From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, it's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Gremlins released in 1984.
Starring:
Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates and Hoyt Axton
Directed by:
Joe Dante
Genre:
Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Rating:
PG
Budget:
$11,000,000 (estimated)
The IMDb Rating is currently:
7.2
My Rating:
9
The Synopsis is:
A father buys his son Billy a unique high maintenance pet for Christmas, a Mogwai. After accidentally mishandling his new pet, Billy creates a batch of gremlins, and this spells disaster for his small town of Kingston Falls.
Enjoyment:
This is a fun Christmas horror-comedy with a lot of lighthearted whimsy. I enjoyed it when I was a kid and it still holds up for me.
The Pacing:
At an hour and 46 minutes the pacing is excellent. It has a nice progression of events that is cohesive.
The Story:
The idea for these creatures began with NYU Film School graduate, screenwriter Chris Columbus.
After Steven Spielberg came across Chris Columbus' idea, he bought it, hiring Joe Dante to direct and produce it with his own company, Amblin Entertainment.
‘Gremlins’ originated from the term used by the Royal Air Force pilots and technicians around the late 1920s as well as the servicemen during WWII, where the imaginary creatures were blamed for equipment failures and sabotage.
In 1942, The Gremlins was a whimsical story about the irritating little beasts, and conclude that feeding them transforms them into an asset rather than a hindrance to aviation.
In 1943 Bugs Bunny aired “Falling Hare” featuring a mischievous gremlin.
1944 also saw animated gremlins playing a role in the romantic comedy Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More.
The 1947 novel by Roald Dahl, Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen, had the gremlins trying to survive the destruction of humanity.
In The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" airing in 1963, featuring William Shatner witnessing a gremlin attacking an airliner.
The 1981 animated film Heavy Metal contains a segment titled "B-17" aka "Gremlins" in which reanimated corpses of the crew attack a lone fighter plane.
In the very beginning of the film is a wrecked car, an AMC Gremlin can be seen with the hood up and smoke coming out of it. The AMC Gremlin logo may have influenced the design of the creatures in this film.
Chris Columbus' original script was far more violent than the film’s result. Joe Dante and Warner Bros. wanted the movie to be more family-oriented.
Originally Stripe and Gizmo were supposed to be the same character. However Steven Spielberg insisted one of the gremlins be a good guy that the audience could identify with.
I believe this is the very reason he’s amazing at storytelling on film.
I enjoyed the preservation of Gizmo’s innocence because that is the kind of hope that is part of the charm of the film. I thought it was a brilliant decision.
In Cantonese Chinese, Mogwai means devil, demon or gremlin. The Mogwai have three rules for their owners to abide:
1. Keep them from bright light. Sunlight can actually kill them
2. Don’t get them wet
3. Never feed them after midnight.
And these are the rules that push the story along.
The Challenge:
The challenge in this film begins with Billy’s daily life. His biggest challenge is Mrs. Deagle, the richest lady in Kingston Falls, who has it out for poor Billy and his dog; reminiscent of Elmira Gulch from the Wizard of Oz released in 1939.
What a great, mean character that you love to hate! She is motivated by her hate for people and her hunger for money. She has named all of her cats after different kinds of currency: Kopeck, Drachma and Dollar Bill. The character was also a nod to the iconic christmas character of Ebenezer Scrooge from the classic Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.
She has a lot of depth to her miserable character so when she gets a dose of the gremlins, it’s funny and not quite as horrifying as you would think.
The next challenge is Billy’s mistake of getting Gizmo wet, thus creating 5 more Mogwai. This batch of Mogwai are cute, but not as sweet as Gizmo. They have a little naughty side tying up poor Billy's dog, Barney with christmas lights. I mean, how did they do that?
After Billy makes the mistake of feeding the once cute Mogwai after midnight, the film paces the suspense well; staging a period of incubation for the creatures to transform in a chrysalis stage as explained by the the town's school science teacher, Mr. Hanson.
Once the cocoons are hatched, you can see that they have transformed into the ill-willed gremlins, cackling as their devious deeds reveal disaster.
