Gremlins - Still hard to beat

There have been many 'monster movies' made, but few can still seem to top 1984's 'Gremlins' in terms of… well, everything.  If it wasn't for the fact that there's no such thing as a 'perfect' movie, I would be tempted to describe it so.  I know it's never going to be remembered as a deep and meaningful literary great, but, for a monster movie, you really can't ask for much more.

Perhaps the mistake that many monster movies make is using the first half of the film to create a human cast of between 5-10, simply to use them as 'monster-fodder' for the second act where the beasties need to prove how terrible they are by slaughtering all those you - sort of - got to know previously. 'Gremlins' doesn't have - that - many main cast members, just our protagonist, Billy, and sometimes his immediate family and friends.  If there is a 'supporting' cast member, it's the cute lovable (and totally anamatronic!) 'Mogwai' known as 'Gizmo' (that's what gremlins are before they become horrid, green and vicious - in case you didn't know!).

It's a nice, simply story - a father buys an unusual pet (Mogwai) for his son while travelling to the Far East.  However, what he doesn't know is that this pet comes with more rules than just putting newspaper down in the dirt box at night.  If you expose them to bright light - they die.  If you get them wet - they multiple.  And, most importantly, if you feed them after midnight, you'll find you're dealing with a plague of tiny monsters (don't question how the whole 'time thing' works when spread over International Time Zones - that's generally over-thinking things!).  Anyway, guess what happens to Billy's new pet?

The real stars are - of course - the gremlins (and Gizmo, obviously).  Despite all of them being blatant puppets, they're still somehow very believable as characters.  You'll love the cute and cuddly Gizmo and generally feel that the gremlins are a real nasty bunch who take delight in causing havoc and even death.  A special mention should go to whoever made the puppets and did the special effects in general.

I remember when 'Gremlins' first came out (in the UK) - there was a controversy because it was rated 'PG,' meaning kids could go unaccompanied to watch it.  Apparently, the film was deemed 'too scary' for children and the rating was swiftly upped to a '15.' Although I never had any nightmares involving having water poured over me and then splitting off into a team of evil dopplegangers, I can see that the film is a bit 'dark' in places and probably not suitable for (all!) children.  Perhaps that's where 'Gremlins' fault lies - that it's too dark for kids in general, but also probably a little too light-hearted to be taken seriously as a straight horror by adults.

Either way, I think it's an awesome 'horror-comedy' film.  So, if you're into dark humour with horrible little critters who you really don't want as pets, you really should check this out (if you already haven't!).  It was the film that stated a whole wave of copycat films involving little, nasty puppet monsters throughout the eighties.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather