Scene Screams is a recurring column that spotlights the scenes in horror that make us scream, whether through fear, laughter, or tears. It examines the most memorable, and often scariest, scenes in horror and what it is about them that makes them get under our skin.
“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.”
Breaking the mandates of the Mogwai transforms the sleepy little town of Kingston Falls into a chaotic battleground against a horde of menacing Gremlins in Joe Dante’s holiday classic. Inventor Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) gifts his son, Billy (Zach Galligan), a strange new pet for Christmas. The adorable little Mogwai, named Gizmo, comes with strict rules for care but no explanation on why they’re so important. Billy quickly realizes how much responsibility keeping Gizmo requires.
Billy’s young pal Pete (Corey Feldman) accidentally spills water onto Gizmo, causing equally adorable but more aggressive Mogwai to spawn from poor Gizmo’s back. The real trouble begins when the new brood chews through Billy’s alarm clock; he’s unaware that it’s past midnight when he feeds them. The well-fed creatures form hideous cocoons and transform from cute and cuddly to reptilian monsters.
Up until this point in Gremlins, Dante builds measured trepidation. It’s evident that rule-breaking will cause catastrophe, but not what that entails. The only hint of just how bad it could get comes from the unfriendly personalities of the new Mogwai, led by the more cunning and assertive Stripe. Dante and screenwriter Chris Columbus save the reveal of how dangerous gremlins can get for the film’s most intense turning point.
Gremlins enters full-blown horror mode in the unforgettable scene that sees Billy’s mom Lynn (Frances Lee McCain) forced to fight for her life against multiple gremlins at once. In it, Lynn is home alone when she hears disturbing sounds coming from the kitchen. With a kitchen knife in hand, Lynn cautiously creeps toward the kitchen, taking care not to alert the intruders of her presence. Dante coils the tension tight as the music signals danger, and the camera bides its time, capturing Lynn’s tiptoe to confront the invaders. The camera captures her look of horror before panning down to reveal the source, a sharp-toothed, gluttonous green creature devouring her Christmas cookies.
As it dips into her mixing bowl to slurp up the batter, she turns it on and splatters its green flesh all over. It’s not over; she’s attacked by two more that hurl plates and sheet pans at her. Lynn fights through sheer terror and immediately seizes her opportunities to dispatch them. It culminates in a gory microwave explosion, leaving poor Lynn shaken.
This pivotal scene shifts Gremlins firmly into horror and serves as an intense introduction to the film’s villainous monsters in proper. It’s the full reveal of the gremlins after hatching from the cocoon and a demonstration that their existence will create a path of destruction and devastation. Lynn survived her ordeal, but others after won’t be as lucky.
Columbus’s original script framed Gremlins as a gory R-rated horror movie, which could’ve resulted in Lynn dying and Billy discovering this when her head bounced down the stairs. Scaling back to a more family-friendly PG-rating proved the smart decision, but luckily Dante ensured the film still had teeth through tension building, stakes, and creature gore.
It’s the splattery deaths of the gremlins in this scene in conjunction with Lynn’s palpable fear that sells the horror of the pivotal moment, even when the gremlins are far gentler with her than the likes of Mr. Anderson (Harry Carey Jr.) or mean Ruby Deagle (Polly Holliday).