In their new bodies they are now fast moving and strong. But what makes them likeable is how easily entertained they are and how there is something endearing about that.
I don’t know what it is about them but they make me laugh, the way they sound, the way they move, it just cracks me up. Just look at that face, just look at that face!!!
The leader of the gremlins is Stripe. What makes Stripe different from all of the rest is that he is pretty sinister. While you may believe that the gremlins are dangerously mischievous, Stripe usually means to kill. Stripe proves to be a formidable enemy fully aware of the three rules and how to use them to his advantage.
He is a fierce fighter and creates his own batch of gremlins ready to cause more havoc on Billy’s small town.
Empathy:
I have a lot of empathy for the protagonists in this film.
Billy is the main human character in charge of the Mogwai Gizmo and he’s terrible at it. He deeply loves his new pet and they do have a period of bonding that is natural and believable.
It’s unfortunate that with all his responsible behavior, he doesn’t even pay attention to the rules for taking care of Gizmo until it’s too late.
He’s a good kid though, working to provide for his family while his dad is off following his dreams as an inventor. Billy is simply adorable as he conceals his crush on his co-worker, Kate and deals with bullies at work in the form of Mrs. Deagle and other mean spirited characters.
Billy is also a comic book fan and wants to become a comic book artist one day as he pines to catch a break one day from his mundane life.
Billy’s mom is a great supporting partner for her husband and has a really sweet relationship with Billy.
She becomes the first warrior in this story, picking up a knife like a sword and a folding table like a shield as she takes down two gremlins in an effort to reclaim her home.
When the mom is finally overtaken by one of the gremlins, we see the role of warrior change hands to her son; now left to fight the main baddie gremlin Stripe, also with a sword in his hand.
It is foreshadowed earlier in the film as one of the two swords used as decoration in the home falls every time someone opens the front door.
Another reason why Billy is so likable is that he takes responsibility for his mistake and strives to right his wrongs by going after Stripe himself.
A budding romance is brewing between Billy and his coworker Kate. She seems like a sweet girl, but hidden beneath is a story.
Many people were confused by Kate’s monologue about why she dislikes Christmas. I loved the scene, because it was a great bit of character development for Kate. I didn’t understand why she was so hot and cold with Billy until then. Her character arcs by opening up. I especially love Gizmo’s response.
Now to Gizmo, he is a cute and adorable creature down to the little sounds he makes and funky facial expressions. He is small, vulnerable and is probably in the most danger to be harmed by the gremlins, but yet the most virtuous. He represents the purity of good and its triumph over evil as he is the one to save the town from Stripe at the end.
There is a bit of foreshadowing when Gizmo is watching a racing movie on TV and imitates the action of driving a car -- to when he actually does ride a Barbie car into Stripe’s last scene to save the day.
Technical:
Technically, this film is amazing for the cost. Wow, I just don’t know how they pulled it off.
In the very beginning they attempted to have monkeys play the gremlins. That idea was abandoned because the test monkey panicked when they were made to wear the gremlin heads. I have to say, that must’ve been a hilarious thing to witness!
Zach Galligan, the actor who played Billy recounted in an interview that when the movie was made there was no CGI. All of the gremlins were animatronics, each costing between $30,000-$40,000. When everyone left the lot for the day, the security would have everyone open the trunks of their cars to make sure there weren't any stolen Gremlins inside.
The Gizmo puppets were particularly frustrating for the puppeteers because they were smaller and malfunctioned a lot. Originally Gizmo was only going to be appearing in the first half of the film. But since his appearance would be throughout the end and would endure a lot of action scenes this stressed out the staff a lot.
There are so many nods to many movies in the film such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Star Wars (1983), The Time Machine (1960), Forbidden Planet (1956), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), ET: The Extraterrestrial (1982).
Other relationships to movies are in the film, such as the set for Kingston Falls is the same used for Back to the Future (1985). Both movies were filmed on the Universal Studios backlot.
At the start of the film the cinema in the town is showing "A Boy's Life" and "Watch The Skies", which were the working titles for Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
Many films were being shown being watched such as It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and To Please a Lady (1950).
