Seeing as how this is more of a comedy than a horror movie, I think I'll take this time to tell you guys a funny story of what happened to me the first time I saw this movie.
The year is 1998. Little Synester is 4 years old and his mother just rented a movie called Gremlins from the local Blockbuster. The entire family sits down in the living room to watch it; me, my mom, my mom's boyfriend at the time, grandma, and grandpa. At first, I love the movie. It's cute, it's cuddly, it's just so darn adorable. And then we divebomb straight down into the 9th circle of hell. I spent the rest of the movie cowering in fear, clutching my mother's arm as little green monsters ripped right from my nightmares invaded the screen, laughing that high-pitched cackling laugh. I had never been more terrified of something before in my whole life. Now, I was much too young to realize that when the monsters were on screen, they were mostly doing funny stuff, and my grandma noticed this as well. When the movie ended, I went into the bathroom to drain my bladder of all the urine that had I had managed to not release in fear during the movie. And then the moment happened that I will never forget. While I was peeing (pants completely off because I was 4 and didn't know how else people peed), my grandma steps in the door behind me, shuts off the light, and does a perfect imitation of the Gremlins' high-pitched laugh.
That was it. That was my breaking point. I ran out of the bathroom screaming, still pantsless and still urinating, all the way back into the living room where I jumped onto the couch by my mom, and getting piss everywhere in the process. And that, my friends, is the wonderful story of why Gremlins was my number one fear until I was 10 years old.
Don't give me that smirk, you little shit.
So, now that your respect level for me has dropped significantly, what did I actually think of the movie Gremlins? Here's another interesting tidbit: even though I was totally terrified of it, I still rewatched Gremlins multiple times throughout my childhood. I actually liked what I was most afraid of! I credit this movie with getting me hooked on horror movies because it was the first horror movie that I can remember watching, and it's also the first horror movie that I remember liking a lot. I couldn't get enough of this movie! I eventually learned that the movie was intended to be a comedy, and I learned to laugh at it more than it could scare me. I think that a good horror movie should do exactly that. It should scare the crap out of you, not to the point where you are too terrified to re-live it, but to the point where you will intentionally rewatch it and scare yourself because you enjoy it so much. THAT is what makes a horror movie immortal, and that is why I kept coming back to Gremlins. Sure, it scared the piss out of me (literally), but I think that even as a small child, I would've listed it among my favorite movies.
You're alright, man. You're alright.
I don't need to explain the plot, you all know it. A kid gets a new pet, and he ignores the rules given to him by the man who gave him the pet, and the pet spawns evil mutant versions of itself that run amok around the town. A simple plot, sure, but it's very original and one that everyone remembers.
The acting is really good as well, even though most of the actors left their careers in the 80's. What I really love about this movie is the insane amount of detail they put into it. I've watched it countless times and if I watched it again today, I'm sure that I could find something that I didn't notice before. I blame Steven Spielberg being one of the producers for that. He has a habit of putting waaaaaay too much into his movies, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The little touches, like the Gremlins all watching (and enjoying) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in a movie theater, or the Gremlins getting drunk at a bar and starting a massive bar fight, or the homage to the classic late night monster movie shows, complete with an aging host dressed as a vampire. The team who worked on this movie put a lot of effort and heart into it and it definitely shows.
I didn't know David Letterman was in this movie!
Overall, this movie is fantastic. The acting is spot-on, the direction is beautiful, the creatures are scary and they still look good to this day, which is a real feat for an 80's horror movie where the main monsters are puppets. The comedy is slapstick gold. Every second the Gremlins are on screen, something hilarious is happening. It's one of the few comedies that makes me laugh out loud every single time I watch it. All in all, I highly recommend you check out Gremlins. Oh who am I kidding? You most likely already have! That's the impact that this movie had! It's wildly popular, and for good reason! I give Gremlins 8 pissing 4-year-old me's out of a possible 10. It's one of my all-time favorite movies, and it will never leave that list.
They're actually kinda cute now that I'm not horrified of them anymore.
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