Mr.Boogedy (1986)

Cinema history is filled with movies that slipped through the cracks and are condemned to live out their existence to absolute obscurity, whether they deserve it or not. This is the unfortunate fate that has befallen the 1986, made for television Disney movie, Mr. Boogedy. It has never been given a proper DVD release and the only prints that you can find online are VHS quality, or worse.  It’s a fairly forgotten movie now, but it was a big enough deal in 1986 to warrant its own sequel, Bride of Boogedy.  The movie was a huge staple in my childhood; my dad recorded it off of television when it premiered in April of 1986, and my sister and I watched it repeatedly to the point of wearing out the VHS.

The premise is fairly straight forward: Carlton Davis, a novelty salesman (he specializes in gag gifts), moves his family to a small town in New England, the aptly named Lucifer Falls, to open a Gag City store and finds out that his house his haunted by ghosts. There is a scene early on that perfectly encapsulates the tone of the movie:  Jennifer Davis, the oldest of the three siblings, discovers green slimy footprints running up the wall of a room. The dad goes into investigate, peels the footprints off the wall, sticks them all over himself and jokes, “Honey, look! The Boogedy man has walked all over me.”  It is established that Davises are family of practical jokers, so he naturally assumes this is a prank. The movie has a few eerie moments in it, but in the end it is all about the humor.  

 Jennifer is the only sane one in the group, but her pleas fall onto deaf ears. There's a nice piece of characterization going on here; Jennifer is a teenager and is not at all amused by these pranks. She wants to go out and have fun, and is slightly resentful that her parents have chosen to move to "the middle of nowhere," because there is nothing to do. Her relationship with her brothers, Corwin and Aurie,  is  antagonistic at times, because they are "just kids" in her eyes, plus they are constantly ganging up to play tricks on her. When Jennifer attempts to tell her parents about her encounter with Mr. Boogedy, the two boys start taunting her. However, the two boys eventually realize Jennifer is telling the truth and the three of them team up to find a way to stop Mr.Boogedy.  There is a fascinating role reversal going on in Mr. Boogedy; the children act like grown ups, while the parents act like children.  

 

Mr. Boogedy is an interesting villain: He is the ghost of a grumpy pilgrim named William Hanover, who fell in love with the prettiest woman in town, Marion, but she did not reciprocate his feelings. He later sold his to The Devil for a cloak that would give him magical powers and then kidnapped Marion’s son Jonathan, who had a cold. However, while attempting to cast his first spell, he blew up his own house (located on the same spot as the Davis house) and killed Marion, Jonathan, and himself in the process. It is revealed that the ghost of Jonathan is trapped in the Davis house along with Mr. Boogedy; while the ghost of Marion cannot enter the house because Hanover has forbidden it.  The interesting thing about Mr. Boogedy’s haunting of the Davis family is that it is more mischievous in nature than malevolent: a toaster starts to dance around on the kitchen counter; a prop mummy comes to life and starts dancing, while a piano plays wildly in the background; and he zaps a prop vacuum cleaner to life and it chases after the youngest son, Aurie.  He doesn’t want to kill the family; he just wants them to go away. He is the supernatural equivalent to a grumpy old farmer who fills his shotgun up with rock salt to chase away all the no good teenagers trespassing on his property.  He just wants to be left alone. 

There are a lot of interesting directorial decisions by Oz Scott.  The flashback involving William Hanover and Marian is done in a minimalistic fashion.  The buildings and trees are cardboard cutouts, while The Devil is played by a man in the kind of costume you might find on clearance at Wal-Mart.  However, this scene works greatly to the movies benefit as it has a storybook-like feel to it. It is an effective piece of exposition – the audience is given all the information it needs to know.  It doesn’t resort of elaborate camera set ups, or over the top special effects, and gives the actors (especially Howard Witt as Hanover) room to perform.  

Scott also does a nice job of building up to Mr. Boogedy’s final appearance; he is first represented as an eerie green light. When Jennifer goes to investigate the light, we are only shown her reaction to Mr.Boogedy; the fact that she faints clues us in to the grotesque nature of his appearance. She describes his face as looking like “a grilled cheese sandwich” and later on calls him “hamburger face.”

The movie effectively uses sound to suggest a supernatural presence; characters constantly hear a child sneezing (this turns out to be Jonathan) and a maniacal laugh is often heard at the end of scenes.  Mr.Boogedy himself looks like Freddy Krueger’s long lost brother; his face is horribly burned and he is constantly laughing. Hey, the make up may look silly now, but it scared the hell out of me as a kid. 

The acting has often been described as “awful,” but I disagree – the broad, slight campy performances are appropriate for this material. The last thing we need is a scene of Carleton internalizing his most inner thoughts; this is a family comedy not a Tennessee Williams drama. Richard Masur steals the show as the dad without a serious bone in his body. I also like Mimi Kennedy’s portrayal as the mother, Eloise; she gives a fairly eccentric performance (her laugh sounds like a braying donkey) without robbing the character of her humanity. Indeed, Eloise turns out to be a compassionate person, especially when confronted with the ghost of Marion. The children are likeable enough (David Faustino and Benji Gregory would go onto star in Married With Children and ALF, while Kristy Swanson was the original Buffy, the Vampire Slayer), and John Astin is fun as the oddball historian, Neil Witherspoon.  The only really cringe worthy performance comes from Jamie McEnnan as Jonathan, but he has about two minutes of screen time.  It also helps that the movie is a lean 46 minutes; it gets directly to the point and doesn’t feel the need to pad its running time with unnecessary subplots. 

The sequel, Bride of Boogedy, is amusing but far less successful due to its fairly contrived story line – Mr.Boogedy mistakes Eloise for Marion and wants her to be his bride. Though, Eugene Levy is amusing as the grumpy store owner who resents the Davis family for imposing on his territory. The two movies would make for a fun double feature and I highly recommend you seek them out. 

Credits
Cast: Richard Masur (Carleton Davis), Mimi Kennedy (Eloise Davis), Kristy Swanson(Jennifer Davis), David Faustino (Corwin Davis), Benji Gregory (Aurie Davis), John Astin (Neil Witherspoon), Howard Witt (William Hanover/Mr.Boogedy), Katherine Kelly Lang (Widow Marion), Jamie McEnnan (Jonathan), Kedric Wolfe (The Devil).

Director: Oz Scott
Teleplay: Michael Janover
Running Time: 46 min.

The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

The 1940s was one of greatest decades for filmmaking and it was also one of the worst. It is common for old codgers such as myself to complain about the endless reboots and sequels that are plaguing the cinema screens today; but this is nothing new and the 1940s was a fairly sequel happy decade. The biggest offender was Universal Studios and their endless monster movie series.  

First, let’s back track a minute: In 1932, Universal released The Mummy, a moody tale of supernatural romance (and essentially a reworking of Dracula) to great success. However, by 1936 Universal’s first cycle of horror movies had come to end with Dracula’s Daughter and the studio moved on to other projects.  In 1938, a Los Angeles theatre staged a triple feature of Dracula, Frankenstein, and King Kong, and the overall results were impressive. Universal capitalized on this momentum by putting into production the terrific Son of Frankenstein. The movie was a success and revitalized Universal’s monster movie brand, and other movies were quickly rushed into production. 

In 1940, Universal released The Invisible Man Returns (starring a young Vincent Price) and The Mummy’s Hand. Both movies were essentially reboots, though The Invisible Man Returns is connected to the original movie; Frank Griffin, the brother of the original Invisible Man, Jack Griffin, helps the protagonist escape from prison.   The Mummy’s Hand is a full fledged reboot; it introduces new characters and divides the Karloff role into two characters, Kharis (the mummy) and Andoheb, a high priest of Karnak.  Andoheb controls Kharis by brewing nine sacred tana leaves and is determined to make sure the tomb of princess Ananka goes undisturbed.  The movie was shot on an extremely low budget; it features a flashback that lifts shots from the original movie that noticeably feature Boris Karloff.  It is a fun little B-movie with a likable cast and few creepy moments, but is a definite downgrade from the original.

