Joe Dante
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In “Krampus,” writer-director Michael Dougherty is obviously aiming for the sweet spot merging dark humor with Christmas joy and snarky horror that Joe Dante managed so memorably in “Gremlins,” and if he doesn’t hit the bull’s-eye, he at least comes within range.
That's a shame because - as movies from "Gremlins" to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" proved - there's something to be found in combining holiday trappings with monster-movie tropes.
Like his prior “Creepshow”-inspired “Trick ‘r Treat,” Dougherty’s latest also feels indebted to an ‘80s classic, with its twisted-festivities vibe at least partly reminiscent of Joe Dante’s “Gremlins.”
Directed by Michael Dougherty with the same eye for lovingly detailed genre re-creation that shaped his 2009 indie-horror anthology, “Trick ’r Treat” (with 1984’s “Gremlins” as the obvious touchstone here), “Krampus” isn’t especially scary, but it generates goodwill nonetheless for treating its home-invasion-for-the-holidays setup with an appreciably straight face.
As dark as a lump of coal but dripping with human compassion, it retains a sense of nightmarish whimsy similar to 1984's "Gremlins" but with the malevolence meter cranked up another couple notches.
Do you love the dark, screwball Christmas classic "Gremlins," but hate the Vegetable Gremlin-filled nonsense of "Gremlins 2," and bemoan the fact that have been far too few entries into the Murder Christmas canon since 1997's "Jack Frost?" Then congratulations you crazy kid, because "Trick ‘r Treat" director Michael Dougherty is finally here with " Krampus ," a devilishly entertaining nightmare that explores what happens when too many people in one family end up on the Naughty List.
Goosebumps (2015)
Directed by Rob Letterman
influenced by Gremlins (1984), Explorers (1985)
Themes Plot Visuals
The film makes passing nods to horror classics like Gremlins and The Shining, but those homages are half-baked.
"Goosebumps" gets a little noisy and chaotic at times, much like its spiritual ancestor, Joe Dante's 1984 classic "Gremlins."
Only one of these set pieces has any teeth, an extended kitchen attack from those gnomes that in its trapped-floor climax one-ups Gremlins, its obvious inspiration, all without edging out of a PG rating.
The vibe is old-school Steven Spielberg, as if "Goosebumps" had followed "Goonies" and "Gremlins" as an adventure intended for both kids (who will dig the pratfalling wolfman) and adults (who will appreciate the Stine character's vinegary wit).
Specifically it wants to be Joe Dante’s “Gremlins,” only stocked with a couple dozen types of beasties, shaken from about half of Stine’s original 1990s run.
A riff on R.L. Stine’s enormously popular series of children’s horror stories, at its best it’s a kids’ movie like Joe Dante’s Explorers or some of the better Pixar entries.
With the setting upgraded from the ’50s to the ’80s, with “Gremlins” posters adorning bedroom walls and New Kids on the Block references bleeding into the soundtrack, “It” doesn’t just take place in the confines of a novel written during King’s peak creative output; it may as well have been made then.
Mix one part vulgar innocence (these kids swear up a storm, even if they don't know what exactly they're talking about), add a breezy layer of cultural benchmarks ( Gremlins and A Nightmare on Elm Street posters adorn the scenery's fringes) and mix it all in a rusty blender on high in the middle of an abandoned corn field.
A poster for the Spielberg-produced Gremlins can briefly be seen above one character’s bed, and its blend of bloody horror, comedy and sympathetic youths in peril is the sort of movie that the best of Muschietti’s It feels in debt to.
This means that all the Eisenhower-era references have been replaced with Reagan/Bush Sr.-era references—the local movie theater is showing Batman and Lethal Weapon 2, one of the characters has a Gremlins poster on his bedroom wall, and another character tries desperately to hide his admiration for the New Kids on the Block.
Ambientada em 1989, a narrativa segue os passos de Super 8 e Stranger Things (que também trazia o divertido Wolfhard no elenco) ao explorar a nostalgia da década de 80 através das canções e de referências a títulos como Gremlins e Os Fantasmas se Divertem , não deixando de homenagear, claro, o cineasta que se tornou ícone do período: Steven Spielberg.
This is a self-reflexively cine-literate world, in which posters for Gremlins and Beetlejuice hang on children’s walls, and the gateway to the monster’s lair resembles Norman Bates’s home from Psycho .
Coyote vs. Acme (2026)
Directed by Dave Green
influenced by Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
Visuals Themes
Utilising the same animation/live-action hybridisation that has defined pictures like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and even other Looney Tunes films like Back in Action, Coyote sets off to Albuquerque to find a lawyer to represent him.
