Horror at Christmas? Absolutely, when it’s PG-13 Gremlins. At No. 19 of our Top 25 Christmas movies list, we have 1984’s fabulous fantasy about cute little critters who turn nasty if they’re fed after midnight.
In the film, a father brings home a special Christmas present for his son, an adorable big-eared, furry Mogwai called Gizmo, but it has three rules: Don’t give it any water, don’t feed it after midnight and keep it out of bright light. When the rules are accidentally violated, Gizmo multiplies, and the many many many gremlins turn into nasty scaly creatures that terrorize the Normam Rockwell town of Kingston Falls, all on Christmas Eve.
Starring Phoebe Cates (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Zach Galligan and Corey Feldman (The Goonies), Gremlins grossed $148 million when it was released in theaters, and back in 1984, that was a huge number. The comedy also spawned a sequel, a line of toys and some very memorable movie moments.
Of course, the film has good pedigree behind the camera for family adventure movies of this kind. It was written by Chris Columbus, who wrote No. 25 in our best Christmas movie list, Christmas With the Kranks, and directed the first two Harry Potter movies, and was directed by Joe Dante (Small Soldiers, Inner Space).
Gremlins is available on DVD
Check out the rest of the films on Disc Dish‘s Christmas Movie Advent Calendar.
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