In 1942, Universal would release a sequel, The Mummy’s Tomb, which features an even longer flashback and actually lifts footage from The Mummy’s Hand; the first twenty minutes is essentially a recap of the previous movie.  The main difference between the two, other than location (it moves the action to New England) is the presence of Lon Chaney, Jr. in the role of Kharis (Tom Tyler played Kharis in the previous movie).  No doubt this was a publicity move on Universal’s part to capitalize on the Chaney name by showing off Junior’s great versatility as an actor, but there is nothing distinguishable about Chaney’s performance. Universal could have gotten a similar performance out of a stuntman and saved a lot of money in the process. Though, The Mummy’s Tomb may be the horror sequel that started the time honored tradition of killing off the survivors of the first movie; it takes place thirty years after the first movie and both returning cast members, Dick Foran and Wallace Ford, are offed by Kharis. 

Finally, this brings us to 1944 and the release of The Mummy’s Ghost. YAY!!!! The question you might ask is: Why even bother writing about this movie?  It’s, at best, a mediocre entry in a fairly forgettable series, so what could possibly be the appeal?  Spoilers for a crappy 72 year-old movie!!!!

It is true that for three quarters of its running time The Mummy’s Ghost is a fairly standard horror sequel: Kharis plods through the countryside strangling any yokel that gets in his way,l while the local police are completely baffled by the whole thing. Meanwhile, it turns out that pretty college student, Amina, is the reincarnation of Kharis’ beloved princess Ananka. Thankfully, her boyfriend Tom is there to protect her and, more importantly, has convinced the local authorities that Kharis is a genuine threat. They pull their resources together and plan on trapping the monster.  The rest of the movie is just a formality: Kharis meets a fiery end and Amina and Tom live happily together.  Except that this doesn’t happen!  The movie does a complete 180 on us and allows Kharis to walk away with the girl at the movie’s end.  The townspeople set the trap alright, but Kharis doesn’t show up.  While the townspeople are setting up the trap, Kharis has abducted Amina and taken her to his guardian, Yousef Bey (John Carradine). Yousef begins to lust after Amina and wants to preserve her beauty forever by using fluid from the tana leaves.  This royally pisses Kharis off and he strangles Yousef, and then carries Amina away. Tom arrives too late as Kharis and Amina sink to the bottom of the swamp. THE END! The filmmakers make this ending more palatable by having Amina slowly transform into Ananka’s 3,000 year old corpse, but still, for all intensive purposes, Kharis gets the girl at the end. This is a fairly grim ending, especially for 1944. It is on par with having Dracula end with the count running off with Mina, while Jonathan Harker sobs uncontrollably.  It’s completely unimaginable. 

This ending should be shocking but the problem is that Ramsey Ames (as Amina) is not a particularly good actress.  She’s an attractive woman to be sure (most Hollywood starlets are) but her personality doesn’t register onscreen and she doesn’t do herself any favor with her stiff line delivery (Virginia Christine fares much better in the role in The Mummy’s Curse).  Robert Lowery is affable enough, but is fairly forgettable.  It doesn’t help that the two actors are upstaged by a dog; Tom has a pet dog named Peanuts, who can detect evil a mile away. This wouldn’t a problem if Kharis were an interesting villain but he is a complete bore. He also isn’t much of a menace: Kharis’ victims could easily outpace him if they just walked away at a brisk pace, instead of just screaming their heads off;  Kharis walks with a limp and has one good hand, yet is some how able to get a drop on armed civilians.  It is rather appalling direction by Reginald Le Borg, who takes the direction “Kharis walks through the streets” literally. 

