A Very Gremlins Christmas

Gremlins is a 1984 horror-comedy Christmas fable that wreaks havoc on the tropes of classic holiday films. Enjoy the cult-favorite in our Sanctuary with some mulled cider and other Yuletide treats. Wear your best (worst?) ugly holiday sweater to win gift certificates to local businesses!

GREMLINS (1984 ) is a comedy-horror hit written by Home Alone director Chris Columbus and produced by Steven Spielberg. Doors 7:30, Contest and Film begins 8pm.

This hilariously funny, wickedly scary film is about a lovable, furry little Christmas gift that multiplies into many little Christmas gifts, with savage consequences. An inventor brings his family something special stolen from a mysterious shop in Chinatown– a small, cuddly creature known as a mogwai. The cute little fella comes with three crucial instructions: Keep him out of the sunlight, never get him wet, and never, ever, ever feed him after midnight. If these rules are followed, mogwai are great pets. But, of course, as with any fable, all the rules are broken and all hell breaks loose. It’s up to the inventor’s son Billy (Zach Galligan) and his girlfriend (Phoebe Cates) to stop the mischievous, murderous little monsters and save their sleepy little town. Part science-fiction, part dark comedy, part family drama, GREMLINS is a cinematic gift that just keeps on giving year after year.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
“Gremlins” is a confrontation between Norman Rockwell’s vision of Christmas and Hollywood’s vision of the blood-sucking monkeys of voodoo island. It’s fun. On the one hand, you have an idyllic American small town, with Burger Kings and Sears stores clustered merrily around the village square, and on the other hand you have a plague of reprehensible little beasties who behave like a rodent road company of Marlon Brando’s motorcycle gang in The Wild One. 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. But don’t go if you still believe in Santa Claus.” -Roger Ebert