Review #291: 'Gremlins' (1984)

The early 1980's were an furtive time for American genre cinema. Of course Steven Spielberg had his hand in most of those pies, with his name emblazoned above all the film titles. Whilst this is particularly annoying, the fact of the matter is, he did get some great projects made, such as Poltergeist (1982) and Back to the Future (1985) et al; plus a little gem of a horror-comedy written by then unknown, Chris Columbus and directed by Roger Corman luminary Joe Dante: Gremlins. As with many of the genre films made at the time, their influence of 1950's science fiction was obvious (and of course the film makers of the time would have grown up in the first decade of the popularisation of television). And Gremlins is no different, with a range of references, blinding obvious. In two scenes for example, we see on television screens, two iconic movies from the past, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): The former film is represented by the picture postcard image of wholesome Americana - a Norman Rockwell painting showing a quaint little "village" square. Kingston Falls is the setting, and the time of year is Christmas.

The story is a simple tale of a father, Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) purchasing something "different" for his son, Billy (Zach Galligan). On his travels as an inventor and salesman, Rand stumbles across a small basement shop in Chinatown, where he buys an unknown species of animal, the overwhelmingly cute Mogwai. However, the "pet" comes with three very important rules: Never expose him to light, especially sunlight; never get him wet; and never feed him after midnight. Unfortunately, two of these rules are broken in a series of misdemeanours, and eventually unleash the anarchistic monsters of the films title. Of course the idea of a gremlin is no new thing, as is stated by Mr Futterman (played by Dante regular, and always brilliant, Dick Miller), the gremlin was a creature that had a fetish for interrupting the workings of technology during World War II. In fact the first recorded use of Gremlin was in a 1929 poem written for the men of the Royal Air Force stationed in Malta. But I digress.

Needless to say, once the gremlins are unleashed - led by Stripe - the quiet town is turned into chaos, disrupted beyond belief of Christmas Eve. The scaly green monsters cause car accidents by tampering with traffic lights; the local property owner and general icon of evil, Mrs Deagle (Polly Holliday), the seasons Scrooge in female form, is sent flying out of her window on a chair lift. You get the idea. The job of thwarting the monstrous tykes is left to Billy, Gizmo (the Mogwai - as if you didn't know!), and Kate, Billy's new girlfriend (played by the stunning Phoebe Cates).

Released on the same weekend as another '80's comedy classic, Ghostbusters, the film became a bit of an issue. Here was a Christmas film, like Ghostbusters, that mixed comedy with horror, but was packaged as a kids film. The massive campaign of merchandising was everywhere. From cuddly toys to Pez dispensers, every kid was able to participate in the ideas of the film. In America, the film was released in the equivalent PG rating, causing problems when young children saw it. This film eventually led to the MPAA (The Motion Picture Association of America) created the PG-13 rating. In the UK the film was released as a 15; therefore, I was unable to see the film at the cinema (you can't imagine how badly I wanted to see it, after all as an 8 year old, seeing the trailers on TV, there were little monsters in it!). And of course the BBFC (British Board of Film Certification) didn't act on this (despite a huge media frenzy), and would not create the 12 certificate until 1989's Batman.

The film could be read as American fear of "foreign" technology. The Mogwai/Gremlin do originate form China (how ironic they are soon to be the worlds super power), but the duality of a cute creature manifesting itself as a anarchic monster, is representative of that view of the orient: A seemingly traditional continent complete with archaic practises, that also produce some of the most advance technology around. Maybe too hard a pill to swallow from the land that brought us Hollywood!

I genuinely loved this film when I was a kid (I did manage to see it before the video release on a very bad VHS pirate video - shhh!), and I have to say that it has not lost any of it's charm, humour, and fun. The film holds so many iconic images probably for most of my generation. Well, we did collect the stickers to complete the Panini album. And the sweets; the dolls; the T-Shirts etc, etc etc..... Excellent Christmas fare!


Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Corey Feldman, Dick Miller
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy