"Gremlins" 1984

This is a classic Christmas movie.  I remember the ads in the newspaper, yes Virginia, back in the eighties we had to check the newspapers for movie times.  There were big ads and they were all changed to reflect the season.  I remember the bad gremlin wearing  a Santa hat. 

Hoyt Axton is an inventor who wants to get his son something special for Christmas.  He stops in a shop run by an old Chinese man.  When he sees the Mogwai, he decides it is the perfect gift, but can't convince the old man to sell it.  Luckily or unluckily, the man's grandson knows they need money and sells it behind the old man's back. 



He does let him know a little about the care and feeding of the Mogwai.


Chinese Boy: Look Mister, there are some rules that you've got to follow.
Randall Peltzer: Yeah, what kind of rules?
Chinese Boy: First of all, keep him out of the light, he hates bright light, especially sunlight, it'll kill him. Second, don't give him any water, not even to drink. But the most important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never feed him after midnight.

So Billy gets Gizmo for Christmas.  What ever happened to Zach Galligan anyway?  But he has trouble keeping the rules. 

A little water and soon there are a whole bunch of adorable little Mogwais around the house. But they aren't quite as cute as Gizmo.  When they trick him into eating after midnight, things go downhill fast. 



We have a young Corey Feldman to play the cute kid.




And then there is Phoebe Cates as the girlfriend who hates Christmas, and the gremlins aren't helping matters.



She is 48 years old now and still looks amazing.



But anyway, her reasons for hating Christmas are legitimate.

Kate: Now I have another reason to hate Christmas.
Billy Peltzer: What are you talking about?
Kate: The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 years old. Me and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn't home. So Mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. So the police began a search. Four or five days went by. Neither one of us could eat or sleep. Everything was falling apart. It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I went to try to light up the fire. That's when I noticed the smell. The firemen came and broke through the chimney top. And me and Mom were expecting them to pull out a dead cat or a bird. And instead they pulled out my father. He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. He'd been climbing down the chimney... his arms loaded with presents. He was gonna surprise us. He slipped and broke his neck. He died instantly. And that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus.

There are so many classic moments as the Gremlins start to terrorize the town. 

The unfortunate incident with Polly Holiday.



Billy's mom and the microwave.



And all the gremlins jumping in the pool to make millions of gremlins.  But when I google this all I get are pictures of Phoebe Cates from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".



So, as an early Christmas present to any male readers I have, I will leave it at that.