GREMLINS

US, 1984, 106 minutes, Colour.
Zach Gilligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Corey Feldman.
Directed by Joe Dante.

Gremlins was one of the big hits of 1984. Executive producer was Steven Spielberg - and with his background of Close Encounters, E.T. and such films as Poltergeist and Back To The Future, the film is a fantasy delight for contemporary audiences.

The film is a piece of entertaining Americana - in a small town that resembles a studio lot rather than reality. There is a long excerpt from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart - and with its Christmas setting, Capra's town is the model for the town for Gremlins. The film also has a blend of realism and fantasy in its characters: the wise Chinese and his grandson give a magical tone to the film. Mr. Peltzer with his range of invention failures gives it a tone of fantasy comedy. With the introduction of the Mugwai, the magical and the cute combine, only to be transformed into what psychologists would call the shadow images of the gremlins. They grow only in the dark and after midnight when they are fed.

The special effects are very good for the cute gremlin (reminiscent of E.T.) but are excellent for Stripe and his legion of monsters. Their parody of human behaviour is. very telling. There are excellent special effects for the gremlins watching a midnight screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (applauding the witch) and a chase in a department store.

The humans take a secondary role to the gremlins - although there are some comic characters including Mrs. Deagle, the equivalent of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The film was written by Chris Columbus (Reckless) and directed by Joe Dante, Pirhana, The Howling, an excerpt from The Twilight Zone. It is a clever blend of the horror genre and the comic.

1. Popular entertainment? Box office success? For family audiences, adults, children? Universal appeal?

2. Steven Spielberg and his imagination, his successful films, reliance on film conventions and traditions? Adaptations for the '80s? Fantasies: the traditions, something new and contemporary? His patronage of directors? The work of director Joe Dante, his thrillers?

3. The film as a piece of Americana: the re-creation of the small American town, the excerpt from Frank Capra's film? The exotic Chinatown? The ordinary American town: Christmas, the soda fountain bars, the banks, the streets, the homes? The range of people? The Hollywood-lot style? Contrived and stylised? A gallery of characters? Audiences identifying with the people and situations - realism and fantasy?

4. Magic and the magical? The inventor and his funny failures? The Chinese and the gift of the Mugwai? The cute creature? Delight? Christmas and gifts? The human side of the Mugwai? In bed, eating, reading. watching Clark Gable and speed cars in To Please a Lady? Yet the light. the wet. the food after midnight? The transforming of the delightful into the monstrous? Monstrous behaviour, appearances, mischief? The special effects - the individual gremlins, the chaos? The parody of human behaviour? Editing and pace, humour. the department store? The range of magical characters in the human world: the nice family, Prince Charming, the princess, the wicked witch etc.? The film's reliance on film tradition - and spoof e.g. Snow white, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.?

5. The film as a delightful fable: an American fable, the western world and the gifts it receives, not listening, careless, changing the gift to the monstrous, the gift parodying human behaviour, destructive? The warning of the old Chinese man at the end about the inability to appreciate gifts?

6. The title and its focus: the Mugwai and the Chinese warnings, precious, the reluctance to sell? The eager father taking the Mugwai as a gift? Billy receiving it? His mother welcoming it? The Mugnai’s good, the bad effects and its multiplying? Mischief, cunning? The scientist and his analysis? The gremlins trying to destroy the home? The invasion of the town? The variety of characters at the bar (reminiscent of the Star Wars bars)? The mock characters and their behaviour, gambling, drinking, violence, sex? The cinema sequence and the watching of Snow White - relishing the witch? The mayhem in the town, in the department store? The police and their disbelief? The attack on Mrs. Deagle? Gizmo versus Stripe? The confrontation of good and evil? Destroyed by the light? The gift to be preserved for another day?

7. The sketch of the Peltzer family: the clean-cut American family, Rand and his visit to Chinatown, the range of his inventions, the comedy of their failure? His love for his wife and for Billy? Billy as the hero? His work in the bank, the disapproval of Mr. Corbin, Mrs. Deagle and her haughtiness, her attack on the dog? Gerald and his stepping into Mr. Corbin's shoes? The dates with Kate, romance? The delight with Gizmo? Coping with Stripe, taking the gremlins to the teacher? The chaos, the rescue, the confrontation? The fact that he could not keep Gizmo at the end?

8. Kate as heroine - attractive, working at the bank, the dates with Billy? Her working in the bar, her being trapped and having to serve the gremlins? The importance of her story about Santa Claus, her father's dying in the chimney and her dislike of Christmas? (And the gremlins attacking the Santa Clauses)?

9. The villains: the bank, Mr. Corbin and his pleasing the rich, Gerald and his haughtiness? Mrs. Deagle as the witch character, her harshness, pushing people aside, attack on the dog? Animosity towards Billy? Her cruelty about housing and evictions? (The irony of the photo of Edward Arnold - and his being a Capra villain - as her husband?) Her cruelty, her chair, the gremlins sending her up the staircase and out into the snow? The comic strip death?

10. Mr. Futterman and his drinking, family, the television and the attack?

11. The sheriff and his assistant, their disbelief, trying to cope?

12. The scientist and his tests, his feeding the gremlins after midnight?

13. The old Chinese man and his grandson? The possessor of wisdom? The warnings to the West? His recovering his gift and keeping it for a better time?

14. The range of episodes and the blend of the comic and the horror? The parody? Society and chaos and order?