Good
day, everyone! And a very happy
Saturday, the thirteenth to you.
Yeah,
yeah. I know that Friday the 13th is
supposed to be the scarier and weirder day of the lot, but there's no reason
why Saturday the 13th can't have its share of unusual circumstances behind it.
Case
in point, this happens to be the thirteenth day of THE
POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR. And for
the thirteenth day of the calendar, we're going to be taking a look at a film
that is absolutely non-traditional Christmas fare.
Basically
it is a film that is set during the Christmas season that ends up being more of
a horror movie. Not exactly the kind of
film that would bring you comfort and joy, is it?
Here's
the thing. While this film would
probably be more suited for the Halloween portion of the blog, it will
definitely fit for Christmas as well.
After all, the film begins with the exchanging of what could be
considered one of the coolest and most unique gifts ever given for a Christmas
present.
I
don't know how many of you ever received a pet for Christmas, but those of you
who have gotten a pet for the holidays may be able to relate to this movie -
albeit very loosely.
I
never did get any sort of pets for Christmas.
Back in my childhood days, my allergies were so out of whack that
literally every animal on the planet made me sneeze! Of course, since I have grown up, my allergies are not as strong,
and I have since owned at least one cat who has since passed away. Though I do remember hearing about kids in
my class who did receive puppies, kitties, bunnies, and even a ferret for a pet
during the holidays.
And
certainly a pet can be a fantastic gift to get for Christmas. But with owning a pet comes great
responsibility. You have to know what
foods the pet can and can't eat, you have to make sure that the pet gets enough
exercise, and that the pet has proper shelter.
And sometimes all it takes is one mistake for your dream pet to become a
nightmare to take care of.
Of
course in most cases, taking care of domesticated animals is a challenging, but
fun experience overall. But what if the
animal isn't exactly domestic? What if
the animal was so exotic that nobody really knows how to take care of
them? Before you know it, you could
have an entire army of animals invading your neighbourhood, scaring the
innocent people who live within it!
Such
is the case of the 1984 film "Gremlins", our feature presentation for
today's movie posting.
Released
on June 8, 1984, "Gremlins" was never designed to be a festive
favourite like "White Christmas", "Holiday Inn", or
"The Santa Clause". But
because the film is set during the Christmas season, that makes it fair game
for discussion during the advent calendar.
The film stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, and Howie Mandel
as the voice of this cute little guy.
Meet
Gizmo. Cute little fellow, isn't he?
He's
an ancient creature from China known as a Mogwai. There aren't too many of these creatures around, and as far as a
pet goes, Gizmo is about as rare a pet as you could find.
The
perfect present for a college student, wouldn't you think? Or so Randall Peltzer thinks, anyway.
Randall
(Axton) is trying to find the perfect Christmas present for his 21-year-old son
Billy (Galligan), and he believes that Gizmo would definitely be the gift that
keeps on giving. However, the owner of
the store refuses at first to sell Gizmo to Randall, reasoning that taking care
of a Mogwai is more difficult than he or anyone else ever imagined. Nevertheless, Randall is determined to pay any
price for Gizmo, and the store owner relents, as he has fallen into a financial
crisis and needs money badly.
Basically,
taking care of a Mogwai should be simple...like taking care of a dog or a
cat. However, there are three major
rules that you have to take into consideration if ever you should have a Mogwai
in your possession.
RULES
FOR HANDLING MOGWAI
1. Do not expose a Mogwai to direct sunlight -
it is instant death to them.
2. Do not expose a Mogwai to water. They do not like getting wet.
3. You can feed your Mogwai whatever he wants
before midnight. When the clock strikes
twelve, no more food for him/her.
So,
you'd think that Billy would be extra careful when spending quality time with
his new pet, which for the most part, he is.
Of course, there was that accident with the glass of water that caused
five more Mogwai to spawn from Gizmo's body.
In turn, those five Mogwai grow up to have a completely different
temperment from Gizmo. Gizmo is sweet,
lovable, fluffy, and kind. The group that
is lead by a particularly cruel Gremlin named Stripe is bold, mischievous, and
out of control.
Billy
naturally grows a bit concerned, and takes one of the newly spawned Mogwai to
school where he shows his former science teacher. He sprinkles water on the Mogwai, in which a sixth Mogwai is
born, and the teacher agrees to keep the newborn Mogwai for future tests.
At
the same time, Billy meets up with his friend Kate (Cates), and the two make a
date after Kate finishes up her shift at a local tavern.
But
unbeknownst to everyone in the doomed community of Kingston Falls, Stripe and
his buddies plan on making the community their own personal playground this
Christmas. They purposely disable
Billy's alarm clock so that they will trick Billy into feeding them after
midnight. At the same time, the Mogwai
that Billy's teacher was doing experiments on also finds some food. Only Gizmo resists temptation and doesn't
eat a bite, suggesting that Billy has taken care of him correctly, and has at
least taught him a sense of right and wrong.
Of
course, the next night, all hell breaks loose.
We get the sense that something terrible is about to happen when the
Mogwai that is at the lab breaks free, and does something rather shocking to
Billy's former teacher (it involves a candy bar). It also doesn't help matters much that five giant cocoons have
spawned in Billy's room, and when they hatch, five grotesque looking Gremlins
come out of hiding and try to make Billy's mother the main course in her own
kitchen. Kate somehow finds herself
caught up in danger as well when the Gremlins come around the tavern. And before you know it, the winter
wonderland of Kingston Falls becomes a living, breathing hell.
A
hell that Billy has to find a way to stop before innocent lives are lost.
Now,
doesn't that movie just make you want to roast chestnuts on an open fire? I know, it's not the most traditional
Christmas film out there...but hey, every advent calendar has to have one weird
day, right?
I
thought that I would conclude this entry with some trivia facts about behind
the scenes stories and other miscellaneous nuggets of information.
1. Frank Welker does the voice of Stripe - as
well as hundreds of various other cartoon characters over the years from
Scooby-Doo's Freddy to countless voices in Transformers.
2. The film was written by Chris Columbus, who
went on to work on "Home Alone", and the first few Harry Potter
films.
3. The movie that the Gremlins watch in the
theatre scene is "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves".
4. The theatre in "Gremlins" was also
used in "Back to the Future".
5. One of the first films to receive the newly
created PG-13 rating.
6. The term "mogwai" in Cantonese
means gremlin, or devil.
7. No CGI was used in the making of this film;
all the gremlins used were animatronics costing around $35,000 each!
8. In the tavern scenes, listen to the screams
that Cates makes. Chances are that the
loudest one was made when a cockroach crawled past her (unseen) while filming
the scene!
9. Howie Mandel only voiced Gizmo. The other Gremlins were voiced by Michael
Winslow.
10. Frank Welker was the one who actually
suggested Mandel for the part of Gizmo.
11. Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez were both
considered for the role of Billy before it was handed over to Zach Galligan.
12. Hoyt Axton is said to have improvised the
majority of his lines.
13. This film was actually meant to be released
in December 1984 - which would make the Christmas theme make more sense. The reason why it aired six months
earlier? Because Warner Brothers - the
company that produced the film - really
had no other competition at the box office from other films, and they took a
gamble. That gamble paid off, as
"Gremlins" made over $153 million at the box office.
And
there you have it. Another movie post
down, and another day to check off.
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