John Carradine fares much better as Yousef Bey;  a priest of Arkham and Kharis’ protector.  Carradine’s performance reminds me of a televangelist that  often gets caught with his pants down; he begs forgiveness for his sins but indulges in them nonetheless.  Bey has lived a fairly rigid existence, devoid of any sex and pleasure; therefore, when he sees an attractive woman up close, it makes sense that he would have a crisis of faith. He doesn’t want to offend his Gods, but holy crap, there’s a hot girl in the same room as him. What should he do? Carradine is appropriately creepy and helps liven up the proceedings. He is the only interesting character in the entire movie. 

There is also a fairly interesting meta moment in The Mummy’s Ghost; an elderly watchman is listening to a horror radio program and the ominous narrator intones, “Did you ever meet a killer, my friends? You will tonight. A killer is at large, my friends. He enters the darken study of Doctor X, the mad doctor of Market Street. In the darken shadows of the room the doctor waits. There’s a scuffle. Screams. Gunshot.  Crash.”  Seconds later, the Mummy breaks into the museum and a scuffle breaks out with the watchman, followed by screams, a gunshot, and a crash. It’s interesting to see self awareness in an older horror movie. It’s become a staple in modern horror movies, but in the 1940s a knowing wink to the audience was  unheard of.  

Credits
Cast:  John Carradine (Yousef Bey), Ramsey Ames (Amina), Robert Lowery (Tom Hervey), Lon Chaney , Jr. (Kharis), Barton MacLane (Inspector Walgreen), George Zucco (High Priest – Andoheb), Frank Reicher (Professor Norman), Harry Shannon (Sheriff), Emmett Vogan (Coroner), Lester Sharpe (Doctor Ayad), Claire Whitney (Mrs. Norman), Oscar O’ Shea (Watchman), Martha Vickers (Girl Student).

Director: Reginald Le Borg
Screenplay: Griffin Jay, Henry Sucher, Brenda Weisberg.
Running Time: 60 min.

Dracula (1931)

When I finally caved in and bought a DVD player, one of the first DVD sets I purchased was “The Monster Legacy DVD Gift Set,” which included fourteen movies, and small busts of Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, and the Wolf Man; all for the reasonable price of fifty six dollars! It was money well spent as I was concerned.  As a kid growing up in the 80s, the local station used to play these movies every Saturday night (and a few Hammer movies thrown in for a good measure).  There were books in the school library devoted to the classic monsters and I frequently checked them out.  Therefore, it pains to me say that I find the original Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, to be incredibly dull. It is the one film in the collection that is an absolute challenge to watch; House of Dracula may be a terrible movie, but at least it is entertaining.

The first twenty minutes, set in Transylvania, are superb and heavy on the atmosphere: Terrified villagers warn Renfield not to go up to Castle Dracula; the eerie scene of Dracula’s brides rising up from their coffins; the wonderful tracking shot of Dracula staring directly into the camera; and  Dracula slowly descending down a stairway that is covered in spider webs. These are all spine-chilling scenes and it is easy to understand why audiences in the 1930s were terrified by them.  The movie takes a turn for the worst when it switches locations to London and turns into a photographed stage play.  

 

This criticism isn’t anything new, in his 1967 book, “An Illustrated History of the Horror Movie,” Carlos Clarens writes,"The sequence of Renfield at the castle has a pleasant Gothic flavor, but, as soon as the action moves to London, the picture betrays its origins 'on the boards,' becoming talky, pedestrian, and uncinematic. We are told, when we should be shown, about the “red mist” that heralds the arrival of the vampire and about the werewolf seen running across Dr. Seward’s lawn.”

