Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates
Director: Joe Dante
Oh 1984, the first year I can remember really going to the movies on a constant basis. Up until then, it had been an occasional thing but the summer of ’84 found me in the theater constantly with films I still watch and have shown to my kids and grandkids. Let’s start with a classic – Gremlins.
Brief synopsis:
Failed inventor Rand Peltzer is looking for the perfect gift for his son Billy in a Chinatown curio shop. He finds it with the cute little creature called a Mogwai. The old man who runs the shop refuses to sell it to Rand, telling him that with the Mogwai comes great responsibility. His grandson, well aware that the shop needs the money, sells it to Rand anyway. That is where the three rules are spelled out to Ram. Rule number 1 – don’t get him wet. Rule number 2 – never feed him after midnight. Rule number 3 – the most important rule of them all, keep him away from bright lights, especially sunlight because that will kill him.
Meanwhile, his son Billy is living a depressing life in a depressing town. The local town mogul, Mrs. Deagle, delights in keeping everyone else in the town down, throwing out people who cannot pay their rent with a gleeful look in her eyes. She hates Billy and threatens his dog Barney after the pup accidentally breaks her snowman. He works as a teller at the bank, trying to save up money to go to art school while also supporting his parents and flirting with fellow teller Kate. His VW bug barely runs and his neighbor Mr. Futterman encourages him to buy American. A World War II vet, Futterman is convinced that the Germans put gremlins in their machinery. Futterman himself drives an American Harvester tractor everywhere.
Rand proudly gives his son the pet who he has named Gizmo. Billy is given the three rules but, unfortunately, a clumsy Corey Feldman sets a night of terror into motion when he accidentally spills water on Gizmo…
Spoilers below (you have been warned):
It turns out that spilling water on the Mogwai causes them to multiply. Gizmo spits out five new Mogwai from his body and is not happy about it in the least. We soon discover that these new creatures are devious and mean, especially the leader with a little furry Mohawk, Stripe. Billy takes one of the creatures to his high school science teacher to get his opinion, even creating another creature as a demonstration of what happens when water touches them. That night, all the creatures except Gizmo beg to eat and Billy feeds them based on his clock saying it is before midnight. His science teacher leaves a sandwich by the new creature’s cage and the animal eats it.
All of the creatures go into cocoons and soon emerge as green, slimy creatures, our gremlins. The one at the high school kills the teacher while the ones at home go after Billy’s mom. In an amazing scene, she goes to town on them, quickly dispatching several of them by using her blender, a knife, and a microwave. Billy comes in to find one of the gremlins attacking him mom and throws in to its death in a fire. He chases Stripe but is too late to stop the gremlin from jumping into a pool, multiplying like crazy and the new batch of creatures attacking the town.
Mrs. Deagle is killed when they rewire her stair chair and send her hurtling out a second story window. They take Mr. Futterman’s tractor and ram it into his house. The havoc reaches a local bar where Kate works and she is forced to serve them as they all demonstrate different personalities. Billy eventually rescues Kate and they hide out at the bank where Kate reveals that she has a very good reason to hate Christmas. Her Dad was trying to impersonate Santa Claus and broke his neck going down the chimney. Young Kate saw her dead father being brought out of the chimney in the red suit and that was how she learned there was no Santa Claus.
Eventually, our heroes find the gremlins in a movie theater watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The couple and Gizmo blow up the theater killing all of the gremlins except Stripe, who snuck out to get more candy at the store across the street. The trio make it into the store and Kate works on turning on the lights, accidentally turning on a fountain in the garden department. Stripe attacks Billy but Gizmo rescues him by driving a Barbie car into a window shade and melting Stripe in the sunlight. The group goes home to recover but the old Chinese man shows up to reclaim his pet. He explains that Billy may someday be ready to care for Gizmo but he is not ready yet. Gizmo speaks for the first time, saying Bye Billy before they leave to go back home.
My thoughts (with spoilers):
One of my favorite films of all time, Gremlins is a classic. Gizmo is the cutest thing going and I will someday have him on my stuffed animal shelf next to Wicket the Ewok, Stitch, Eeyore, E.T., and Sharktopus. This film is a quirky mix of fun and scary, giving you enough horror to haunt your dreams. After this film and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Stephen Speilberg convinced the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating as these films were too intense for PG but not scary enough for R.
The rules, admittedly, are silly but you sometimes have to give a film a mulligan to enjoy it. I love the fact that the sequel, which there will be a review for later on this site, also discusses the various issues with the rules that were set out for our heroes. Chris Columbus wrote this film and if that name sounds familiar it would be because he is responsible for multiple generations of children’s film memories. In addition to Gremlins, he also wrote The Goonies before moving on to directing some small films like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The director, Joe Dante, also had a successful career including Piranha, The Howling, Innerspace, and The Burbs.
The setup is simple but effective. We have a father who wants to get his son a special gift and, once he finds it, stops at nothing to get it. The problem is that he and Billy truly do not understand that sometimes the most dangerous things come in the most adorable packages. Through carelessness, they break the rules, not understanding the gift they had been given. As the original owner explains at the end of the film, “You do with mogwai what your society... has done with all of nature's gifts. You do not understand. You are not ready.” This statement is, sadly, still true today. Despite valid proof of the dangers of global warning, there are still many who refuse to listen and continue to destroy nature’s many gifts and future generations will pay the price for this willful ignorance much the same way as Kingston Falls is destroyed through Billy’s carelessness. When Gizmo is hit with water and multiplies, Rand’s first thought isn’t about the implications of this form of reproduction, it is how to monetize it.
The actors are good but they are secondary to the gremlins and Gizmo. We instantly fall in love with the quirky little furball who bears who looks almost like a mix between Yoda and the Ewoks from the Star Wars franchise. He is sweet, small, and fluffy. The difference between him and his offspring is immediately obvious with Stripe trying to bite Billy’s friend Pete (Corey Feldman) right after he is born. Gizmo is pure and his copies are corrupt. The expressions on Gizmo are wonderful, especially during the only real scene of acting during the film, Kate’s monologue about why she hates Christmas. This is an especially dark story to put in a film and the cuts to Gizmo as he listens to her show true empathy and sadness. Let’s face it, if you are reading this site, you have seen Gremlins but there is always a reason to watch it again.
Funny, scary, and with a distinctive soundtrack, this is a classic for a reason. Funnily enough, it was released on the same day as another classic film that just beat it out at the box office but we will get to that one next time…
More films from 1984 to check out:
Top Secret – Film debut for late Val Kilmer is hilarious in this slapstick parody film from the guys who gave us Airplane. This film opened on the same day as Gremlins and got lost in the glut of great films released that summer. Val Kilmer is a famous singer who gets drawn into a rebel alliance during World War II. Sight gags galore and a fun soundtrack with a highlight being “Skeet Surfing” which I will bet was the inspiration for Weird Al’s later song “Trigger Happy”.
Romancing the Stone – First collaboration between Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito and it is great. A sheltered romance novelist goes to Argentina to save her sister’s life and meets renegade Michael Douglas. Great action set pieces, comedy, and romance in the perfect balance.
This is Spinal Tap – The late Rob Reiner’s directing film debut about an aging rock band’s attempt to make a comeback. Michael McKean, Christophen Guest, and Harry Shearer are the band and Guest would take the mockumentary format and turn it into an art form in later years. This film goes to 11.