Steven Spielberg; the man behind the killer shark film “Jaws”, brings us another classic movie in the form of a 1950s sci-fi B movie parody with Joe Dante (“Looney Tunes: Back in Action”) in the director’s seat.

“Gremlins” follows a wacky inventor (Hoyt Axton “Tropic Thunder”), who round Christmas purchases a strange creature called a mogwai for his son and is warned about the responsibility of keeping it. You see there’s three rules; don’t expose them to bright light and sunlight will kill them, don’t get them wet and no matter how much they beg and whine never, ever feed them after midnight. Unfortunately, after an accident Billy (Zach Galligan “Waxwork”) gets his new pet, which he calls Gizmo wet and then a band nasty versions of the cute Gizmo are born. They then get some food after midnight and then they turn into horrid creatures with a wicked sense of humour. The gremlins then terrorize the town so it’s up to Billy and Gizmo to stop them.

Billy is a great and likeable character and is played nicely by Zach Galligan. Billy’s dad is an eccentric character played straight by Hoyt Axton to add even more humour. The gremlins are fully fledged characters themselves and are portrayed as misfits with a cruel yet somehow amusing sense of humour. Gizmo is a cute and adorable little character.

“Gremlins” is a brilliantly mix of horror movie suspense genius and comedy. With references to the original “Body Snatchers” and even “Snow White” “Gremlins” is a very nicely done spoof that doesn’t feel like most spoofs (for examples “Spaceballs” and “Scary Movie”). From beginning to end “Gremlins” is a very funny movie with lots of great references to the golden age of so bad it’s good sci-fi movies. I do however warn parents that young children may seriously upset them. It has nothing to do with the amount of violence and it’s got nothing to do with their being any inappropriate jokes, which there aren’t, just it contains the revealing of something children mighty not know is fake.