What
could easily have been a silly, enjoyable, yet forgettable film about
cute fluffy creatures that become evil when fed after midnight turned
out to be a minor classic. The extra layer of this cake is made
partly of Reagan era consumerism commentary and partly of commentary
on its own wider genre of kid friendly creep-out films and Spielberg
blockbusters, and it's yummy. If you're in a stupid mood, though, you
can scrape it off with your brain knife and just watch the film as a
goofy comedy horror. What's rare about this one is that it works both
ways, and much like things like 'Poltergeist' it's very much of its
time and isn't the kind of thing that can ever be re-made, it's
simultaneously timeless and as enjoyable now as I imagine it was on
first release.
It's
simply written and much of the acting is intentionally goofy, but I
still think the human element was the weakest of the film. The
characterisation was cartoonish, especially with the main character
kid, the evil land lady, and the wacky inventor father. None of the
characters are particularly complex or realistic, and the arc of
those of them that possess one can be seen a mile off. 90% of this
feels in keeping with the rest of the film though, and it mostly felt
smart and self-aware rather than dumb and simple. Maybe 80%.
After
a deceptively slow burning first half, the second kicks it up a gear
as the gremlins literally take over the whole town. It's fun seeing
them smoke and drink and eat and watch films (they're crazy for 'Snow
White'). The effects on the gremlins were fantastic; there was lots
of detail and little movements. I was often struck by how un-puppet
like they looked (the first time this happened was when Gizmo was
pretending he was driving a car. Something about the way his
movements flowed and the natural way he blinked. Anyway, there were
times when they definitely did look like puppets too, but despite
pushing it the film never makes them cross over into out-right
sillyness. They were always creepy enough for that final death scene
for Stripe to still somehow be alarmingly gory.
Gremlins: 70.9