I think this may be 2020s version of my ‘Die Hard’ (1988) review from last year. Today we are doing ‘Gremlins’ (1984) which is also arguably not a Christmas film. However, I am very much in the camp of ‘Die Hard’ being a Christmas film and if that is my way of thinking then there is absolutely no question that this film is a Christmas film. It has plot points connected to Christmas and is full of Christmas iconography. End of argument. Anyway, lets actually talk about the film .it had been a good long while since I last saw it so I was excited to jump back in and I crossed my fingers that I would still enjoy it. The film follows Billy (Zach Galligan) who is gifted a mysterious animal called a mogwai for Christmas. The mogwai comes with a set of strict rules. They do not like bright lights, especially sunlight, keep them away from water, and do not feed them after midnight. But of course, these rules get broken and the town starts to be overrun by a horde of rabid gremlins.
So yeah, this film is fun. But I am not entirely sold on it being this brilliant classic. I mean it obviously is as it has cemented its place in pop culture and is a film that has legs, but I find myself not enjoying it as much as some other people seem to. I do want to emphasise, however, that I do enjoy it. First of all, it is a film that is heavily cemented in the 80s which is a decade of films that is always pleasing for me. By that I mean you can totally tell it is an 80s film from the way it looks, both visually and technically. And it does look good in both regards. The mise en scene and sets are all well crafted and the film is solidly made on a technical level. There is one aspect of the film that is top tier, but I will get to that later. Performance-wise the film is also solid. You don’t look at any of the actors and think ‘wow, that was incredible, Oscar-worthy’ but nor would you expect to. This is an 80s film about gremlins, and everyone does exactly the performing job that they need to for the type of film it is. The narrative is not particularly noteworthy either. It does feel more like a film where the concept for the gremlins came before the story, but again this doesn’t matter. There is a narrative, and it does enough to string the film together and to give it a path to navigate while providing plenty of gremlin action which is the real reason people love this film.
If we are all being honest no one cares about the story of this film, we all just want fun gremlin action, and we get that. First thing I want to mention is how the gremlins and mogwai. First thing to say is that they still really hold up. The gremlins more than the mogwais which do sometimes look more animatronic than real, but this doesn’t matter so much as they all provided with clear and fun personalities, so you see them as real characters within the film rather than animatronics that actors are acting against. The designs are also pretty iconic and for good reason, because they look great. They are also the most fun parts of the film. Clearly, the best part of the film is where the gremlins kill the cartoonishly evil Mrs Deagle by malfunctioning her chair lift and launching her out of window (and in turn making the gremlins more like anti-villains than straight-up villains). But the most fun and most memorable scene involving the gremlins is the bar scene. This scene is just bonkers. We basically spend a five-minute sequence watching gremlins create pure havoc and it is a great mix of madness and comedy. The activities that the gremlins are partaking in range from getting drunk to shooting other gremlins in the face point blank because they cheated at poker. It is never really established what the gremlins are meant to be and so you can kind of believe they will do anything, but it is still bizarre to see them acting like gangsters.
So yeah, ‘Gremlins’ is a lot of fun, but I would not say it is a great film. Am I in the minority in this? Maybe, and I do totally understand why people love it like they do. I think if I had watched it more when I was younger I would have a higher opinion of the film, but as it stands I still think it is a lot of fun and it will be a film I come back to again in the future.
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