Gremlins
Nothing says holiday cheer like destructive monsters creating chaos across an entire town during the Christmas season. Gremlins is one of the most deserving cult classics of the 1980s, and also one of several films that led to the creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984, because of its surprising amount of violence and gore. The happy-go-lucky opening montage of Kingston Falls’ citizens relishing Christmastime activities, along with the scenes of Billy bonding with Gizmo the mogwai, are about the only warm and tender moments you’ll get from this film. Once all three important rules of the mogwai are broken, the quaint suburbia setting turns into an anarchic hell, as an army of gremlins attack everyone and everything they can. Director Joe Dante’s pension for B-movie thrills is in full force during the film’s final hour, and the combined puppetry and practical effects of the gremlins are some of the most notable in 1980s cinema. Furthermore, the setting of the film’s final battle in a department store is perfect for its purported satire of materialism since so many of the film’s goods are both used and destroyed in the fight.
Advertisement
