Before starting this year’s series, I asked some of our contributors if they had any ideas for this year’s themes and rules. One of the suggestions that I received was “films celebrating a 40th anniversary”. Now, while I did like that idea, I knew it would be more than a little limited in terms of films to write about. Eventually, that suggestion morphed into this year’s theme. However, one film that would have fit that initial suggestion is Gremlins, the subject of today’s post.
Today’s entry comes to us from Chris Whissen, a friend of over 30 years and returning contributor to this series. As mentioned in the following review, this is Chris’s fourth time contributing, which is a perfect fit for this year’s theme… and possibly a sign of bad luck. No, not really… but I’ll throw some salt over my shoulder just in case.
Then again, as I am old enough to have seen Gremlins in theaters during its original release, it might be for the best that I don’t throw anything. Back problems and all.
For those of us at an age where we should at least consider our first colonoscopy, there are a few cinematic rules that we all know to live by. We don’t talk about that one. Only slightly more well-known, at least in my circles, is the rule: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!” However, in the pantheon of cinematic rules, there is one we hold in the highest regard. It is immutable, sacrosanct, and generally a really bad idea to break. “Don’t ever feed him after midnight.” Breaking that one simple rule* unleashes a scaly, chaotic horror and forms the premise of one of the all-time great is-it-a-Christmas movies, 1984’s Gremlins.
This year’s Halloween Horrors theme, fear of four, coincides with my fourth entry in the series. What better way to keep the theme going than a movie released 4 decades ago? Though I never saw Gremlins in theaters (my parents became a little more selective after an early encounter with An American Werewolf in London), it’s one of those movies that I always picture on the big screen.
I would have remembered seeing it on the screen. I know that because Gremlins was released on June 8, 1984, and I remember going to the drive-in to see some small comedy starring such unknowns as Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Sigourney Weaver – to name a few. I’m not old enough to remember what people were saying about Ghostbusters at the time, but with its all-star cast, big-name writers, and acclaimed director, I imagine there was some excitement. This makes the success of Gremlins even more impressive. It was an odd-seeming entry in the summer blockbuster landscape. A horror/comedy about weird creatures from a little-known director, a basically new writer, and featuring a cast whose only name of note was Phoebe Cates. It seems an unlikely success…but they did have one thing in their favor: Stephen Spielberg as producer. Whatever the reason, in a year with a lot of memorable movies, Gremlins stood out as one of the top-grossing films.
It’s just not what we think of when we think” blockbuster.” The opening scene screams noir. A man walking down crowded, dimly lit, and smoky streets. A voiceover, identifying as Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton), an inventor “making the illogical logical”. A loving dad trying to provide for his family and find a nice Christmas gift for his son. A boy leads Randall into a basement shop, where the proprietor watches silently as the inventor attempts to sell him on a not-quite-functioning invention. Sensing the sale is going nowhere, Randall makes his way to a creature singing in the back of the store. At least he found the perfect gift, right? Maybe not, the proprietor isn’t having it. He, in some of the heaviest foreshadowing of the 80s, doesn’t think Randall can handle the responsibility. He leaves, and a short time later the boy sneaks out the cage and as foreboding music builds, we first hear those three rules. Keep him out of the light. Don’t get him wet. And the most important rule… “never, never feed him after midnight.” The warning is shrugged off, the music swells, and…it’s Christmas. A jarring transition to small town America, Christmas music plays as we pan across the snow-covered street.
For the next chunk of the movie, the genre hopping continues. Director Joe Dante, at the time best known for Piranha (a riff on Jaws), seems to delight in playing with genre throughout the film. Sometimes comedy, sometimes horror, but also a Christmas movie, a family film, a romance. In writing, this might seem like a mishmash, but on screen it works.
At least part of that credit goes to the writer, Chris Columbus. Columbus, now better known for directing Harry Potter and Home Alone, had been trying to sell his script for a while when Spielberg finally optioned it. There was still another year of rewrites before it was ready. I can see how it might have been a hard sell, but fortunately, Spielberg saw something in the script, or we would never have gotten to learn about the mogwai.
We don’t actually meet the mogwai until Randall returns home, in high spirits and clearly excited to give his son, Billy (Zach Galligan), the present. Billy opens the box, and we finally get to see Gizmo. He’s cute and adorable…okay, no, he’s not. Gizmo is meant to be cute and adorable. I had a stuffed Gizmo that was cute and adorable… but the creature we first see in this movie? There’s just something creepy and evil about that thing. I am not a student of special effects and only know of the very top names, so I can’t say if they were using a top tier effects team. Plus, it was 40 years ago, so I make allowances. Regardless, the results are just kind of creepy. For a bit, at least. Eventually, I found myself buying into the idea that Gizmo is adorable. That first look, though…yikes.
Rule 1: No bright light
The first rule is broken seconds after the Peltzers bring Gizmo into their home. Billy’s mom, Lynn (Frances Lee McCain), attempts to capture this “adorable” abomination on film, prompting another explanation of the rules, including that sunlight can kill Gizmo.
Side note: I never understood how no one questioned the fact that this creature that they were keeping as a pet, who was supposedly of Chinese origin, says “bright light” in perfectly clear English the moment they meet him. In fact, throughout the film Gizmo shows a level of intelligence that suggests sentience. For the most part, no one seems to care.
What follows is a stretch of film that mostly establishes our cast of characters. Randall is a hapless inventor. Lynn is the loving and patient wife and mother. Billy is their kind of nondescript offspring. It’s difficult to deduce Billy’s age. While he lives at home in a room adorned with posters and comic books, occasionally hanging out with an apparently much younger neighbor, Pete (Corey Feldman), he also holds a job at a bank and pursues a romantic interest, Kate (Phoebe Cates). I went with it, but still have no idea. Alongside Billy, we’re introduced to a host of amusing minor characters, including a paranoid neighbor, an arrogant co-worker, and an evil rich lady.
