20 facts you might not know about Gremlins

The idea of a “gremlin” dates back to the Royal Air Force during World War II. When something went wrong with a plane they would blame it on little monsters called “gremlins.” Author Roald Dahl, who was in the RAF, wrote a book called “The Gremlins” in 1943 that put the idea of gremlins into the popular culture.

Chris Columbus had made his screenwriting debut with the movie “Reckless,” a coming-of-age drama starring Aidan Quinn and Darryl Hannah. However, Columbus hated what the director had done with his script and called the process “so degrading.” After that, Columbus decided to write the screenplay for “Gremlins” to serve as a spec script. After the disaster of “Reckless”, he just wanted to show people he could write.

At the time he conceived of “Gremlins,” Columbus was living in a loft that had a bit of a rodent problem. He could hear mice coming out at nice and skittering around in the dark, which he found quite creepy. This gave him the idea for the bones of his horror-comedy.

If he had only written “Gremlins,” Columbus would have had a big impact on the Christmas movie landscape. A few years later, he almost directed “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” but left the product because he hated dealing with Chevy Chase. John Hughes wanted to do a solid for his friend, so he offered him a couple of projects to direct. Columbus chose “Home Alone,” which was the highest-grossing Christmas movie ever until “The Grinch” surpassed it.

Columbus may have just wanted to show off his writing skills, but he did a lot more than that. His screenplay came across the desk of none other than Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was getting into doing more producing with his Amblin Entertainment company, and he decided to buy the script for “Gremlins” and executive produce it.

Wanting somebody who knew a thing or two about horror-comedy, Spielberg hired Joe Dante for the project based on his experience directing films like “Piranha” and “The Howling.” Dante started his work on “Gremlins” while he was working on his segment of “Twilight Zone: The Movie.” Fittingly, Spielberg also directed a segment of that film as well.

Spielberg may have liked Columbus’ script, but there were changes and revisions made to tone the movie down. The original version would have probably been an R-rated affair. We’re talking about Billy’s mom’s severed head being thrown down the stairs and Billy’s dog being eaten. Also, Gizmo was originally going to turn into Stripe, the leader of the gremlins. However, Spielberg nixed that, thinking Gizmo was cute and audiences would want him to stick around. He was right on that.

The “Jaws” director didn’t throw his weight around on anything. For example, he did not like Kate’s infamous story about her father’s death, which was based on an urban legend. Dante wanted to keep the scene, feeling it was a perfect encapsulation of the horror and comedy elements of the movie. In this case, Spielberg deferred to his hand-appointed director.

In “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Judge Reinhold plays a teen who has a thing for Phoebe Cates’ character. That is evident in the most famous, or infamous scene in the film. Both actors are in “Gremlins” as well, with Cates playing Kate, the female lead. She actually almost lost the role of Kate due to the risqué nature of her previous work.

Spielberg wanted Zach Galligan for the lead role of Billy, even though he was an unknown at the time. He saw the chemistry that Galligan had with Cates and given that they had to be a couple in the film this was huge. This turned out to be a break for Galligan, who is to this day best known for playing Billy.

Dıck Miller is fun as Murray Futterman, even if his character is, as we say now, problematic (he’s supposed to be, to be fair). Miller was a prolific character actor, one of the ultimate “That Guy” performers. There’s literally a documentary about the late actor called “That Guy Dıck Miller.” Dante was a huge fan of Miller and cast him in every one of his theatrical releases.

Keye Luke, who plays Mr. Wing, had a career to rival Miller’s. He began acting in the 1930s and was one of the first Chinese-American actors signed to a studio contract. Luke appeared in dozens of films and TV shows, and the 80-year-old actor was still at it when he made “Gremlins.” However, he was still youthful enough that they had to add old-age makeup to his face.

Frank Welker, one of the all-time animal voice actors (he’s been doing Scooby-Doo since the beginning), was brought on to voice Stripe, the lead villain of the film. He, in turn, suggested Howie Mandel as the voice of Gizmo. These days, Mandel is famous for being on screen as the host of “Deal or No Deal” and as a judge on “America’s Got Talent.”

Gizmo, Stripe, and company speak a few clear words, but they mostly make a lot of noises. While they were actually shooting the movie, the puppeteers were moving the various mogwai and gremlins around without any dialogue. As such, Mandel, Welker, and the other voice actors were largely riffing and improvising based on the movements of the puppets after the fact.

Pretty intricate puppetry was used to bring the mogwai and the gremlins to life, but that was apparently not the original plan. The story goes that originally the gremlins were going to be portrayed by monkeys, but one monkey freaked out when a gremlins mask was placed on them in a test run. Now, this sounds too crazy to be true, but it’s a story that has gotten passed along at the very least.

Infamously, Mrs. Peltzer throws one gremlin in the microwave and then cooks him until he explodes. The special effects here were pretty simple. A balloon was filled with various viscera and then placed in the microwave until it exploded.

“Gremlins” was made on a relatively cheap budget, but it faced tough competition when it was released on June 8, 1984. Oh yeah, this Christmas movie was a summer release. It came out the exact same day as “Ghostbusters.” However, that didn’t stop the film from being a massive success on its $11 million budget. In the end, “Gremlins” made a robust $153 million domestically and $212.9 million worldwide.

The Oscars didn’t care much for “Gremlins,” which isn’t surprising, but the Saturn Awards felt differently. If you are unfamiliar, the Saturns are focused on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. It gave “Gremlins” five awards: Best Music, Best Special Effects, Best Supporting Actress for Polly Holliday, Best Director, and Best Horror Film.

In 1990, the world was blessed with “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.” Joe Dante returned along with Galligan and Cates, though the action moves to New York. It’s also an insane movie. Dante basically made a Looney Tunes horror movie, going heavy on the comedy. “Gremlins 2” even pokes fun at the original film, such as riffing on the three rules of taking care of a mogwai. Film critic Leonard Maltin, who panned “Gremlins,” appears as himself in “Gremlins 2” where he…pans “Gremlins” before being attacked by gremlins. This is the kind of movie it is.

In 1984 Spielberg had a hand in both “Gremlins” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” There were both PG films, but they contained some violent material perhaps unsuitable for young children. However, they were too tame for an R rating. Spielberg suggested that the MPAA might want to create a new middle ground for such a film. Thus, later in 1984, the PG-13 rating was born.