie also has the good sense to not try too hard on the effects.  This isn't a slam (the effects look quite good), but they don't use much CGI (at that point just in its infancy as an option onscreen), and instead they smartly keep the creatures animatronic puppets in the vein of something like Yoda or The Dark Crystal a few years earlier.  Even in their most wicked stage, there's so much personality in the gremlins by not having them be CGI (which at this point would've necessitated they all look the same, rather than giving them each a lot of detail & character work), and I think those added touches give us a lot better ride, even if they might make them mildly less scary (since it feels like they're fighting creepy Muppets in some sequences).

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: The Blair Witch Project, Scream