Gremlins

I remember (somewhat) being a young kid in the mid 1980's. It was really a wonderful time to be a young kid. The cartoons were better, the movies were better, and the toys were top notch- and as a bonus didn't give you lead poisoning. I believe it was either my 3rd or 4th birthday where I got a Gizmo stuffed animal. I couldn't wait to take that thing to nursery school as plenty of my friends had their own little Gizmo's. If you were lucky you had the ones that talked as well with the same playful childlike voice that Howie Mandel used in the film (and later used in his animated series Bobby's World). So it was pretty cool a few months later when I was at a family friend's house and was introduced to where Gizmo really came from. People knew it was from Gremlins but as a kid, toys sort of exist in their own universe and you can not see how they would function outside of that. It's the same theory that has turned Toy Story into a beloved franchise. Anyway, as they flipped through the channels I caught a peek of Gizmo staring at something and was fixated on his image. I wanted to see Gizmo in his adventure. That lasted all of a few minutes before Stripe pounced onto the screen with his scowl and white poof of hair. I was ready to hide quickly.

It took a few years but I revisited the film and was pretty struck by what I saw. What on the surface seemed like a neat little family film- because of the furry lead- was actually a pretty nasty black comedy. The most humorous part of the movie to me is that if you just watched the first 20 minutes or so and then turned it off you would almost never believe how the thing ends up because it would seem so off the wall from the set-up, even with it being slightly ominous and shady.

Randall Peltzer sets out to buy a Christmas gift for his son and heads to Chinatown where he discovers an ancient creature named a Mogwai. He tries to buy one but the owner refuses because owning one he says, "Is a great  responsibility." As Randall leaves he is approached by the store owner's son who agrees to sell the creature because his family needs the money. He however does relay to Randall that there are certain rules to owning a Mogwai. If you've seen the movie you know them, if not well here they are:

1.) Never expose it to bright lights- especially sunlight which will kill it.
2.) Never get it wet- which will make it multiply
3.) Most importantly, never, EVER, feed it after midnight- no matter how much it cries

I guess somewhere in there you should've been able to detect something was amiss here.

That night a glass of water is accidentally spilled on Gizmo and he multiplies by 5 including Stripe who is the leader of the new 5 Mogwai but is very hostile to Gizmo. The son, Billy, wants to learn more about Mogwai so he takes it to his science class and leaves one with his teacher. When Billy returns home the 5 new creatures bite through his alarm clock cord and trick him into feeding them after midnight. When he wakes up the next morning the 5 Mogwai are in cocoons. Gizmo, who refused the food, remains unchanged.  When the Mogwai emerge from their cocoons they are now Gremlins with snarling teeth and a nasty taste for chaos and humans. From there it is a chaotic battle as Stripe and the evil Gremlins try to wipe out everyone in their path.

It also needs to be mentioned that this film helped (along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) to usher in the PG-13 movie. It wasn't really a kid's movie but yet it didn't warrant the R rating that more adult films got. So the MPAA invented a new category for these types of films and now PG-13 is looked at as a Holy Grail for studios. If they can get movies into the PG-13 range it opens up a huge audience for them.

This is a really fun little movie and Joe Dante does so much right when it comes to creating a setting and mood for his film. Dante was heavily influenced by films of the 1950's and the town here feels very reminiscent of the stripped down towns presented in those films. There are thousands of blinking Christmas lights, everyone is jolly in town, there are Christmas carols being sung, and it feels like a local neighborhood. This all ends up being incredibly effective when things break down since it feels like it could be happening to you. That small town feel is something Dante would go back to in later movies like Matinee and one of my favorite movies The Burbs. In that latter film and the television show he helped create Eerie, Indiana he focused on the aspect of bad things happening in small town America.

The macabre sense of humor that permeates the film though is where this movie really shines though. Dante takes the structure of a family film and subverts that by introducing so many elements that seem ripped from horror films. You have the evil creatures tormenting the good creature and then the humans it has attached itself too. There is a scene where the Gremlin in the science lab breaks out of its' cage and hides in the corner of a darkened room only to bite the hand off of the teacher. Most notably though is the scene that sticks out like a sore thumb every time you watch the film. It is the scene that many critics attacked, and even Steven Spielberg hated but allowed Dante to keep because it was his film. This was despite the fact that Spielberg had creative control on the film. It's kind of funny that so many critics savaged the scene because it really is something culled from the 1950's where the jokes were usually of a sick and twisted nature. It's hard to describe exactly what is said. In the middle of the chaos Billy and his girlfriend have this discussion:

Kate: Now I have another reason to hate Christmas.

Billy Peltzer: What are you talking about?

Kate: The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 years old. Me and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn't home. So Mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. So the police began a search. Four or five days went by. Neither one of us could eat or sleep. Everything was falling apart. It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I went to try to light up the fire. That's when I noticed the smell. The firemen came and broke through the chimney top. And me and Mom were expecting them to pull out a dead cat or a bird. And instead they pulled out my father. He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. He'd been climbing down the chimney... his arms loaded with presents. He was gonna surprise us. He slipped and broke his neck. He died instantly. And that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus.

It feels so out of place and so bizarre in the middle of the film. I never minded its inclusion but it feels like they wedge it into the story rather than just letting it naturally happen. Still it's an amusing anecdote and is an old urban legend.

In the end this is two different movies that really shouldn't work together but with Dante's deft touch they do. You have a family Christmas film on one hand, and on the other a horror comedy. Dante at this time was really turning into a good director with a nice style and he found a way to find common threads between the two genres  and create a film that really is fun to revisit at any time of the year. Even if just to see how cute Gizmo is again.