The Looney Tunes have crossed the border into reality before, from the underrated Looney Tunes: Back In Action, to the nostalgic miasma of Space Jam (and its even more fetid sequel).
No llegando a los niveles de locura o disparates de la infravalorada Looney Tunes: Back in Action, pero sí respetando muy bien a sus personajes y teniendo mejor química con los humanos…
Looney Tunes: Back in Action, less so.
Green and Burch, perhaps reminded of the failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, don’t spare the mayhem.
…it gives a strength to the film’s humour that was not as evident in early Looney Tunes-live-action hybrids like Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).
The End of Oak Street (2026)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
influenced by Gremlins (1984)
Themes Visuals
Something akin to “Poltergeist” or “Gremlins” where another filmmaker gets to be darker and crueler than the director usually is while also investigating the suburban family and Americana through a dark genre lens.
…while echoes of E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins, and The Goonies reverberate through its suburban setting and family dynamics.
…not to mention gems like The Goonies and Gremlins…
Mitchell seems to have crafted a film paying homage to Amblin projects such as E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Back to the Future, Gremlins, and, most importantly, Jurassic Park.
His own "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" as well as Joe Dante's "Gremlins" infamously pushed the boundaries of the rating system at the time.
What's "Gremlins" if not a warning against complacency with technology and the abuse of the natural world?
Super 8 (2011)
Directed by J.J. Abrams
influenced by Gremlins (1984), Matinee (1993), Explorers (1985)
Themes Visuals
In a way, Super 8 is as derivative and familiar as anything in theaters today, only the movies it’s copying are all over a quarter of a century old: Spielbergian fare like The Goonies, E.T., Gremlins and Close Encounters, with echoes of earlier and later films.
Yes, many classic Spielberg-produced kids’ action adventures also had domestic drama (The Goonies, E.T., and Gremlins come to mind), but it somehow never detracted from the awe and wonder that got you into your seat to begin with.
Toss in a healthy measure of Rob Reiner's bonding classic "Stand by Me" and passing winks at "WarGames," "Independence Day," "Gremlins" and even "Duel," and you've got one grand mash of a movie that's trying to capture the innocence and energy of an earlier time while bringing it into the right here and now.
While cast in the mold of late-Seventies/early Eighties films such as , E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Gremlins, and The Goonies, Super 8 has a sense of being the most personal of all Abrams’ projects (which include his creation of the popular TV shows Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Fringe).
Going back to the style and structure of films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Gremlins and The Goonies to create engaging narratives that rely on a developed build-up rather than a series of quick gratifications is an outstanding way of making engaging mainstream family entertainment.
Hopefully you recognize him from Gremlins.
The first effort, combining live and animated action, “Space Jam,” also starring human Michael Jordan, was a popular enough effort that has had a pretty good shelf life.
Fully anticipating another gimmick-driven shoulder-shrug of a live-action/cartoon hybrid like 1996's "Space Jam," I hadn't put enough faith in director Joe Dante ("Gremlins," "Small Soldiers"), who has been a rabid aficionado of Warner Bros. cartoons his whole life, and who poured every ounce of that enthusiasm into this screwball flick.
Much has been made of this movie being not Space Jamthat is, its producers claim it is truer to the original essence of Bugs, Daffy, etc., than that 1996 movie co-starring Michael Jordan, which turned them all into basketball stars and did away with most of their traditional settings, conflicts, and personalities.
In the right hands, this would have been at least as competent a film as Space Jam.
That you may find its supposed take on suburbia far less disturbing (despite its title) than Joe Dante’s The ‘Burbs (1989) is another matter.
Besides, the movie has way more in common, in terms of actual execution, with 1984’s Body Double and 1989’s The ‘burbs than anything else.
Actually, if you want to compare Disturbia to something, it’s almost exactly like the Tom Hanks comedy The 'Burbs, only without any attempt to be funny and with a bunch of annoying, too-perfect teenagers.
Men in Black (1997)
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
influenced by Gremlins (1984), Explorers (1985)
Themes Visuals
Sonnenfeld's film is just good enough to remind us how lazy most blockbusters have become in the decade since Gremlins and Ghostbusters - hits with a similar hip, relaxed vibe.
At times the ambience evokes the work of Gremlins director Joe Dante; don't expect any psychological depth here, but the cool wit and fun (derived partly from the premise that the cheap tabloids are the only newspapers telling the truth) are deftly maintained, and Sonnenfeld provides a bountiful supply of both fanciful beasties and ingenious visuals.
If you saw Joe Dante's 1985 River Phoenix/Ethan Hawke movie, "Explorers," you won't be terribly surprised by their rubbery, globby appearance.
