Gremlins (1984)
Never feed them after midnight — the Christmas gift that ate Kingston Falls.
Billy's dad brings home a Mogwai named Gizmo for Christmas; three simple rules get broken; the town's holiday turns into a gremlin rampage through bars, movie theaters, and department stores. Joe Dante mixed horror and comedy so well the MPAA invented PG-13 partly in response. Dark, funny, and weirdly festive.
Joe Dante smuggled a horror movie into a Christmas present. Steven Spielberg produced, Chris Columbus wrote, and the cute Mogwai's rules — no water, no food after midnight, no bright light — became playground law worldwide. The mayhem is pure Dante: gremlins in a bar doing vaudeville, a film-within-the-film, and Phoebe Cates delivering the bleakest Santa monologue in cinema with a straight face. Its violence, alongside Temple of Doom the same summer, pushed Hollywood to create the PG-13 rating. Kingston Falls' snowy main street makes the menace work — this is a real Christmas movie, just one with teeth.
From the Film
The Facts
- Year
- 1984
- Director
- Joe Dante
- Runtime
- 106 minutes
- Genres
- Comedy, Horror, Fantasy
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Zach Galligan | Billy Peltzer |
| Phoebe Cates | Kate Beringer |
| Hoyt Axton | Randall "Rand" Peltzer |
| Frances Lee McCain | Lynn Peltzer |
| Polly Holliday | Ruby Deagle |
| Judge Reinhold | Gerald Hopkins |
| Dick Miller | Murray Futterman |
| Howie Mandel | Gizmo (voice) |
Good to know: Its darker elements helped lead to the creation of the MPAA's PG-13 rating.
Where to watch Gremlins
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