Gremlins: A Tribute To B-Movie Cinema

As die-hard readers of my blog will know, a long time ago I started a poll that asked readers to send in their favorite Dick Miller cameo. Not to my surprise, Gremlins won and I was supposed to do a Gremlins related post but never did. Well, after I got my hands on a VHS copy of Gremlins I can finally say that the poll/article must go on. So here is my reflection of the movie Gremlins.

I already knew that Gremlins pays tribute to the b-movie but I never knew the extent at which it does. Even though I’m sure most us know what the movie is about, I still feel as though I need to address it for the sake of this article. Simply, the film is about a teen named Billy who gets a Mogwai named Gizmo for a pet but accidentally feeds them after midnight, which is a big no-no. On top of that he got water on his Mogwai causing it to multiply. By feeding them after midnight he unwillingly turned them into demonic gremlins that wreck on the small town. Now it’s up to Billy, his girlfriend and Gizmo to stop the Gremlins from killing everybody in effort to have fun.

Right off the bat the plot is pretty much a tribute to every b-movie, sci-fi, horror flick of the early to late 1950s. A picture perfect, Norman Rockwell-like town is overrun by an unruly force and it’s up to the youths of the town to stop the evil. Pick any b-movie from the day and that’s essentially the plot. That’s why I found it funny that both Billy and Gizmo were watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers, because that’s how half of this movie feels like. Consider this, right after the night they got done watching the pods take over the world in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Mogwai slip into a cocoon like state that looks sort of like the pods in the movie. It’s almost a direct inspiration from the classic Don Siegel film.

Also, lets look at the rest of the plot. Once the shit starts hitting the fan, Billy and his girlfriend try to tell the police what’s going on but they don’t believe him because… well… he’s a kid and who would believe a kid? It sounds just like The Blob of 1958. Sure it also sounds like any other given b-movie from that decade but The Blob really popularized this aspect and made it more famous. I hate to quote Eight Legged Freaks but like Gremlins, it’s also a tribute to giant monster and bug movies.

“No one’s going to believe me, cause I’m a kid, and they never listen to the kid.”

In Gremlins, Billy takes one of the Mogwai that spawned from Gizmo to his science teacher so that he could perform tests on it to see what makes it tick. Although I am not absolutely sure of this but this scene just reminds me of Fiend Without A Face but that’s probably because I always associate a giant killer brain attacking a scientist with Iron Giant. In the movie Iron Giant, Hogarth is watching a sci-fi movie that is a brief little parody of the cheesy sci-fi films of the Atomic Age. Either way, this scene in Gremlins is a tribute.

There are also the little things scattered throughout this film that derives from b-movie cinema. Robbie The Robot from Forbidden Planet makes an appearance at Billy’s dad’s workplace. On the theater marquee the phrase, “Watch The Skies” is plastered to it, which is a direct quote from The Thing From Another World. Billy’s Dad narrates both the beginning and the end of the film, which can be seen as a little homage to War of the Worlds.

Even the actors in the film had there mark in b-movie history. The actor that played the ‘scientist’ in the film was Glynn Turman who made his first mark in Blaxploitation film. Special effects creator Chris Walas makes a cameo and designs the creature effects for the Mogwai and the Gremlins. Most horror fanatics would recognize the name because of his work on Dante’s Piranha. But the grand daddy of all these cameos is of course, Dick Miller, who began his career in b-movie cinema and Roger Corman films. If all these references weren’t enough to convince you, then let Dick Miller seal the deal that this film is the ultimate tribute to b-movie film.

I find it also funny that Joe Dante directed Piranha, which in itself was a rip off to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Then Gremlins came along and Spielberg collaborated with Dante to create one of the greatest ‘family’ movies of all time. Who’d a thunk it? Also, Dante will go on to direct Looney Tunes: Back In Action in which one of the sequences takes place in Area 51B. Here there are more b-movie references to Day of the Triffids, Robot Monster and This Island Earth. I guess when it really boils down to things, Gremlins is literally a tribute to what monster and alien movies once were. The entire cast, crew and production team of this film truly love b-movies and it’s easy to see their affection for it in Gremlins.

In Memoriam: Jerry Goldsmith

(1929 - 2004)

Today marks the 81st birthday of composter Jerry Goldsmith. He died at the age of 75 but his legacy would live on forever. He has composed some of the most memorable and award winning scores of our time and I think, personally, he is one of my favorite composers next to John Williams. He composed the score to the sci-fi classic Star Trek, to Polanski’s Chinatown to the creepy and childish Poltergeist. He composed the scores for actions movies such as The Mummy, Total Recall, Alien, Legend and First Blood. However, I want to briefly talk about his notable horror scores.

Goldsmith was nominated for 17 different Academy Awards; making him one of the most nominated composers but the only Oscar that he would win would be for the ’76 horror film The Omen. He scored one for the horror team! His score for The Omen is biblical and epic; chanting "Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani" and "Ave Versus Christus,” both of which are synonymous with Satan, which is fitting for The Omen. The choral aspects of this score are so haunting and so heavy that it sticks out from other horror scores.

