A father discovers the perfect Christmas preset for his son in a mysterious Chinatown shop - a small, big-eyed, furry animal called a Mogwai, which comes with strict instructions not to feed it after midnight, not to get it wet or let it into the sunshine. The lad loves the creature he calls Gizmo, but accidentally breaks the rules, causing the spawning of a hoard of vicious, mischievous, mayhem-causing creatures, the Gremlins, close cousins of the original furry Mogwai, who wreak havoc throughout the town.
Review:
Joe Dante's movie, although technically terrific, is an uneasy blend of sentimentality and deep black comedy, such as the scene of Polly Bergen being attacked in her kitchen by the monsters and responding to their throwing of carving knives by sticking one in a liquidiser and another in a microwave. Highly entertaining but the shifts in mood, and a suurprisingly violent ending, may make younger viewers uneasy.