Family Matinee

Gremlins

You should know the rules by now: Don’t expose them to bright light. Don’t get them wet. And above all, don’t feed them after midnight. So join Gizmo and all the monstrous Gremlins as they burst off the screen in the greatest small-town holiday adventure since It’s A Wonderful Life! This bonanza of proliferating pests is the beloved result of the remarkable union between director Joe Dante, writer Chris Columbus, and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Mixing Norman Rockwell sentimentality and anarchic vandalism, this Christmas-comedy-horror classic both lights up and destroys everything you love (and loathe) about the holidays.

“A wildly original roller-coaster ride of hilarious mischief.” – Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

“Here’s the season’s most delicious and unexpected surprise. Despite the horror-flick title, Gremlins is a movie of wicked wit and startling invention, and it has a heart that’s at least a match for the special effects.” – Peter Travers, People Magazine

“At the level of Serious Film Criticism, it’s a meditation on the myths in our movies: Christmas, families, monsters, retail stores, movies, boogeymen. At the level of Pop Movie-going, it’s a sophisticated, witty B movie, in which the monsters are devouring not only the defenseless town, but decades of defenseless clichés.” – Roger Ebert