Gremlins [PG]

When Billy is given a new cuddly pet, he is given three very important instructions: 1) don’t ever get it wet. 2) Keep it away from bright light. And 3) no matter how much it cries, no matter how much it begs, never never feed it after midnight. 

From classic Spielberg comes a fun-filled science fiction horror filled with violence, mischief, action, and suspense. 

When Billy is given a new cuddly pet, he is given three very important instructions: 1) don’t ever get it wet. 2) Keep it away from bright lights. And 3) no matter how much it cries, no matter how much it begs, never never feed it after midnight. When a series of little mistakes causes these rules to be broken, Billy and his entire hometown becomes the victims of an onslaught of mischief and mayhem carried out by little green horrors known as Gremlins. 

Well it has to be said that, like Jurassic Park, the puppets were the true stars of the movie. Gizmo is the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen and the nasty little Gremlins were freaky-looking, but at the same time very funny. 

That’s what was really nice about this movie. It had a somewhat horrific setting and story, but there was a lot of comedy blended into the film to make it less scary and keep it PG. The most memorable example of this is the Gremlins watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and singing along with the Dwarfs’ song. Without a doubt, my favourite scene. I also liked the bar scene where the army of Gremlins are all their own characters. Some are hustlers, gangsters, drunks, gamblers, there is even a Gremlin imitating Flashdance. It was all really clever and rather funny. 

The story itself is simple and easy to follow, aside from the somewhat vague ending, and although there was a fair bit of the macabre involved, the humour of the screenplay helped to alleviate the potential horror of it all. 

Starring Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Scott Brady, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Polly Holliday, Dick Miller, and Corey Feldman, Gremlins was a fun filled movie packed with suspense, violence, cute critters, nasty critters, violence, mischief, and suspense. I just love it.