Rule 2: Don’t get them wet
It doesn’t take long for lovable scamp Pete to break rule 2. He spills water over Gizmo, triggering some form of painful reproduction, and what was one “mogwai” is now a handful, seemingly led by a calculating leader, Stripe. If online sources are to be trusted, the second rule draws inspiration from creatures of the same name in Chinese mythology – demons that like to harm humans and reproduce in the rain.
We don’t get demons though; we have Gizmo and a gang of mogwai that don’t seem as chill as him. In fact, Stripe seems downright cruel and calculating. We’ve gotten through the first two rules, and mostly they just seem to make Gizmo suffer. Surely, they’ll be extra careful to avoid breaking the final rule?
Rule 3: Never, ever feed them after midnight
Well, they’re not super careful. It’s not really Billy’s fault, though. When the gang of mogwai start hounding him for food, he does check the clock and it reads 11:40. So, he feeds them and awakens to a room full of gooey, scaly pods… and Gizmo, the one mogwai who turned down the food. Only then does he realize someone had ripped the wires of the clock out of the plug. I’m looking at you, Stripe.
This is how we get our gremlins, and the film shifts firmly into horror. Rule 3 will get you every time. For those who somehow missed the memo, the gremlins love to wreak havoc and take joy in destructive chaos. They clearly reference the gremlins of British folklore, WWII pilot tales, Roald Dahl’s stories, and a particularly memorable Twilight Zone episode. Except these gremlins multiply like mogwai, and Stripe knows it. He takes a dip in the local YMCA pool and his newly formed army heads out for a night on the town.
I’m jumping ahead though. First, we detour to the high school, where Billy has left a mogwai for the science teacher to study. Teach left out some food the night before and ends up dealing with his own gremlins. As Billy discovers, the encounter doesn’t end well.
Back at the Peltzer residence, Stripe hasn’t left the house…and Lynn is home. She hears noises and, rather than running away, grabs a chef’s knife and heads up to inspect. As she surveys the empty pods, Billy calls to warn her, only to have a gremlin cut the phone line. The next scene could have been lifted from Hitchcock. Lynn stalks through her house, scared but determined. Tense music plays as we follow her through the rooms. A gremlin shadow goes unnoticed, but the creature eating her Christmas cookies is the one that doesn’t notice her. With a gathering of bravery, she blends one to death, stalks forward with a TV tray shield to stab the one throwing plates at her and drives one back into the microwave for one of the most famous moments in the film. Lynn is awesome. She dispatches three gremlins in a matter of seconds, and then goes to look for more. One of the toughest women in 80s cinema.
We’ll learn that Kate is no slouch either, but first Billy must warn the authorities. They’re not buying it. They have no problem accepting the existence of a previously unseen, clearly intelligent, and articulate pet. However, the idea of another unseen creature evolving from the mogwai is something they won’t accept.
After a few scenes that whittle down the minor characters, we return to Kate, who finds herself serving a bunch of drunken gremlins at the tavern. It seems beer and alcohol are exempt from the prohibition on giving them water, or maybe Columbus just decided it would be funny for them to drink. Either way, she’s keeping the unruly lot in their drinks as they literally swing from the ceiling until the opportunity comes to make a break for it, where she encounters Billy.
At the point leading up to Kate joining Billy outside the bar, it’s all action. Gremlins versus humans, with bits of gore and laughter thrown in for effect. That all comes to a screeching halt as Billy and Kate take shelter in the bank. As they sort through the wreckage left by the gremlins, we have one of the film’s most infamous scenes – a somber and macabre tale that probably scarred more kids than any other single scene. The “Santa scene.” It’s a sudden break from the pattern of mayhem and comedy we’ve been experiencing, and just feels right. It sets the stage for the big finale, allowing us to catch our breath while still adding some depth to our characters. It’s brilliant.
Without going into too much detail, the first part of the grand finale delivers laughter and chaos. Our monsters show a softer side, singing along to the dwarves in Snow White. Our heroes take advantage of their distraction to blow them up. It’s all great fun and a fitting end to the gremlins.
Well, most of them. Stripe went on a candy run and must be dealt with. We get a bunch of familiar references as our heroes – Billy, Kate, Gizmo – attempt to bring down Stripe. There’s a nod to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, an E.T. easter egg, and likely a few others I’m sure I missed. All culminating in a very Evil Dead-style demise.
And that’s a wrap on the horror. We see the Peltzers and Kate recovering from the ordeal and tending to an injured Gizmo. At least until the proprietor from the beginning of the film comes to claim the mogwai. He calls Randall to task for his negligence, and we witness a touching goodbye between Billy and Gizmo.
There’s much to love about Gremlins and not much to criticize. It’s a soup of genres and homages, a testament to the idea that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Overall, it’s a well-crafted film, but a surprising summer blockbuster. There’s a lot to laugh at, a lot to enjoy, and a great deal to take in…it’s just plain fun. I wish more summer blockbusters followed its example. Perhaps there should be a rule about that.
*Quick note: while seemingly straightforward, the “midnight” rule has long been a source of confusion. Midnight where? How long after midnight before you can feed them again? What happens if you cross into a different time zone? Does midnight account for daylight savings? For those who have spent 40 years pondering these mysteries, all was evidently revealed in the recent animated series “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai”. I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet, but it’s nice to know there is an explanation that is considered canon. I won’t spoil it here though.
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Horror And Sons 