Gremlins is a 1984 American comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday and Frances Lee McCain, with Frank Welker providing the voice of the titular imp-like monsters' leader and main antagonist, Stripe, and Howie Mandel providing the voice of their progenitor, mogwai Gizmo. It draws on legends of folkloric mischievous creatures that cause malfunctions—"gremlins"—in the British Royal Air Force going back to World War II. The story follows Billy Peltzer, who receives Gizmo as a pet, who then spawns more of his kind that evolve into the titular monsters that wreak havoc on Billy's hometown during Christmas Eve.
The film was accompanied by a large merchandising campaign and juxtaposes comedy horror with a Christmas time setting. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, with the film being produced by Michael Finnell.
Gremlins was theatrically released on June 8, 1984, by Warner Bros. to critical and commercial success. However, it was heavily criticized for some of its more violent sequences. In response to this and to similar complaints about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg suggested that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) revise its rating system, which it did within two months of the film's release, creating a new PG-13 rating. It was followed by a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), while a third film is set to be released in October 6, 2028.
Plot
Struggling inventor Randall Peltzer visits a Chinatown antique store to find a Christmas present for his son, Billy. In it, Randall uncovers a small and furry creature called a (Cantonese: , 'devil'). The owner, Sam Wing, refuses to sell it to him, but his grandson secretly does, warning Randall to remember three important rules concerning its care – keep the mogwai away from light, especially sunlight, which will kill it; do not let it come in contact with water; and above all, never let it eat after midnight.
In Randall's hometown of Kingston Falls, Billy works at its local bank, but fears that his dog Barney will be put down by widowed miser Ruby Deagle. His father returns and offers him the mogwai, now named "Gizmo", as a pet and informs him of the rules. Gizmo is friendly and docile, but when Billy's friend, Pete Fountaine, accidentally spills water on him, five more mogwai spawn from him – a more mischievous sort led by the aggressive Stripe, named after the mohawk-like tuft of white fur on his head. Billy shows one of the mogwai to his former elementary school science teacher, Roy Hanson, spawning another mogwai, whom the latter experiments on. Back home, Stripe and his fellow mogwai trick Billy into feeding them after midnight by sabotaging his bedside clock. They form cocoons, as does Hanson's mogwai, which soon hatch, emerging as destructive and reptilian imp-like monsters called "gremlins". Hanson is murdered by his gremlin, while those at the Peltzer house torture Gizmo and assault Billy's mother, Lynn.
The duo are able to dispatch all the gremlins sans Stripe, who escapes to the local YMCA where he jumps into its swimming pool, spawning an army of gremlins that wreak havoc on Kingston Falls. Many locals are injured or killed during their rampage, including Deagle. The police are helpless in the ordeal, as they too fall victim to the gremlins' mischief. Billy rescues his co-worker and girlfriend, Kate Beringer, when the gremlins invade the bar she works at, and they seek refuge in the bank. Kate discloses that her father went missing on Christmas Eve when she was nine years old, but was then found dead in their house's chimney several days later. Planning to surprise his family while portraying Santa Claus, he inadvertently slipped and broke his neck while climbing down it. Still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to this incident, Kate confesses how it led to her dislike of the holidays.
The trio find the gremlins gathered in the local movie theater due to morning approaching and set off a natural gas explosion, killing them all except for Stripe, who left the theater earlier to retrieve candy at a Montgomery Ward store across the street. They follow Stripe into the store, where he attempts to use a fountain to spawn more gremlins, but Gizmo then opens a nearby skylight, exposing Stripe to sunlight and killing him.
In the aftermath, Wing arrives at the Peltzer house to reclaim Gizmo as he scolds the family for their negligence and criticizes Western society for its carelessness with nature. However, as he turns to leave, Gizmo, having bonded with Billy, bids him goodbye. A compassionate Wing then concedes that Billy may be ready to properly care for him one day.
Cast
The film features various cameos from crew members or guests. Steven Spielberg cameos as a man riding a recumbent bicycle; Jim McKrell plays Lew Landers; composer Jerry Goldsmith plays a man in a telephone booth; Kenneth Tobey plays a filling station attendant; and William Schallert plays Father Bartlett. Animator Chuck Jones plays Mr. Jones, Billy's drawing mentor; he would later conceive the Looney Tunes-centric segments for the sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).
Voices Howie Mandel as Gizmo Ilene Keys additionally provided the character's singing voice (uncredited) Frank Welker as Stripe Don Steele as Rockin' Ricky Rialto Marvin Miller as Robby the Robot (uncredited) The vocal effects of the mogwai and gremlins were provided by Mandel, Welker, Brad Kesten (uncredited), Michael Winslow, Bob Bergen, Fred Newman, Peter Cullen, Jim Cummings (unused), Sonny Melendrez (uncredited), Mark Dodson, Bob Holt, Michael Sheehan and director Joe Dante (uncredited).
