Gremlins

I caught up with this 80s hit this weekend and half enjoyed it. It has some genuine scares. Those little delinquents with bad skin problems are pretty mischievous (what with their murder and vandalism). I think there's a good horror film there, but old mister Speilberg and Joe Dante (with ole Chris Columbus) decide to place the mayhem in Mayberry on Christmas. All scares and frights are dulled by the Norman Rockwell landscape and small town hijinks. Gizmo himself is a fun creation and when the Gremlins, his offspring, are introduced, it's strange and frightening enough to witness. It's when the Gremlins take to smoking a drinking and laughing incessantly in the town tavern that they lose whatever lurid allure that they once had. They're lunch-box villains with bad attitudes. It doesn't help that the human hero played by Zach Galligan has less charisma than his puppet co-stars. It's nice that Columbus and gang nod to their genre influences (homages to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc.), but there's not much to take this above a kitch classic.

**1/2