I say this without irony: Gremlins is a fantastic Christmas movie. In many ways a Reagan-era response to It's a Wonderful Life, this film explores what happens to those who for whatever reason are unable to have a Merry Christmas, those who fall through the cracks of '80s capitalism. Marketing and consumerism is everywhere in this film, and it is no surprise that the targets of the gremlins: a gadget-filled middle-class home, a bank, a department store, and a movie theater, are all sites of late-twentieth century consumer culture; setting the film around the ultimate consumerist holiday, Christmas, further reinforces this critique.

A cult masterpiece that has always deserved to find its larger audience.