This is absolutely correct! Of course, one might argue that the movie is scarier because it doesn’t show us these things and allows us to use our imagination instead. That argument doesn't apply to this movie; the lack of visual effects is due to necessity rather than artistic expression. This was a fairly low budget movie, after all.  The “werewolf running across the lawn” bit is great example; if this was accompanied by a creepy sound effect, or score, then it might be a chilling  moment, instead all we are given is David Manners’ half hearted line delivery.  A wolf running across your lawn isn’t something you see every day, but Jonathan Harker doesn’t seem all too concerned about it.  Manners wasn’t particularly happy to be cast in Dracula and it shows; much to his chagrin, he would  be cast as the juvenile lead in two more Universal Horror movies, The Mummy and The Black Cat. The limitations of Manners’ acting are even more apparent when you compare his performance to that of his leading lady, Helen Chandler, who is a more interesting, and livelier, performer.  Chandler’s performance is uneven, but she is very good later on in the movie when Mina, after having been bitten by the Count, tries to fight her more basic instincts. The scene where she flirts with Jonathan and then stares his neck, waiting to make her move, is a wonderful moment and Chandler is quite scary with her wide eyed stare.  It is the only real noteworthy moment in the final twenty minutes. 

It doesn’t help that most of the second half is set in Dr. Seward’s parlour; most of the time, the camera remains stationary as actors walk into frame, say their lines, and then exit. This portion of the movie drags on and often feels like a proud parent recording their children in a high school production (sans the nonstop zooms). This is a dull group of actors: Edward Van Sloan plods through the scenery while delivering endless exposition while everyone else scratches their heads in confusion.  Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye (as Renfield) will occasionally show up to breathe some life into the proceedings, but otherwise it is completely aimless. There is never any sense of urgency among the protagonists and, as a result, it doesn’t feel like the movie is building towards anything:  Jonathan repeatedly objects to Van Helsing’s methods; Mina keeps acting strange; Van Helsing ticks off Dracula; and Renfield tries to warn Mina about “the master.”

After a half hour of this nonsense, the movie finally switches locations to Carfex Abbey, Dracula’s new “home.” Hey, maybe we’ll be treated to an exciting one on one face off between Dracula and Van Helsing.  Dracula views the professor as a worthy adversary, so maybe the two of them…..NOPE (spoilers for an 85 year-old movie)……the famed count is killed off screen (his death is signified by a barely audible groan). This ending doesn’t hold a candle to the one in Frankenstein (also released in 1931): Victor Frankenstein finally takes responsibility for his actions and faces off with his creation inside a wind mill. This is a genuinely exciting scene sparked by Boris Karloff’s terrific turn as the Monster.  

Dracula is remembered today for Bela Lugosi’s iconic performance as the Count; his stilted line delivery and theatrical mannerism, which would be a debit to most actors, helps add an air of mystery to Dracula. There are historians that claim the Spanish – language version (shot at night time on the same sets as the Browning production) is a superior movie and from a technical stand point they are correct. Unfortunately, Carlos Villiarias, as Dracula, lacks Lugosi’s screen presence; he often makes funny faces to express his anger.  While Dracula is Lugosi’s most famous performance, it is by no means his best:  I prefer his turn as the demented, broken necked shepherd, Ygor, in Son of Frankenstein.  The more over the top Lugosi is, the more enjoyable his performances are.  It is really Dwight Frye that steals the movie with his creepy performance as the tragic Renfield; the likable real estate agent that is driven into madness by Dracula. The shot of him standing at the bottom of a ship’s stairway, staring into the camera with a mad look in his eyes and a huge grin plastered on his face, is one of the most unnerving moments in movie history.

Dracula is a mixed bag – an exciting twenty minutes, followed by nearly an hour of boredom (with a few bright spots thrown in).  If it is every on television, or streaming online, I recommend you watch the opening twenty minutes and then promptly find something else to watch.

Cast: Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula), Helen Chandler (Mina), David Manners (Jonathan Harker), Dwight Frye (Renfield), Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing), Herbert Bunson (Dr. Seward), Frances Dade (Lucy), Joan Standing (Maid), Charles Gerrard (Martin).
Director: Tod Browning
Screenplay:  Garrett Fort (adapted from the 1924 stage play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston).
Based on the novel by Bram Stoker.
Running Time: 75 min.

