Joe Dante
Gremlins

Would you like it if someone gifted you a strange pet for Christmas, let's say a mogwai? I know, I know, "Gremlins" is a very famous movie, and I think that at least 90% of you have seen it in one way or another. Personally, though, seen today, more than 20 years after its release worldwide, it's still a lot of fun. Yes, it might be the Christmas setting, or some of the unparalleled scenes (the cinema scene with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being shown is legendary, just like the killings of the little monsters by Billy's mother), but this movie can still be entertaining today, in a business increasingly filled with millions and millions of dollars worth of special effects.

Well, let me say that this is a genuine film, made to be commercial, but with a very charming story behind it (consider that the screenwriter is him, Chris Columbus, who would go on to direct the various Home Alone and Harry Potter movies, effectively finding himself rolling in cash but losing status as a high-level director). It must be said that at the time, the film was famous not so much because it was directed by Joe Dante, one of the most underrated directors ever in Hollywood (although his recent "Looney Tunes: Back In Action" is terrible and an unforgivable film), but because the executive producer was him. Who? Of course, the man who can't make a decent film without 1,000,000 special effects (except for Schindler's List, but that's a whole different story), namely Steven Spielberg, the man who, together with that other big goof (if I may say so) George Lucas, killed the entire global film industry. Anyway, stepping out of the context of who contributed to the creation of this film, what can be said? Well, there are a series of references to films of the past, that's undeniable (particularly to Murnau's "Nosferatu," but not only that, also to the same 1937 Snow White, otherwise why would they have included it in the film, right?), there are several definitely striking scenes (the new appearance of the gremlins is surprising, especially for those who don't yet know it, the old witch's death on the chair is laugh-out-loud funny, the pool scene is monstrously beautiful), there's Phoebe Cates playing Kate, the protagonist Billy's girlfriend, and I don't think I need to dwell much on talking about this now forty-something lady who has been married for almost 20 years to the great Kevin Kline, there's above all one of the most amusing and cruel black comedies of the fantasy genre of all time.

I don't care if the movie is not suitable for very young children, you must show it to them because "Gremlins" is nothing more than a splendid, beautiful, wonderful fairy tale, where yes, there are deaths (many) and scary scenes, but where there's a sweet happy ending and, above all, an indispensable moral: "Never feed a mogwai after midnight, otherwise, it's big trouble." Who knows if that big kid Joe will ever feel like (or better, if Warner will feel like) making a third sequel, after the dull, but still not bad, 1990 sequel "Gremlins 2: The New Batch." Dull because New York doesn't have the soul that Kingston Falls, the town where the film is set, had; dull because tripling the gremlins and turning them into mutants isn't enough to impact the audience; dull because there's no longer the innocent Christmas light shining on the story and, let's be honest, much of "Gremlins" owes its charm to the Christmas atmosphere; dull because the magic of the old film is no longer there. But that's, as always, a whole different story.

In conclusion, this film deserves a full five stars, and I think it's one of the best fantasy-horror movies not only of the '80s but of all time. Too bad that big kid Joe Dante never reached these heights again, truly. Also because Spielberg, just to randomly name one, dreams about making this kind of movie at night. But let's leave him to his dinosaurs and special effects, because, again, that's a whole different story.