Review of Gremlins (1984) by Federico F — 12 Dec 2016

Gremlins is a true masterpiece of perfect tone and satire, and one of the most devious, malicious, dark and gleefully anarchic mainstream blockbusters ever made, what starts as a cutesy, whimsical Disney esc boy and his unusual, unbearably cute pet Christmas story shifts gears completely into a violent, blackly hilarious horror comedy that acts as a playfully malicious attack on the whole festive season and the cynical, consumer culture fulled greedy, shallow ugliness that now festers underneath all the pretty glowing lights, glittery tinsel, jovial songs and hollow good tidings's to all. The older it gets the more ballsy and daring Gremlins looks, and the more utterly, jaw droppingly vicious in it's misanthropy you realize it is (sample dialogue exchange: Billy: I always thought everyone was happy during the holidays, no matter what.

Kate: Most people are, but some aren't. While everybody else opens up presents, they're opening up their wrists.

Billy: Cheery thought.

Kate: It's true. The suicide rate's always the highest around the holidays.) the most glaring example and the scene which encapsulates the whole of Gremlins is the incredibly bleak, dark scene were Kate reveals the harrowing story of why she really hates Christmas. All of this happy nastiness is mixed beautifully with Dante's sense of utter fun, invention and boundless love for movies (see the references to It's A Wonderful Life, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, The Time Machine, and Loony Toon's shorts) this movie is packed with nods, cameos (look out for Steven Spielberg and Chuck Jones) and in-jokes and clever homages throughout, it's a true movie buffs delight. Then of course theres the stars of the show, the Gremlins themselves, like an evil version of The Muppets, they cut a merry swathe through the movie and we get great pleasure in seeing them punish all the asshole humans, especially sweet is Mrs Deagle's hilarious fate. Then you've got Gizmo, without doubt the cutest character in the history of film, impossibly cuddly, lovable and good natured and the film cruelly delights in torturing the little guy at every turn. Luckily he also turns out to be a complete badass too. To top off this thing of evil/ feel good perfection, you get the late great Jerry Goldsmiths masterful, perfectly pitched, playful yet sinister score, which captures the darkly whimsical tone of the movie so incredibly it induces chills, and Joe Dante's direction is just completely ingenious on every level. Gremlins is the greatest Christmas movie ever, because it's brutally honest about the sham that Christmas has become in modern times, the obsession with greed, excess, more more more, and says that maybe the best thing is to tear down and destroy the holiday so that in the end we can see what's real and meaningful underneath all the grotesque artifice. So in that way, it really is the ultimate film about the holiday.