Gremlins (1984)

In 1984, Gremlins defied expectations by grossing 148 million dollars at the box office, despite going up against heavy competition like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters. It was a highly controversial movie in its initial release – many critics were appalled by the onscreen violence. This was also a concern for some of the movie’s supporters; Roger Ebert, in his three-star review, wrote this about the infamous microwave scene, “I had a queasy feeling that before long we’d be reading newspaper stories about kids who went home and tried the same thing with the family cat.” It was this graphic moment and the heart ripping scene in Temple of Doom that led to the creation of the PG-13 rating; many parents went into expecting to see a family movie and where absolutely shocked when it turned violent in the second half.  The marketing for Gremlins focused largely on how cute Gizmo was, thus misleading people into believing they would be watching an E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial knock off.  Joe Dante, in the Gremlins commentary, relates a story about how a mother walked out of a screening, with her daughter in tow, and complained to the theatre manager about the horrific violence. The little girl, of course, wasn’t at all fazed by the violence and wanted to watch the movie. The original script, by Chris Columbus, was a much darker movie: the mother is beheaded by Stripe; the family dog is eaten; and it is Gizmo who turns into Stripe. It was producer Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante who decided to lighten the tone, which is what makes it a truly unique experience. If Gremlins was a straight horror movie, it would have died quickly at the box office. If Joe Dante would have been merely content in aping E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the movie would have faded into obscurity. 

Gremlins is an interesting movie because of how it constantly shifts gears; it begins as a cute family comedy, then turns into a pure horror movie, and finally settles into cartoonish anarchy. The Gremlins are interesting creatures – they are not so much evil as they are mischievous. They begin life as cute and furry Mogwai, and then metamorphose (which only occurs if they are fed after midnight) into green, reptilian-like creatures that have an appetite for destruction. They leader of the group, Stripe, with his white Mohawk often resembles a Muppet version of punk rock singer, Billy Idol.  They even have a similar scowl. 

At first, the Gremlins are your typical monster movie menace; the scene where the science teacher Mr. Hanson tries to lure a Gremlin out from underneath his desk with a candy bar is a genuinely scary. The creature is kept off screen entire time – its presence is established through sound effects and footsteps.  While many critics complained about the violence, Mr. Hanson’s demise is left to our imaginations.  As the movie progresses, the Gremlins become less monstrous and more cartoonish parodies of mankind. They appropriate mankind’s worst qualities:  they drink; chain smoke; play cards; one of them flashes Kate in the bar; and they are willing to harm one another just for a cheap laugh.  It is also interesting that they begin to dress up like humans; one of them is wearing Mickey Mouse ears during a screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Stripe survives the movie theatre explosion, because his craving for Milk Duds takes him to the department store next door.  Even Gizmo, our furry protagonist, isn’t immune to the consumer culture; he becomes enamored with the television and drives a pink Barbie corvette at the movie’s climax. 

The other criticism of Gremlins is that Zach Galligan is a pretty bland lead. This isn’t entirely false; Galligan doesn’t exactly radiate onscreen charisma (Phoebe Cates fares much better). However, I believe this actually works in the movie’s favor, because Billy Peltzer is an unremarkable guy: he is a scruffy bank teller; lives in his parents’ attic; his best friend is his pet dog; and he harbors a crush on his pretty co-worker, Kate, but is too shy to make a move.  He believes Kate is out of his league; this is understandable considering that Gerald, the bank manager, also has designs on her.  A better and more charismatic actor would not work in this role; it’s easy to believe Galligan’s Billy having confidence issues, but that would not be the case with a more established actor. Billy has an agreeable personality, but he’s not exactly the prettiest contestant in the pageant.  If you were a social misfit in high school, then it is incredibly easy to relate to Billy. While Zach Galligan isn’t a great actor, I do like the moment when Billy finally works up the nerve to ask Kate out; Galligan plays this to absolute perfection - he hesitates a bit before uttering the word, "date."

