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| Something intriguing is peeping out of the box on this classic poster for Joe Dante's Gremlins |
A struggling inventor buys a strange creature for his teenage son for Christmas, but young Billy has trouble obeying the mysterious three rules that come along with the furry cutey.
Gremlins is written by Chris Columbus (Heartbreak Hotel (1988)) and directed by Joe Dante (Hollywood Boulevard (1976)).
It is an original and funny genre hybrid, which fuses horror and comedy successfully. It is effects-driven, and it is incredible how much the special effects team get out of some relatively primitive dolls, lighting and wacky sounds. Main mogwai Gizmo understandably became a worldwide adorable creature favorite.
Jerry Goldsmith's (Air Force One (1997)) catchy soundtrack helps establish Gremlins as a kind of 1980s classic, despite the film's slightly primitive allure and Zach Galligan's (The Storytellers (1999)) dumb protagonist Billy. Frances Lee McCain (Preacher (2016, TV-series)) and Hoyt Axton (Number One Fan (1995)) are good as his mother and father though.
Related posts:
Joe Dante: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology (segment director)
Watch an original trailer for the film here
Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 153.3 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned 13.93 times its cost)
[Gremlins opened 8 June (USA) and runs 106 minutes. The 'gremlin' was invented as a malicious creature responsible for engine failures in the (British) RAF during WWII. Columbus has stated that his impetus for writing the script was a mouse infestation in his attic. An attempt at using a monkey to don the gremlin head was scrapped after it panicked. The first script was much darker and horrific than the final one. Shooting took place in California from April - July 1983. Executive producer Steven Spielberg opposed the scene of the story of a Santa Claus breaking his neck in the chimney but let Dante keep it in, despite having the creative last word. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Ghostbusters, to a 12.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 8 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 144.3 mil. $ in its original release. It scored another 4.9 mil. $ in its 1985 re-release and has had smaller 2010, 2017 and 2019 re-releases. Regrettably the international gross numbers are kept hidden; the film's world gross may well exceed 250 mil. $. The PG rating of Gremlins and Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), both films with gory scenes, drew criticism, making Spielberg suggest the MPAA make another rating, which was born with the PG-13 rating first imposed upon Red Dawn (1984). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, in line with this review. Massive merchandising production was launched based on the film's success among children and youths, and the video release made 79.5 mil. $ in the North-American rental market alone. Several less successful attempts to mimic the film were made. Dante made sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) with a much bigger budget, and a much smaller gross. A second sequel has been in talks for decades, and an animated series about Gremlins in China is currently in pre-production for HBO Max in 2021. Dante first returned with Explorers (1985). Gremlins is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Gremlins?
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