When the filmmakers were making this they had the idea to use Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) as a film to be shown in the theatre because Disney released it as a holiday movie. While watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) in the local cinema, one of the gremlins wears a set of Mickey Mouse ears to pay homage. That was such a fun touch that was added!
Steven Spielberg made a cameo in the film as the man in the electric wheelchair at the invention expo. At the same expo you can see Robbie the Robot from the epic science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956). Animation legend Chuck Jones makes a cameo as well where Billy is drawing, because he also wants to be a cartoonist one day.
Performances:
The performances were great! They were all done well. Keye Luke as the grandfather Mr. Wing.
Corey Feldman as Billy’s friend Pete Fountaine.
Harry Carey Jr. was brilliantly cast as the paranoid Mr. Anderson, and the one person in Billy’s town who actually knows about the existence of gremlins.
Zach Galligan was great as Billy Peltzer. Phoebe Cates as Kate was wonderful. Her monologue was such a surprise, and I loved how she dragged it a little for the emotional impact.
Polly Holliday was deliciously nasty as Almira Gulch… oops! I mean Ruby Deagle, this is how I like my villains!
Judge Reinhold was good as the smarmy office bully Gerald Hopkins.
Frances Lee McCain was amazing as Lynn Peltzer, the strong matriarch of the Peltzer home.
Frank Welker doing the voice for Stripe… yum! Howie Mandel doing the adorable speaking voice for Gizmo.
Best:
The best part of the film for me is the theater scene when all of the gremlins are watching Snow White and just loving it, singing along. Then you can even hear Gizmo singing along too. At the base of it, Mogwais and gremlins come from the same source of something purely whimsical.
The ending:
I enjoyed the ending. After all of the disaster Kingston Falls experienced, the story ends on a somber note -- leaving you feel oddly satisfied some gravity was paid to the night's events.
My Wish List:
Gosh, I don’t really have much to wish for except to have a cute little Gizmo of my own! And if I did it would be without all the weird rules. He’s just so adorable and memorable.
In Summary:
This film could have been a dark, terrifying film, which I would have never watched. That’s what the movie Critters released in 1986 was intended to be… the scary miniature monster film.
And although the gremlins do some pretty horrible things in the film, it doesn’t feel like a horror film. It plays like a comedy, because the gremlins are causing slapstick pranks.
I feel bad about it, but I literally laugh every time the evil little gremlins cackle about their mischief. As a person who does not particularly enjoy violence, it’s so surprising that I laughed along with the film. It just has a devilish whimsy feel about it.
Although it’s cute and fun, I don’t think it’s a film for very small kids. 11 and up, yes.
It’s also well done. The practical effects hold up, and they work. This is the gold standard for film making to make a film that doesn’t just entertain audiences of its time with the latest technology, but to entertain timelessly. Those are the films that lasts, and convert new fans year after year.
Most people think of this film as just a fun movie without anything to say, but I beg to differ. The film really has a statement about the vast nature of duality. For instance, Christmas is a joyous occasion but actually not for everyone. Because for some people the holiday holds painful memories of lost ones, broken homes, tragedies and sadness.
We have the perfect picturesque town of Kingston Falls, that is later turned into a disaster area. The town's upstanding responsible policemen, are actually drunk and cowardly. Mrs. Deagle the mean predatory monster is actually helpless, alone and afraid. Billy’s mom, the supportive nurturing matriarch of the family is transformed into the fierce warrior to defend her home. Kate, a very private girl, opening up to Billy and sharing her story. Billy the Kid… no I mean this Billy the kid, who makes a few mistakes, transforms into a fighter ready to amend his mistakes. The cute Mogwai transforms into the maniacal gremlins. Finally, the sweet and cuddly Gizmo transformed into the ultimate hero and going against his polar opposite, Stripe.
That sums up my review, I hope you liked it!
This is Retro Nerd Girl, signing off.
Take care movie lovers, I’m off to my next review!
Written by Veltis Angel
Edited by Amber Schmidt
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