Gremlins (1984) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Monsters are normally depicted as the most terrifying creatures on film to roam the Earth, while some are as innocent/harmless beings. In 1984, we got the best of both worlds in Gremlins.


PLOT


Taking place around the holiday season, the film follows struggling inventor Randall Peltzer gets his teenage son Billy a gift from China, a creature called a ‘mogwai’, which is Cantonese for ‘devil’, in which he would name ‘Gizmo’. However there are important rules to look after this particular creature: Never expose it to bright lights, Never expose it to water and no matter what, never feed it after midnight. He buys it from the grandson of Chinese antique store owner Mr Wing for $200, claiming they were poor and desperately need to make money. In Kingston Falls, Billy works at the local bank and is bullied by widowed miser Ruby Deagle (Polly Holiday) over his dog Barney. He is delighted by his dad’s gift when he comes home with Gizmo before leaving again for another business trip and he does his best in taking the three rules serious. One by one though, these rules are accidentally broken. When Gizmo is accidentally exposed to water by his younger friend Pete Fountaine (Corey Feldman), he multiplies to five more mogwai and each duplicate has a bigger attitude; Their ringleader would be named Stripe for having Mohawk-like tuft of fur on his head. Billy would show this to his former science teacher Roy Hanson (Glynn Turman), who would choose to spawn more for experimental purposes. One night, they trick Billy to feed them after midnight by severing the power cord of his clock. The following morning, they make cocoons and when they hatch, they emerge as the mischievous reptilian imps, Gremlins, named after the folklore creatures that caused malfunctions in the British Royal Air Force going back to WWII. At home, Billy’s mother Lynn defends herself successfully against three and Billy saves her from one, but the leader Stripe goes to the YMCA swimming pool to duplicate himself, making his own army after killing Hanson. From there, the Gremlins spread throughout the town and cause chaos everywhere they go; They would attack the likes of Pete and Murray Futterman who gave the creatures their infamous name, and they would kill Deagle. The police see firsthand what’s going on when previously not believing in Billy and choose to retreat back to the station until it blows over. When the barmaid of the local bar, Kate Beringer, is able to defend herself long enough to escape the bar, catching up with Billy & Gizmo.  As they wait it out at the bank, Kate who works with Billy at day, expresses her dislike of the holidays comes from how her dad broke his neck climbing down the chimney dressed as Santa Claus, wanting to surprise her at the time, and wasn’t found until days later. Together, she & Billy find all the gremlins relaxing in the theater and destroy the place by starting an explosion that kills all but Stripe who was across the street at another store. Before spawning a new army at a water fountain, Gizmo is able to open the skylight that kills the creature, due to the sunlight. After saving what’s left of the town, Randall returns from his trip, but Mr. Wing also comes to take Gizmo back believing that America isn’t ready to take care of mogwai, after seeing what happened on the news. However before leaving, Wing says that Billy might someday be ready to take care of Gizmo properly and the mogwai says goodbye to his friend. As Wing departs, the film ends with Randall narrating, “So if your air conditioner goes on the fritz, your washing machine blows up, or your video recorder conks out, check the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds. Because you can never tell. There just might be a gremlin in your house”.


THOUGHTS


I can go on and on with how past monster flicks have been known for being pure terror, going all the way back with the Universal Mosnters catalog or the likes of Jaws, Alien and King Kong to name a few. What producer Steven Spielberg, writer Chris Columbus and director Joe Dante get to do differently is make one that is fun yet not too campy, in order for the threat to still be taken serious enough for us to pay attention. The mogwai and gremlins are indeed the true stars here thanks to effects artists Rick Baker and Chris Walas making each and every one of them feel larger than life in the given screen time, where they all have their own outlandish personalities to the point where the human characters are just in for the ride. Heck, even the violence involving them is so graphic that is part of the reason that it inspired the PG-13 rating because this is too wild to be an average PG flick; I mean it was one thing to see a gremlin melt, but it’s the whole kitchen scene is most intense that it takes the cake proving the need of the rating to exist. Within the same time, you’re not gonna take this serious when seeing them watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs after going ballistically drunk at a bar. That just defines what a dark comedy is to me. And the voiceovers are a big contribution as well to give these creatures so much life because while Frank Welker knew how to embrace Stripe as a sadistic menace who enjoys causing anarchy, Howie Mandel is perfect in playing Gizmo as an adorable and gentle figure that knew how to become brave overnight in order to neutralize the threat. Within all the chaos, the whole point of this movie is that we’re able to have a bombastic lesson on the inevitable consequences of unchecked greed. If you get carried away on wanting something, then you’re never gonna prepare for the fallout. There’s no denying that Hoyt Axton makes Randall an honest guy since all he wants apart from building success from the ground up despite having inventions that make him appear bumbling, it is to make his family proud and show affection with an out of town gift. If he had gotten to see how good natured and humble Zach Galligan showed off as Billy, and Frances Lee McCain makes Lynn the modest and  toughest lady on the block due to how she defends herself, it’s a no brainer to say he’s done right by them with the time he has with them. Even though having Gizmo was short term until the sequel paved the way for a reunion, there’s no doubt Billy cherished having such a friend. Ironically when not looking that hard, Billy was also lucky to find love between the anarchy. You’re definitely gonna be having mixed emotions for how out of pocket Phoebe Cates delivers Kate’s tragic backstory due to how it’s also out of place. But that is exactly the whole point of it as Dante said which I respect. Nevertheless, Kate is still a likable character because she’s enough of an introvert to get along with. She ends up being a good match with Billy because it’s another case of opposites attract; She tries to keep to herself due to her past trauma while he is far too open minded for his own good. Having said that, them seeing the best in each other was enough to get on the same page in wiping out the gremlins and saving their town. As much as they wish they didn’t have to go through another case of chaos in the sequel, at least it would make their bond stronger. While I give this movie enough credit on how much fun it generally is, there are still some things that confuse me upon rewatching. Like I can scratch my head on how was Gizmo breathing when his crate was covered in wrapping paper, but I was shocked that Pete came to visit Billy in his tree costume while carrying a tree, rather than make time to drop that stuff off at his home. I mean he’d be saving himself a lot of trouble had he made time for that. Also, when do the mogwai hang Barney outside with the Christmas lights? They’re not agile like gremlins and they’re much smaller, so it’s hard to believe they can pull this off so quietly. I’m even surprised that a bug spray was next to the oven when Lynn fights them off because that’s a whole other safety hazard to worry about. Also, how did Kate even know where the access door was for the theater’s boiler room to set the place ablaze? She’s got two jobs and somehow knows where that is? I mean it’s hard to buy she has the free time to know that. And if she knew, she should’ve set things off instead of Billy. Lastly, how does Mr Wing know when someone is ready to have a mogwai? The rules being broken weren’t his fault so he should’ve considered that. Ignore these things however, then you’ll still have a real good time. In short, Gremlins will remain one of the most creative monster flicks for letting loose on the setting and not looking back. If you dig monster flicks and want to shake up your holiday watchlist, this’ll do it for you.