Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
Christmas movies tend to be feel good, heartfelt movies about the true meaning of Christmas or a small town girl who moved to the big city to become a powerful lawyer must return home for some reason and reunite with her high school. Crush is now grown up and sculpting Santas in the snow from Sweden, and they bond over their Christmas love. But one Christmas movie stands on its own, and nothing for 40 years has come close to its perfect blend of Yuletide joy and dark humor: The Gremlins. The 80s horror-comedy is still part of pop culture today thanks to the evil gremlins themselves, but it’s the dark and haunting vision that makes the film unforgettable.
Roasted Santa
The Gremlins is about Gizmo, a mogwai, as a Christmas present to Billy Peltzer by his father, and after breaking the first law Mr. the city of Kingston Falls as a horde of evil gremlins wreaking havoc. But no matter what Stripe and his friends do to the townspeople, from crashing an expensive truck into a room to turning a chair into a launch pad, nothing compares to the terrible tragedy that Billy’s friend, Kate, shares in the middle. the movie.
Played by Phoebe Cates, after years of not being famous Fast times at Ridgemont High of the scene, Kate gave a monologue about when her father went missing when she was nine. He missed Christmas, and the family didn’t know where he was until a few days later, they lit a fire in the fireplace, and the smell warned them that something was wrong. His father, dressed as Santa, tried to climb down the chimney with presents but broke his neck and got stuck, dead, in their chimney. The story relies entirely on Cates monologue which makes it seem like Kate is struggling to finish once she starts. It may seem inappropriate, but it is a perfect summary Gremlin‘s dark humor.
A Fine Line Between Tragedy and Comedy
I heard this story for the first time while watching The Gremlinsand it has haunted me ever since, but it predates the movie. Urban legends of Santas getting stuck have been going on since Coca-Cola invented the modern Santa, and while some accounts are tragic, like Kate, others make fun of big men who get stuck and need to be rescued. Director Joe Dante inserted this story into the middle of the film to provide a background for Kate and her PTSD during Christmas, but it fits the film perfectly, as it’s something so absurd that people can laugh out of fear and find dark entertainment. get out of it, but if it happened to you, it would be a sad disaster.
Dancing between comedy and horror like no other film before it, The Gremlins pushed the envelope as far as it would go, along with it Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doomcaused the MPAA to create a PG-13 rating. Most of the deaths don’t just happen off-screen, but in this film, only 15 people die, and most of them are nameless extras. You can argue that the most horrible moment of the entire film is the death of Kate’s father, who only wanted to please his daughter and paid for it with his life.
One Kind Christmas Movie
Joe Dante’s artwork has stood the test of time because of the great risks he took in delivering this text, written by. Home alone again Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone director Chris Columbus, was inspired by Steven Spielberg’s production company. The Gremlins one such success that Dante never wanted to make a sequel, and when he did, he made a ridiculous, bonkers, franchise-killing movie by injecting dark humor into straight-up slapstick. Gremlins 2: The New Collection it’s also an amazing movie and still one of my favorites to this day, but it’s very simple.
The Gremlins may not be what comes to mind when you think of 80s Christmas movies, it may be Die Hardbut it has been many years since ancient Christmas. Be careful if you watch it with children, not because of the violence or murder, but because of Santa breaking his neck in the chimney.
The Gremlins is currently available for streaming on Max.
Source link
