REVIEW – Gremlins

Published on: 21st December, 2009

REVIEW - Gremlins  | read this item

Related News

• REVIEW – Maniac Cop
• A Decade of Horror – 2002
• REVIEW – The Hitcher
• INTERVIEW – RICHARD W. HAINES reveals What Really Frightens Him

With Christmas almost upon us and families ready to celebrate the festive spirit together, horror fans may be tempted to celebrate Yuletide in their own special way. Arguably the most offbeat and enjoyable of these alternative Christmas classics was Gremlins, the commercial breakthrough for former editor and Roger Corman alumni Joe Dante. Having already enjoyed minor success with The Howling in 1981, Dante teamed up with producer Steven Spielberg and writer Chris Columbus (later known for his work on Home Alone) to create a juvenile creature feature that, as was common with his work, poked fun at the classics whilst also blending horror with the blackest of humour. Forced to compete with Ghostbusters at the box office, Gremlins was a huge success and helped pave the way for an above-average sequel, whilst Dante would continue to subvert the genre with the likes of InnerSpace and The ‘burbs.

Travelling through Chinatown on his way home to be with his family, struggling inventor Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) stops off at an old antique store and becomes immediately fascinated with a cute creature called Gizmo; a mogwai which the owner is reluctant to sell due to the enormous responsibilities that come with it. Desperate for the money, the owner’s grandson sells Gizmo to Randall and he takes it home to give to his son, Billy (Zach Galligan), for an early Christmas present. But when his next door neighbour, Pete (Corey Feldman), accidentally spills water on it, Gizmo spawns several small eggs that soon grow into more mogwai. But there is something different about these ones and Gizmo finds himself isolated and depressed as they begin to cause mischief. But once they eat after midnight, they transform into deadly monsters that proceed to turn his small town upside down.

Dante has always made it his trademark to reference the classics, yet with Gremlins he even manages to pay homage to himself. During the sequence in which Billy’s science teacher (Glynn Turman) finds himself alone in the classroom as a newly hatched gremlin stalks him from the shadows is similar to a scene from The Howling when Dee Wallace Stone was chased by a werewolf. Gremlins has often been criticized for its excessive violence and soiling of the Christmas image, yet it is this evil streak that makes the movie so appealing, avoiding the usual Disney sickness is favour of a violent black comedy. It is perhaps even more ironic that footage from Disney’s animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is playing during the scene when the creatures have taken refuge in an old cinema. The shot of them singing along to Heigh-Ho whilst subjecting each other to slapstick violence is one of the movie’s highlights.

One of Gremlins‘ many strengths is in the casting, with Galligan proving to be a likeable hero, whilst ’80s beauty Phoebe Cates was adorable as his girlfriend, Kate. Dante also brought in Corman regular Dick Miller for the minor role of local eccentric Murray Futterman, having previously worked with him on Piranha and The Howling (Miller would subsequently cameo in every one of Dante’s movies, returning to the role of Mr. Futterman in 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch). Amongst the supporting cast were Judge Reinhold (who had worked with Cates on the 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as Billy’s pompous rival Gerald Hopkins, blaxploitation veteran Glynn Turman and child star Feldman, who would appear in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter the same year, before later finding success with The Goonies, Stand By Me and The Lost Boys.

The gremlins themselves are an inspired creation, with the mogwai being cuddly and innocent, before suddenly transforming into scaly monsters that manage to be both humorous and scary. These compliment the tone of the film perfectly, with Dante managing to balance the use of horror and humour to perfection, never reducing the film to simple parody. This is something that he was not quite as successful with when making the sequel, but there are some sequences here that are hilarious, whilst others (such as the climax) are disgusting enough to make their way into an adult horror. Thankfully there is none of Spielberg’s sugar-coated influence in the movie (as would be present in the otherwise excellent adventure yarn The Goonies the following year), and the film remains somewhat sinister throughout. Even the ending is not ruined by the producer, with Spielberg renowned for not giving his movie’s a satisfying conclusion.

For the last thirty years, Dante has delivered an array of cult classics (Piranha, InnerSpace) and underrated gems (The Explorers, Matinee), yet Gremlins stands as his crowning achievement. Entertaining and funny enough to work as a mainstream movie, dark and gory enough to be a horror, and savage enough to pass itself off as a satire, Gremlins is everything a good movie should be and is one of the best examples of how to successfully blend comedy and horror together. Whilst Black Christmas was creepy, Silent Night, Deadly Night was violent and Jack Frost was cheesy, Gremlins is arguably the finest festive horror ever and thanks to Dante’s direction, the charming cast and the convincing creations that were the gremlins, this is still as entertaining as it was back in 1984.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Readers Comments