Phoebe Cates is, essentially, the Jessica Alba of the 1980s – an actress of limited range but with an agreeable screen presence. She really isn’t given much to for the first two thirds of the movie, except look absolutely adorable.  She does this to absolute perfection; it is easy to understand why Billy would have a massive crush on Kate.  Who wouldn’t?  Like Galligan, she is able to come through in the clutch when the filmmakers need her to; I am, of course, talking about the famous scene in which Kate reveals why she hates Christmas (Her dad dressed up like Santa and broke his neck while attempting to go down the chimney). This scene was greatly controversial; the studio heads wanted to cut it because they felt it was in bad taste. Joe Dante liked it because of how ambivalent the audiences’ reactions were to it. How would you respond to such a story? On one hand, it is so ridiculous to the point of being comical. On the other hand, this is clearly a painful memory for Kate and it’s easy to feel bad for her.  Cates is a limited actress, but she is spot on in this scene; there is not a hint of irony in her performance, she plays it with absolute sincerity.  I rather like the character of Kate, largely because she has a fairly cool head on her shoulders; like how she is able to buy time while serving a bar full of Gremlins.  She does an occasional scream, but she doesn’t turn into a quivering pile of Jell-O, either.  It’s also interesting to see a more traditional female role given a slightly darker edge; she hates Christmas and even snaps at Billy when he begins to question her about it.  I like Gremlins 2, but Kate often gets lost in the mix in that movie.  

While the Spielberg influence is there (he was an executive producer), Gremlins is unmistakably a Joe Dante movie: the movie is loaded with cinematic in jokes (Lew Landers, a character from Dante’s previous movie, The Howling, appears on the television at the end); Dante’s stable of actors appear in small roles (Dick Miller as Futterman, Belinda Balaski as Mrs. Harris, and Kenneth Tobey as the Gas Station Attendant); and his brand of dark humor is on full display in this “family picture” (the demise of the miserly Mrs. Deagle is one of the highlights).  There is still a debate as to who was the real director of Poltergeist: Steven Spielberg or Tobe Hooper?  This is not the case with Gremlins. 

Gremlins is also an affectionate spoof of the science fiction/horror movies of the 1950s. It has fun sending up the tropes; The Gremlins hatching from their pods is very reminiscent of the scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when replicates burst out from their pods.  There is usually a scene in 1950s horror where the young protagonist runs to police chief and tries to warn him about the terror that is heading their way, and the police chief responds by kicking our hero out of his office.  In Gremlins, Billy tries to warn Sheriff Frank about the onslaught of monsters that are about to ravage Kingston Falls, but, naturally, the sheriff doesn’t believe him (even after having met Gizmo).  A similar scene happens in The Goonies, when Chunk calls the police and tries to get their help. It’s also interesting because that scene references Gremlins; the officer on the phone starts listing all the pranks Chunk has pulled in the past and then mentions, “Just like that last prank about all those little creatures that multiply when you throw water on them.” Both scripts were written by Chris Columbus, so it's not that surprising. 

Credits
Cast: Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer), Phoebe Cates (Kate), Hoyt Axton (Rand Peltzer), Frances Lee McCain (Lynn Peltzter), Polly Holliday (Mrs. Deagle), Glynn Turman (Mr. Hanson), Dick Miller (Mr. Futterman), Scott Brady (Sheriff Frank), Keye Luke (Mr. Wing), Corey Feldman (Pete), Judge Reinhold (Gerald), Jackie Joseph (Mrs. Futterman), Edward Arnold (Mr. Corben),  Belinda Balaski (Mrs. Harris), Jonathan Banks (Deputy), John Louie (Chinese Boy), Harry Carey, Jr. (Mr. Anderson),  James MacKrell (Lew Landers), Chuck Jones (Mr. Jones), Don Steele (Rockin’ Ricky Rialto),  William Schallert (Father Bartlett), Kenneth Tobey (Gas Station Attendant),Howie Mandel (voice of Gizmo), Frank Welker (voice of Stripe/Mogwai/Gremlins).

Director: Joe Dante
Screenplay: Chris Columbus
Running Time: 106 min.