The horror genre is home to some of the boldest, most interesting films in cinema history, and the flexible nature of the genre means that so many sub-genres can effortlessly fit within its confines. Sci-fi horror, psychological horror, and body horror are all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the beloved genre, and, while many people still discredit horror as a throwaway corner of cinematic storytelling, the horror world is one of the most compelling areas of art and film ever created.
One of the most interesting subsets of the horror genre is the horror-comedy — a concept that combines two seemingly diametrically opposed ideas and utilizes their contrasts to benefit the film. One of the most iconic examples of this is director Joe Dante’s 1984 classic, Gremlins. The film is a goopy, silly masterpiece, and its Christmas-time setting and family-friendly atmosphere are the perfect setups for the horrors that lurk behind every frame.
Gremlins Is A Classic Horror Comedy That Started Its Own Sub-Genre
The Film Pushed The Horror Genre Into Even Bolder, More Specific Territory
Gremlins remains one of the most beloved horror films of the 1980s, and part of that is because the film is just so much fun. It strikes the perfect balance between heart and horror, humor and heinousness. For every silly situation that Gizmo, the furry, fun-loving Mogwai pet of the film’s protagonist, gets into, three terrifying bits of horror goodness are sure to frighten and enrapture audience members in equal measure. Gremlins’ success came in large part from its dedication to tone and mood, as well as its incredible control of practical effects and technical cinematic language. The gremlins themselves are incredible showcases of practical effects and puppetry — an art form that has sadly become less and less common in the modern film landscape.
While the practical wizardry is perhaps the most memorable aspect of the original Gremlins film, it certainly isn’t the only thing the classic horror comedy has going for it. The film’s pace, tone, directing, and character work are all flawless, and it never misses out on any of the narrative possibilities its subject matter establishes. Produced by acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Gremlins was a box office success, raking in over 150 million dollars at the worldwide box office. The film’s success led, of course, to talks of a sequel — something that would eventually come to be with director Joe Dante returning for 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch — but it also led to an avalanche of knock-off films.
Like any great film, Gremlins‘ success brought about tons of other filmmakers and studios trying their hands at making their own versions of the iconic horror flick. Though none of them quite reached the heights of the original Gremlins, something quite wonderful happened in the wake of the film’s success — the knock-offs didn’t ever really stop. Gremlins had suddenly set a new kind of precedent for horror filmmaking. It had accidentally created a brand-new sub-genre — not just horror-comedy, but something newer and more specific. This new sub-genre, while not nearly as widespread as other aspects of the horror world, became a staple of mid-to-low-budget horror output for decades. Though it doesn’t have an official title, for clarity, this sub-genre will be referred to as the «Gremlins-sploitation» genre, as none of the films would exist without Joe Dante’s original masterpiece.
Many Gremlins Knock-Offs Were Surprisingly Worthy Successors
The Gremlins-sploitation Genre Features Some Genuinely Underrated Flicks
While nothing will top the first two Gremlins films, some sincerely underrated films were released in the wake of Joe Dante’s original’s success. Obvious riffs like the Critters franchise, the Ghoulies films, and the wonderfully silly The Gate were unfairly waved off as simply being cheap rip-offs of Gremlins, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The beautiful thing about filmmaking and the cinematic art form is the fact that artists can take from one another and create something new and wonderful in its own right. Sure, the entire sub-genre owes its existence to Gremlins, but the films that came about in its aftermath are just as worthy of individual attention and critique as the originator.
Though the actual plots of many of the Gremlins riffs are wildly different from the 1984 film, the thing that brings them all together is the type of monster that ends up terrorizing or assisting the human characters in the story. Little creatures, usually slimy or hairy or in some way otherworldly, who cause more mischief than any actual peril or damage are the staple of the «Gremlins-sploitation» sub-genre, and they are some of the most hilarious and visually engaging movie monsters of all time. While the early days of the horror genre saw classic movie monsters arrive like Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, and other human-sized foes, the small, mischievous entities that permeated the B-movie rip-offs of the 1980s and 90s were something that audiences had never really seen.
Spawning beloved franchises of their own, films like Critters and Ghoulies so wonderfully took what worked about Gremlins and amplified it for the straight-to-VHS crowd. Kids and teens wandering through the aisles of video stores in the 80s and 90s were sure to gravitate towards the compelling artwork, oddball creatures, and alluring mix of horror and silliness that the new sub-genre had to offer. What started off as simply a means of taking advantage of Gremlins’ success quickly morphed into something far more interesting — something far more impactful for the cinematic language as a whole. Troll, Munchies, Critters, and Ghoulies all stand as some of the most iconic additions to the Gremlins-inspired sub-genre, and though their qualities vary, there’s no denying their overall importance in the history of cinema.
The Sub-Genre Made More and More People Interested In The World of Cinema
The Silly Rip-Offs of The Beloved Classic Actually Allowed More Types of Viewers To Engage With Film
Cinematic critique and discussion in contemporary times is so often bogged down by pretensions and arrogance. Though the overall quality of blockbuster films releasing in theaters each year is arguably lower than it’s ever been, there remains a strong sub-set of movie-goers, the so-called «film buffs», who refuse to engage with anything that doesn’t exactly align with their preconceived notions about what film should be. It is a dangerous thing to be so rigorously adherent to a certain set of standards when it comes to art of any kind. Being rigid about art can suffocate the inherent beauty of such a medium. It might seem ridiculous to discuss knock-offs of a classic 80s creature feature in the context of modern-day film critique, but the «Gremlins-sploitation» sub-genre is actually the perfect thing to look at to understand why having different kinds of films and filmmakers is so important.
Making art accessible to all kinds of people is one of the most noble pursuits in modern history. Allowing people from all backgrounds to engage with and connect to art is vitally important for culture and society. Bringing the filmmaking world, and by extension, the world of creature feature horror filmmaking, to those with fewer resources than major Hollywood producers is a beautiful and noble pursuit. That is exactly what films like Critters and The Gate did — they gave VHS-loving children a view of something possible for them. Low-budget, silly, creatively driven works became possible for aspiring filmmakers to create. The works of such creators couldn’t possibly match the scale and production value of a film like Gremlins, but they didn’t have to.
In the grand scheme of things, Ghoulies is arguably as important to the modern filmmaking landscape as a film like The Matrix — not necessarily in literal cultural impact, (of course The Matrix has touched more film fans directly) but in the way that it too stands as a crucial piece of the puzzle that led to where the cinematic artform is today. The generation of new and exciting filmmakers that are working on incredible projects like Sinners, Nosferatu, Barbie, and Babylon, is one that was raised in the era of video stores and the plethora of cheap B-movies that stocked the shelves. These seemingly throwaway endeavors could so easily have inspired (directly or indirectly) some of the most important new filmmakers of the modern generation. Gremlins might be more iconic and beloved, but the films that it spawned, the sub-genre that it started, have lived on and become something far more important than anyone could have ever imagined.
