Gremlins movie review

Here's what you need to know; Billy is very happy with his Christmas present, an adorable little critter called Gizmo, little does he know that on Christmas eve all hell will rain down on the quiet little town he calls home, in the form of an army of little green monsters out to cause as much chaos as possible.

Gremlins is a film that will appeal to a lot of different audiences, first up we'll go for characters, Billy is a very good character, he's our hero in this creepy little tale, and he does a fairly good job of being a normal guy to rises up to fight the evil baddie. His girlfriend on the other hand is less interesting, and less useful, she has an emotional scene which, while not ruining, is a bit out of character for the film, more on that later. Really I do have an issue though with a few characters in the film which I feel are a bit wasted, like Mouth from the Goonies, characters who are pretty cool when you see them, and who you'd think will have a greater role in the film, but they don't, one character who isn't wasted however is Billy's mum, who has an absolutely awesome scene in the kitchen that I loved. Meanwhile a far more interesting thing than the human characters is of course the Gremlins, Gizmo is adorable, every time he's on screen you just want to pick him up and cradle him, and he's a pretty cool whatever he is too, he reads comics, sings, and can say a few words in the cutest voice a movie monster has ever spoken in. By contrast the metamorphosed gremlins are completely vile, slimy and scaly little monsters that are, in a twisted and morbid way, just as appealing as Gizmo. But while Gizmo is cute and fluffy and friendly, the Gremlins are nasty and creepy and out to do nothing but cause mayhem, they're a perfect blend of scary and comical, and that is highlighted in several very amusing scenes with them, I won't list any here, because they're funnier if you don't expect them. And they're brought to life with really, really good special effects, genuinely, this film holds up stupidly well with it's effects, and I prefer these things to anything modern CG could create, these things just look cooler. The comedy element of the film takes a while to get moving, in fact this film doesn't really get funny until about an hour in, when the Gremlins finally show up, but when they do, this film becomes hilarious, it leans more towards the horror elements before this though, and while this is fine, it's not the highlight of the film, and while the characters and their story are fine too, they are still in the shadow of the gremlins. There's one more thing I like about the film, easter eggs, this film is packed with them, and it's great to find them and see how the film makers played with them, for example the time machine, I will say no more. Overall, while the characters are good overall, and their story is serviceable, they're not what you remember after watching the film, nor is the horror elements of the first hour or so, you remember the gremlins, they're creepy, hilarious, and done with fantastic visual effects. Gremlins is a film I've had a soft spot for for years and I still highly recommend this film, definitely worth a watch.