Part of:
National Letterboxd’s Christmas Vacation 2012

Did you feed them after midnight?
-Lynn Peltzer

Gremlins started out as a simple spec script by newcomer Chris Columbus just so he'd have something to show to prospective employers. Steven Spielberg saw it, bought it and decided that Joe Dante would be perfect to direct it because of his previous film, the horror/comedy The Howling. In the 80s Spielberg just had to say "make it so" and magic happened.

The film takes the proven genre smash up of comedy/horror and adds family Christmas film to the mix. The first half of the film or so really is like a family Christmas film complete with a bank and mean old hag foreclosing on people's homes. Everything is resolved in the second half in pure comedy/horror fashion however.

If you can somehow manage to watch this film leaving nostalgia at the door, you'll still find a crazy 1950s style creature-feature updated to 1980s sensibilities with some wickedly funny dark humor thrown in for good measure. Children of the 80s shouldn't dismiss their love for Gremlins as simple nostalgia at work, but know that it endures because it's actually a great film. You're love for Gremlins 2 however might in fact be nostalgia at work in full force.