Gremlins Review

Ah, Gremlins. Gremlins is the ultimate movie to show kids who are begging mom and dad to get them a pet of some kind. For those who have never seen this, you have my pity because this movie is a bonafide classic of comedy, horror, and even Christmas genres.

The film starts off innocently enough with Randall Peltzer, a bumbling inventor whose inventions are great except for the fact that they do not work, looking in Chinatown for a gift for his son Billy (our hero played by Zach Galligan). He discovers a small antiques shop where he discovers the Mogwai Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandell, of all people). The owner of the shop doesn’t want to sell Gizmo because of the responsibility he would come with, but his sneaky underhanded grandson has no problem selling the little dude. When Randall takes Gizmo home, Gizmo’s greeted warmly by the family, but Randall recites the rules of caring for a Mogwai.

1. It hates bright light. And sunlight will kill it.
2. Don’t get it wet, not even to take a bath.
3. Whatever you do, no matter how much it begs, no matter how much it cries, never EVER feed it after midnight.

Easy enough rules to follow, right? But don’t forget, this is a B movie, and some poor schmuck, usually the hero, screws up at least one of the rules. Well, the poor schmuck in this movie is, surprise surprise, our hero Billy. When Billy gets Gizmo wet, a bunch of new, very mean, Mogwai are born, and when the little meanies trick him into feeding them after midnight, they turn into viscious, slimy, scaly, pimply demons that send Billy’s sleepy little town into the Christmas from Hell.

This movie is one of my top five favorite non-John Hughes 80s movies. Joe Dante’s film took a hokey B movie concept and milked it for all it was worth until it was pure comedic/horror gold. The film doesn’t take itself seriously, instead relishing in just how old school (despite some of the language) it is. It was a true genre bender that made a mark. It was almost two movies, the first half being a family friendly Christmas flick, and then the second half being an excellent horror flick. The two together was like peanut butter and chocolate, but some people are allergic to peanuts just like there were some complaints about one half or the other of the film. Many said that baiting the audience with family friendly fare and then turning it on its head with horror was too risky, as the film legitimately scared some children. In fact, it was one of the movies that led to the creation of the PG-13 rating. But these people obviously didn’t get the point of the movie.

The movie is a fun, riotous piece of cinema, and belongs on the shelf of any movie fan. I won’t touch on the sequel, because that movie’s a whole other ballgame that you either love or hate, but there’s no hating the original. It is a definite must own. Oh, and it features one of the kings of B movies, Dick Miller!

If you want to pick up Gremlins, you can do so right here on Bluray and DVD! (BTW I don’t want any crap for using an image from Gremlins 2. It was too epic to pass up.)