Inventor Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) is desperate to find a present for his son Billy (Zach Galligan), when he comes across a little Chinese curiosity shop where he spots a little creature that would make a great gift. The little creature is a cute furry animal known as Mogwai, but before he can buy it, he is warned about some very important rules about looking after the creature. 1) Keep it away from bright light, 2) Don't get any water on it, and 3) Never, never ever feed it after midnight. Billy loves his new pet, giving it the name Gizmo and does his best to keep to the rules. Unfortunately some water is accidentally spilt on the little Mogwai, and causes it to give birth to some little brothers. The new Mogwai's seem to be much more mischievous, and manage to break the rules all by themselves. When they manage to break rule number 3, they turn into scaly little beasts called "Gremlins" and chaos ensues.

"Gremlins" was made in 1984 and was one of the year's best comedies, and still a favourite of young and old today. What makes "Gremlins" so good is the mixture of comedy with horror. Unlike the big horror movies which base their themes around vampires and demons, "Gremlins" uses lovable little creatures which mutate into little monsters. The film takes us on an action packed ride as the little creatures cause havoc and Billy and his girlfriend Kate, with the help of Gizmo, have to find away of stopping all the chaos and destruction.

The main star of "Gremlins" is Gizmo, the cutest little pet that anyone would want, and even his evil little brother Stripe is lovable in his own way. The creatures are animatronic models which really steal the show from all the real actors.

The main actor in "Gremlins" is Zach Galligan (Hitchhiker) as Billy Peltzer, who is the caring boy, who loves his new pet and really doesn't have a bad bone in his body. He plays the part very well and is very likeable. His girlfriend Kate is played by Pheobe Cates (Drop Dead Fred), again a very likeable character but as with Billy is completely over shadowed by the little "Gremlins".

There are some good supporting performances from the likes of Hoyt Axton (Bonanza) ,Harry Carey Jr (Tombstone) andy Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys) as Billy's best friend, but as I said earlier. The real stars of the films are the little animatronic puppets.

"Gremlins" was written by Chris Columbus (Home Alone) and directed by Joe Dante (Small Soldiers). Their collaboration has really made one of the best horror/ comedies ever made. It could have been very easy to over do the horror which would have made the film to sinister, but they have achieved the right balance. Most importantly they have done a wonderful job with the little animatronic puppets making them very believable and you completely forget that they are not real.

The pairing did such a successful job of this film that it spurned an equally good sequel which saw Joe Dante take the directional reins again but with a new writer.

As with a horror movie, you would expect it to be quite dark, and this has been achieved but in balance with the comedy, such as when the "Gremlins" are causing chaos in the kitchen and Billy has to sort it out with some very funny solutions (I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet). The film is set in the Christmas period and in such uses many Christmassy songs in the sound track one of the most memorable is Johnny Mathis singing "Do you hear what I hear", it's the noisy "Gremlins".

What this all boils down to is that "Gremlins" is an absolutely brilliant movie what ever time of year you watch it. Brilliant story, great direction, good acting and the cutest little creatures that you could ever want, even if they can turn into little monsters.