After receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous creatures on a small town.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.64/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Metacritic: 70
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Joe Dante
Production
Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast
Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Frances Lee McCain, Corey Feldman, Keye Luke, John Louie, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Polly Holliday, Judge Reinhold, Edward Andrews, Belinda Balaski, Scott Brady, Susan Burgess, Harry Carey, Jr., Donald Elson, Jonathan Banks, Glynn Turman, Chuck Jones
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, mischievous holiday creature feature that blends slapstick comedy, suburban satire, and genuine horror. It’s still one of the best examples of a movie that can be cute, funny, and nasty all at once.
Best for
Viewers who like horror-comedy with practical effects
People in the mood for a twisted Christmas movie
Fans of creature chaos and escalating mayhem
Audiences who enjoy movies that balance sweetness with menace
Skip if
You want a straightforward family Christmas film
You dislike tonal whiplash between cute and gruesome
You prefer polished modern CGI over practical creature work
You need your horror to stay serious and intense
Overview
Gremlins works because it understands that the cutest thing in the movie should also make the audience most anxious. Gizmo is an instant icon, and the film builds real affection around him before unleashing a wave of anarchic destruction that feels both playful and mean. The result is a holiday movie with teeth, one that keeps finding new ways to be funny without losing its bite.
Worth noting
Joe Dante stages the chaos with a cartoonish energy that never fully abandons the suburban setting, which makes the mayhem feel even more deliciously out of place. The practical effects still hold up beautifully, and the movie’s best jokes come from how seriously it treats absurdity. It’s a crowd-pleaser, but a weird one.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the movie’s willingness to let the mother become the action hero and the town become a playground for escalating punishment. That mix of creature-feature spectacle, Christmas atmosphere, and dark comic timing is exactly why it remains such an enduring favorite.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (3★) · 9586 likes
Every time Gizmo did literally anything I got super emotionally invested. I squealed with delight whenever he was happy, I shouted "No no no no no no no no" every time he was scared or in pain. I would fucking die for Gizmo you have no idea
adambolt (3.5★) · 7289 likes
Why is it that when people talk about strong female characters in movies they never mention Billy's mom fucken executing three Gremlins within seconds of finding them
Willow Maclay (4.5★) · 5444 likes
All Gizmo ever wanted to do was chill out and watch movies. Gizmo spends basically all of his time in Gremlins being so captured in what was on screen during the various movies he decided to watch. So in a way everyone on this site is Gizmo. I'd wager a good deal of us react the same way to sunlight as well, and that makes Gizmo the most relatable movie character of all time for cinephiles.
We are all Gizmo
single white femalien (3★) · 4082 likes
where the gremlins get tiny gremlin guns from
•lily• (5★) · 2852 likes
“Gizmo isn’t real” TO YOU. He’s actually sitting next to me right now.