Anthony's Film Review - Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins is a simple yet fun, light-hearted, mildly scary horror movie...

1984 was an unbelievable time for movies. A lot of entertaining movies were released in just that year alone. There's the cop comedy Beverly Hills Cop, the fantasy comedy Ghostbusters, the coming-of-age teen drama The Karate Kid, the horror flick A Nightmare on Elm Street, the sci-fi thriller The Terminator, the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, and the wacky Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy Top Secret!, and probably more that I have not mentioned. OK, let's add another to the list: the comedy horror Gremlins. Same year. In fact, released on the same day as Ghostbusters. So 1984 gave us at least eight movies that many can enjoy. But of course, I'm not here to talk about a decade of movies. I'm here to review just one.

Gremlins is a horror movie, but not a dark, intensely scary horror film like A Nightmare on Elm Street. It's a comedy horror movie with mildly scary stuff. Think of a spectrum of horror movie scariness where A Nightmare on Elm Street is at one end for being very scary and Ghostbusters is on the other end for not being scary even if it portrays supernatural entities traditionally considered frightening. Gremlins would be closer to the Ghostbusters end, but also closer to the center than Ghostbusters. This is a movie that is rated PG, but the level of horror content lies somewhere between PG and R. It is said that this is a movie that inspired the new PG-13 rating.

Anyway, the movie takes place during the Christmas holiday in a town called Kingston Falls. There are plenty of people who reside here, including a realtor, a science teacher, the town sheriff, some bank employees, and a man who thinks gremlins (hideous malevolent creatures that wreak havoc on machinery) do exist. But there are really just two characters who are the main focus: Billy Peltzer (Zack Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates). These two are the ones who end up being the heroes in this adventure. (There is also a bit of romance too, but it's so minor in this movie that it's not even necessary to mention it.) Also, Billy is the one who witnesses the chaos that emerges.

As a Christmas gift, his father gives him an usual pet: a cute furry creature called a mogwai, purchased from a Chinatown gift shop. At first, this pet, named Gizmo, is adorable and mostly obedient. However, there are three important rules about the mogwai that must always be followed. One, it must not be exposed to bright lights, especially sunlight. Two, it must not come into contact with water. And three, it must not eat after midnight. As for the consequences of violating these rules, I won't say what they are, but the movie does show you what happens. In fact, part of the fun of following the story is getting revelations about those consequences.

The first half of the movie is about setting the stage. In the beginning, the townsfolk go about their lives, before Billy receives Gizmo as his Christmas gift. The movie then proceeds to show us life with the new pet, before the discovery of the consequences of rule violation, one by one. Once that occurs, then you get the second half of the movie where the real fun begins. The town is now overrun by gremlins. People are running scared, fighting for survival against these hideous things. And some people die in the middle of the madness. Billy and Kate must now use their wits to defeat this massive threat and save the town.

That's all there is to it. Gremlins is simply an entertaining light-hearted horror comedy. The movie was produced by Steven Spielberg, who certainly knows how to make multiple kinds of movies. After giving us the terrifying thriller Jaws and the heartwarming science-fiction movie E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, he follows up with this movie that, in a way, mixes the key elements of the two. So there you have it. Gremlins, another hit from 1984. It may not rise to the level of Ghostbusters and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but it's on the right side of my rating scale, where good movies reside.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Gremlins, visit the Internet Movie Database.

In addition, check out my review of Gremlins 2: The New Batch.