Production
Background Gremlins was produced at a time when combining horror and comedy was becoming increasingly popular. According to Professor Noël Carroll, Ghostbusters, released the same weekend as Gremlins, and the comic strip The Far Side also followed this trend. Carroll argued that there was now a new genre emphasizing sudden shifts between humorous and horrific scenes, drawing laughs with plot elements that have been traditionally used to scare.
The notion of gremlins was first conceived during the 1920s when mechanical failures in RAF aircraft were jokingly blamed on the small monsters. The term "gremlins" also entered popular culture as children's author and RAF pilot Roald Dahl published a book called The Gremlins in 1943, based on the mischievous creatures. Walt Disney considered making a film of it. A Bugs Bunny cartoon of the era, Falling Hare, shows Bugs battling a gremlin on an airplane. Joe Dante had read The Gremlins and said that the book was of some influence on his film. In 1983, Dante publicly distanced his work from earlier films, explaining, "Our gremlins are somewhat different—they're sort of green, and they have big mouths, and they smile a lot and they do incredibly, really nasty things to people and enjoy it all the while".
Development
The story of Gremlins was conceived by Chris Columbus in around July of 1981. As Columbus explained, his inspiration came from his loft, when at night "what sounded like a platoon of mice would come out and to hear them skittering around in the blackness was really creepy". He then wrote the original screenplay as a spec script to show potential employers that he had writing abilities. He also made rough concept art for the Gremlins. In the first draft the main characters were originally going to be 12 years old. The story was not actually intended to be filmed. This changed in early 1982 when Steven Spielberg came across the spec script. In April 1982 the second draft was written, still at that point a R-Rated horror film. This draft is the earliest version available online. As Spielberg explained, "It's one of the most original things I've come across in many years, which is why I bought it." Spielberg considered Tim Burton to direct the film after seeing his short film Frankenweenie.
After deciding to executive produce the film himself, Spielberg chose Dante as his director because of his experience with horror-comedy in The Howling. In the time between The Howling and the offer to film Gremlins, Dante had experienced a lull in his career. He began doing storyboard work on the film while also working as a director on Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), a film on which Spielberg also served as a director. The film's producer was Michael Finnell, who had also worked on The Howling with Dante. Spielberg took the project to Warner Bros. and co-produced it through his own company, Amblin Entertainment.
Designer Chris Walas spoke on the creation of the initial concept of the creatures, "After reading the script, my first idea was to take the tarsier, a little primate, and give it cartoony proportions. I wanted the big eyes to make it cute. I showed it to Mike Finnell and Joe Dante and they asked for some tweaks, so I made the next one. This is more like a puppy. Big, floppy ears. It's not based on any one dog in particular — just a Cocker Spaniel or something. Fortunately they did not go with it. These were the only two Mogwai I sculpted before the final one."
The film's script went through a few drafts before a shooting script was finalized. The first version was much darker than the final film. Various scenes were cut, including one which portrayed Billy's mother being decapitated during her struggle with the gremlins, with her head thrown down the stairs when Billy arrives. Dante later explained the scene made the film darker than the filmmakers wanted. There was also a scene where the gremlins ate Billy's dog and a scene where the gremlins attacked a McDonald's, eating customers instead of burgers. Also, instead of Stripe being a mogwai who becomes a gremlin, there was originally no mogwai named Stripe; rather, Gizmo was supposed to transform into Stripe the gremlin. Spielberg overruled this plot element as he felt Gizmo was cute and that audiences would want him to be present throughout the film.
The film mentions an urban legend in which Kate reveals in a speech that her father died at Christmas when he dressed as Santa Claus and broke his neck while climbing down the family's chimney. After the film was completed, studio executives insisted upon its removal, because they felt it was too ambiguous as to whether it was supposed to be funny or sad. Dante refused to take the scene out, saying it represented the film as a whole, which had a combination of horrific and comedic elements. Spielberg did not like the scene but, despite his creative control, he viewed Gremlins as Dante's project and allowed him to leave it in. A parody of this scene is featured in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
Casting
Phoebe Cates was cast as Kate, Billy's girlfriend, despite concerns that she was known for playing more risqué parts, such as Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Spielberg urged the casting of the relatively unknown Zach Galligan as Billy because he saw chemistry between Galligan and Cates during auditions. Galligan later compared himself to Billy, saying he was a "geeky kid", and that being in the film "was really kind of a dream" given "what I get to do, what my character gets to do, blow up movie theatres", adding that he "got to work with great people". Spielberg commented when Galligan was testing with Cates that "he's in love with her already" and that was how Galligan won the part. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson also auditioned.