First Film Review

The plot of the film is a boy inadvertently breaks 3 important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

The scenes that impressed me the most were Mrs Deagle’s death as throughout the film she is threatening to kill Billy’s dog and the gremlins kill her because of this showing that deep down they’re still nice. A lot of close up shots are used in this scene to show the petrified face of Mrs Deagle which emphasises what’s going on in the scene.

The other scene was the pub scene where a load of gremlins were hanging out; this impressed me because it balanced humour with horror happened throughout the film. A lot of montage was used in this scene to show a variety of gremlins doing different things to show how bad they are.

This film helped me understand the horror genre as most of the things usually in the horror genre featured in the film.

The characters and representation in the film were the male hero Billy, quick smart monsters the gremlins, the female victim Mrs Deagle and the final girl Kate.

The mise-en-scene in the film utilised restricted narration in the opening scene where it sets the plot or diegesis of the film, creepy locations were used throughout the film for example the shop where he buys Mogui. Low key lighting was used also in the shop when we first see the gremlins.

The sound in the film was parallel music which was in the Christmas scene as Christmas music was playing throughout. There was also contrapuntal music when Billy’s Mum is looking for the gremlins in the house. An upbeat song is playing on the stereo, which contrasts the horror of the scene.

The editing in the film included montage this was used when the gremlins were hatching as continuously changing locations where eggs were hatching. Collision cutting was also used in the quite empty school then suddenly the alarm goes off. There was also quick to slow montage to build tension when Billy’s mum was looking for gremlins as she slowly looked for them then suddenly something would happen like a plate hitting her.

The cinematography in the film included a close up of Billy’s Dad’s face when he first see’s Gizmo for the first time. A canted angle was also used when more gremlins spawn from Gizmo to show confusion to what’s happening. There was also a Point of view shot when Gizmo drives the toy car to save Billy’s life, the shot was used just before the jump.

The themes in the film were loneliness when the professor is alone with the gremlin he is studying. There is also a threat of death whilst the gremlins attack billy’s home.

The narrative at the end of the film is an open one as the shopkeeper who sells Gizmo takes him away and says to Billy “You can have him back when you are ready” this may lead to a sequel of him getting Gizmo back.

A key horror ideology in the film was sadism as the gremlins enjoyed inflicting pain on the town’s people even though they don’t always kill them.

The aspects of the film I enjoyed of the film were the unusual deaths like killing from microwaves and stannar stair lifts. This would be good in my trailer because these scenes would be memorable and make people watch the film. Also the use of dark creepy locations would also be good in my trailer because they would emphasise any horror moments in these particular scenes.

Aspects of the film that I would avoid would be minimal jumpy scenes as these scenes I think are better moments in horror films, for example in this film when the gremlins suddenly throw a plate at Billy’s mum which is a jumpy scene but not that jumpy. Also the setting of the film is at Christmas which isn’t a particularly scary time and would be much better at Halloween.

The most enjoyable moment was the gremlins as the monsters are always the most memorable characters in horror films. The monsters in my trailer need to be memorable and also ideally like them to have bizarre features to stand out.