Holiday horror is a very specific sub genre of the horror section and it can be tricky to keep both the elements of horror and holiday melded together evenly. This is a hard if you are a first time director or someone who doesn't know how to handle two genres. Luckily Joe Dante is an amazing director who already had a massive horror hit under his belt with The Hollowing. However in 1984 Dante would step up to deliver us one of the most terrifying films set during the holiday season. Oh and did I mention it is also only PG. It is a great little mash up film that you don't see today of course we are talking about Gremlins.
The film begins with a great Noir like opening with a guy talking about being a salesman. We soon find our salesman in a old junk shop in china town. He is looking for a gift for his son for Christmas. We soon see him discover a small creature in the shop known as a Mogwai. He is cute and adorable and would make the perfect gift for any kid. however the shop owner won't sell him the creature. Through some shady transactions the man gets the creature and is told that he must follow three rules.
Never get him wet. Never feed him after midnight. Never put him in direct sunlight. So he is taken home to the small town Kingston Falls to the mans son Billy (Zach Galligan). He names the little creature Gizmo and it looks like everything is going to be great for Christmas.Of course in typical horror movie fashion one of those rules is broken and the result is several other furry creatures are brought to life from it. Now they look the same but there is something different about them from the original one.
Now I love a good creature feature and I think so does executive producer Steven Spielberg. This is what I like to call the era where Spielberg was getting a lot of good films made not only behind the camera but also on the financial side as well. This is the second in what I would like to call his quasi 80's horror kid adventure films. It began with Poltergeist and the continued with Gremlins then finished with The Goonies. Now I love all these movies and each has their own strengths but when it comes to the one that mixes horror and comedy together as Gremlins.
The beauty of the movie is the slow build to showing us the Gremlins and when we finally do we are not in disappointment. Also it is to be noted that this is not a CGI fest. It is all practical effects which makes them that much more real and scary. I would argue also this is a film with one of the most spooky uses of music. Right before we see the gremlins the song "Do you see what I see?" is playing and it is dam well unnerving. It is also great because unlike Goonies and Poltergiest the kids are a bit older and have to take up arms to save the town.
This is an instant Holiday and well as Halloween classic no matter which time of year you are watching it.
So we are nearly halfway through the month of October and I want all of you to know that I am loving everything about this blog. I hope you guys are reading and more importantly you are listing to the podcast. Tomorrow we look at a much creepier version of the man in the big red suit.
For High Weirdness I'm Benjamin Kolton reminding you "It's Only a Movie". "It's Only a Movie"
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