1984 Gremlins

Joe Dante was a director who had found a following with his werewolf movie The Howling. He was a protege of Roger Corman, and one of hsi early movies was a Jaws pastiche, Piranha.

When a script, by Chris Columbus, landed at Steven Spielberg's door he knew the movie had to be made but he was too engrossed in other projects. So Spielberg decided to produce and with that created his 'Steven Spielberg presents' monicker; he chose Joe Dante to direct.

The movie has since become a classic.

It's small town America at Christmas. We have snow and trees and lights and everyone is smiling, yet, there is a darkness. Billy Peltzer's father stumbles across a creature called a Mogwai, buys it, takes it home to his son, and, not following the strict rules, Gremlins are born.

This movie is wild. It has some wonderful parts for actors like Dick Miller and Hoyt Axton; it features the cutest pet you would ever want, and it delivers some wild horror where anything, it would seem, is possible.

Gremlin in drag, yep; Gremlin drunk at a bar, you got it; Gremlin singing to Snow White, do it; Gremlin fight in a department store, make it so!

Once the mayhem in unleashed it rockets from there. The scene with the mother warding off gremlins in her kitchen is a classic destructive scene where she uses as many modern appliances as possible to fend off those disgusting, cookie eating critters.

Speaking of critters, as was typical in the 80's, this hit spawned many copy-cats, Critters being one them. It also launched a sequel in 1990 that the director didn't want to make, but the studio insisted. Safe to say, it ends the whole show and any plans for a Gremlins 3, I'm sure, are safely tucked away never to see the light of day.

The amazing, surreal score was by Jerry Goldsmith, it is well worth a listen and perfectly captures the craziness of the movie.

Gremlins was the fourth highest grossing movie of 1984, managing $153m on a budget of $11m.




 

Get George Gipe's novelization from Abe Books here -  Gremlins

Gremlins was a hit at Christmas and we had books, figures and all sorts, yet for some reason the video game was only released on Atari, which was a fading console, being driven out by ZX Spectrums and Commodore 64's. rare copies of the Atari game can be found at Ebay - Gremlins on Atari