Fast-moving kiddie horror flick about little killer creatures on the loose in a small town on Christmas Eve. It’s got some vicious moments (the Gremlin who explodes inside of a heated microwave oven is the best gross-out), but it’s all played for laughs.
Director Joe Dante is a child of the 1950s and 60s Saturday matinee and he understands monster movies. He knows that in most of the classics, kids like the monsters. They relate to them. In fact, the Gremlins here are little kids, newly born, small in size and bursting with endless energy. They rampage a town with glee, they love cartoons, they kill off cranky old people, they break into a department store and go hog wild in the toy section.
The human hero (Zach Galligan) is a milquetoast, as he should be, as he always is in these movies, the girl (Phoebe Cates) is crush-worthy and the sidekick is a good little monster (Gizmo the Mogwai) who brings some E.T. appeal to the whole affair.
Add it all up and slap Steven Spielberg’s name in the Executive Producer credits and you’ve got one of the biggest hits of the summer of 1984. This film also inspired a whole wave of copycat creature features (Critters, Ghoulies, Troll) that invaded the rest of the 80s like Gremlins themselves. To his credit, Joe Dante regarded the rip-offs with good humor. He should. After all, he got his own career going by ripping off Jaws with his own Piranha.