As for the Poltergeist theme, well, its almost like a lullaby done in the same style that Krzysztof Komeda did for Rosemary’s Baby. It’s soft, it’s mellow, and it’s touching but very haunting. You can even hear how it’s almost a throwback to old Hollywood scores. It fits perfectly for a movie like this.

Then, taking a turn for the more comedic horror route, Goldsmith composed the scores for the Gremlins movies. The majority of this score was synth but I think that it fits for what the film is. The score is very high speed, very active and should not be taken seriously. It’s almost like a score for a big budget cartoon, which is what Gremlins, is, a life action cartoon.

With all this said, next to John Williams, I have a lot of Jerry Goldsmith CD’s and songs and he has been a real heavy, heavy influence on my writing and on my work. By listening to his scores I have gotten some of my best ides from and if I listen with an open mind, I can put myself right there in the movie. This was a man whose work will always be remembered and to me, he will never be forgotten.

Rest In Peace Jerry Goldsmith.

My favorite scores by Goldsmith:
Patton
The Mummy
The Omen
Poltergeist
The Twilight Zone: The Movie
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Total Recall
Looney Toons: Back in Action
Gremlins
The ‘Burbs
L.A. Confidential

The Good and Bad of Holiday Horror

So I decided to continue my holiday post-a-thon by making a good and naughty list of Christmas horror movies. I thought this would be a good idea, since there are a lot of them and I hope this list helps many horror fans to pick and choose what holiday horror flick they want to watch. I made my list, I checked it twice and pouting is not tolerated! The ranking goes like this.

Presents = How good a movie is. The more presents, the better it is.
Coal = How bad a movie is. The more coal, the worse it is.

So, let’s begin.

GOOD

Black Christmas (1974) – This was one of the first few slasher movies ever to hit the big screen and with a great tone and some really clever scare tactics, this movie builds up an atmosphere that is both scary and haunting. I had a blast watching this and it truly is a memorable horror film.
9 presents out of 10.

Christmas Evil (1980) – This was actually a really good movie and even though it had a very slow build-up to a climactic ending, the movie built character development and made you feel for the antihero. It had some great kills and some pretty disturbing scenes but you can’t help but feel sorry for Harry.
7 presents out of 10.

Gremlins (1984) – Though, I wouldn’t call this a horror; it’s a great creature feature. It has all the conventions of any monster movie, mixed with some violent cartoon humor and of course the Gremlins… this is a holiday treat that cannot be missed. It’s so wacky and it has some amazing puppetry and physical comedy.
9 presents out of 10.

All Through the House (1989) – Now this was a good Christmas themed slasher. It had the Christmas atmosphere of Black Christmas and it was really tense and scary. Even though it was from "Tales form the Crypt," Zemeckis proves that he can do a great horror flick.
8 presents out of 10.

Jack Frost (1996) – At first, I wasn’t much of a fan of this movie but then I realized that it had a pretty dark sense of humor and some pretty nifty ways to kill somebody. The story is also interesting and I really enjoyed the puns that the massive amounts of gore. A true diamond in the rough for the winter season.
7 presents out of 10.

BAD

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) – Though, out of the ‘Bad’ list, this movie isn’t really that bad but it is plagued with shitty acting, some continuity errors and little to no scare value. I do credit the movie for being really controversial but that’s the only thing this movie has going for.
7 lumps of coal.

Black Christmas (2006) – This was one of the worse remakes of the 21st Century and took a beloved Christmas slasher and glossed it up with an unnecessary back story and it had one of the worse twist endings in horror history. There was nothing likeable about this, not one single thing.
9 lumps of coal.

P2 (2007) – The concept for this movie was really good and I thought it would be a good movie but it turned into a crap fest that kept getting shittier. I hated the protagonist and the killer was just idiotic. I think they could have really done some new things by abusing the setting of a parking lot but they didn’t and it turned out bad.
8 lumps of coal.

Well, there is my list of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ Christmas horror films of all time. It wasn’t really that difficult but I did notice that I did not see that many Christmas horror films and there were a bunch of films that I have missed. Below are a list of ‘undecided’ films that I have not seen but want to:

UNDECIDED
Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)
Santa Claws (1996)
A Christmas Nightmare (2001)
Santa’s Slay (2005)

Soundtracks - Critters (1986)

From Blogger Pictures

It has been a very long time since I did a review on a soundtrack and this time I will do a short review on a certain track from the movie Critters. David Newman composed the score for this movie and the track is titled… “Critter Skitter.” The other tracks in the soundtrack were okay but I enjoyed “Critter Skitter” a lot more since it paralleled “Gremlin Rag” in many ways. They both are synthesized but more importantly they are both fast paced and sound as though they belong in a cartoon… but “Critter Skitter” has something that “Gremlin Rag” doesn’t have: the use of a strong guitar and bell chimes.

The track starts off with electric drums and then the electric piano begins and that’s when the guitar and the bells come in and they are all fast pace. What I also like about the “Critter Skitter” is how it sounds like it belongs in an action sci-fi movie, which is rightfully so since “Gremlin Rag” sounds like a cartoon jingle. “Critter Skitter” is more dark and gloomy… more space themed. I am not ripping on Gremlins; I am simply comparing the two. It’s funny because I can just imagine the Crites running and rolling around to this song.