Upon deeper inspection, it also carries all those conventional visual and narrative details we come to associate with stories about the holidays: the obligatory wintry landscape where iron lampposts barely light the streets behind blankets of falling snow; the old Scrooge-like humbug (an old lady obsessed with money and cruelty played by Polly Holliday); a mute housewife (Frances Lee McCain) who engages in all the ordinary holiday pastimes, including watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on a kitchen television while baking cookies; and the local bar where citizens exchange those silly or vulgar anecdotes that aren’t very funny unless you’re in on the joke.
We see actual clips of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "It's a Wonderful Life" (which Billy's mom amusingly refers to as a "sad movie"), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and "To Please a Lady."
A great Christmas film can be shown in late December and any other time during the year, qualities shared by the best of all Yuletide movies, It's a Wonderful Life and Gremlins .
Imagine a berserk film editor splicing ''It's a Wonderful Life'' to ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers,'' with quoting from ''Snow White'' and a nod to ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.''
This is probably because Joe Dante’s Christmastime children’s fantasy is so gleefully mischievous and full of dark, magical energy that it’s hard to look past the plush-toy cuteness of Gizmo, the sweet romance between Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), or the stream of reverential allusions to The Wizard of Oz, It’s A Wonderful Life, producer Steven Spielberg’s E.T., and the Looney Tunes cartoons (replete with a cameo by famed Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones) from which Dante lovingly draws inspiration.
Another character that's a lot of fun is B.E.N., a beaten down robot voiced by Martin Short (Innerspace) who is reminiscent of old Bob from The Black Hole minus the Western drawl.
It is interesting to note however how much the sets for the final set piece is inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a movie made way back in 1920!
Stranger Things (2016)
Directed by David Champion
influenced by Gremlins (1984), Explorers (1985)
Themes Characters
It’s more like a portal into the kid-focused, fantasy-fueled, occasionally frightening films of that decade — pictures like E.T., Poltergeist, The Goonies, and Gremlins.
If you can handle a movie like Gremlins or The Burbs you will be fine.
…a familiar stew of tropes that would make any fan of Super 8, Explorers, or Starman feel like they might have a case of deja vu.
The kids have the group dynamics of Stand by Me and the adorable nerdiness of the Explorers.
I can fly," he deadpans after mastering the rockets on his heels) that I was reminded of Dennis Quaid in Joe Dante's Innerspace, another instance of an ingenious actor taking flight while surrounded by layers of metal.
Here it misses a trick that the creators of Gremlins or the twisted minds behind the gratuitously violent Happy Tree Friends understood: adorable creatures that turn monstrous are even more frightening than the grotesque.
Unlike Gremlins the rules of the supernatural set-up aren't delivered but discovered…
Or that he’s waxing nostalgic more generally — quoting the 1980s sci-fi he grew up on, like Joe Dante’s Explorers , Randal Kleiser’s Flight of the Navigator and Nick Castle’s The Last Starfighter .
Youth activists resemble the media-saturated aliens of Joe Dante’s Explorers (1985), who pick up radio and TV signals as if comprehending human history.
For just one example, even children will recognize the neighborhood sourpuss, Mrs. Deagle, as a takeoff on Margaret Hamilton in ''The Wizard of Oz.''
This is probably because Joe Dante’s Christmastime children’s fantasy is so gleefully mischievous and full of dark, magical energy that it’s hard to look past the plush-toy cuteness of Gizmo, the sweet romance between Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), or the stream of reverential allusions to The Wizard of Oz, It’s A Wonderful Life, producer Steven Spielberg’s E.T., and the Looney Tunes cartoons (replete with a cameo by famed Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones) from which Dante lovingly draws inspiration.
As for Lawrence's initial transformationa centerpiece of any respectable lycanthropic yarnit leaves one merely aloof by the choice to go with CGI that doesn't come close to approaching the realism, ingenuity and fright of makeup artist Rick Baker's masterful practical effects in 1981's "The Howling" and 1982's "An American Werewolf in London."
In doing this, Peele references and draws upon the techniques of classic scary movies ( Rosemary’s Baby , Night of the Living Dead ), thrillers ( Rear Window ), and comedy and social problem movies ( The ’Burbs ).
Among its most obvious ancestors are "The Stepford Wives," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "They Live," "The 'Burbs" and "Rosemary's Baby" — stories in which the harrowing menace comes wrapped in a bland, neighborly smile.
The landlady in that opening scene is Dee Wallace, an icon of early ’80s horror for Joe Dante’s film “The Howling,” still one of the best werewolf movies ever made.