Gremlins 4K Review

The following 4K was provided to me by Warner Brothers for review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

In the 80’s you could make a horror movie about little demon like monsters who terrorize a sleepy town murdering people along the way and pass it off as family fun fantasy. God the 80’s were a magical time. All you had to do was make one of the little monsters adorably cute to sell toys and stuffed animals and kids would not know its scary. Yes I am talking about Gremlins. The Steven Spielberg produced classic directed by Joe Dante. It’s a staple of 80’s cinema beloved by all, and for good reason. It’s a magical film, its just really a horror movie in disguise.

I am going to hope you have seen Gremlins, but if for some really weird reason you have not I’ll give you a quick breakdown. Randall Pelzer is a hack inventor who while in a Chinatown shop buys a birthday gift for his son. The gift is a little furry Mogwai (Horror fact that translates to Devil in Cantonese). Now to be clear the shop owner wont sell it, so his grandson sneaks it out the back and sells it to Randall black market style. The little thing is friendly it just comes with three rules you must obey. Never get it wet, never feed it after midnight, and never expose it to sunlight as that will kill it. Randall takes it home and give it to his son Billy who names it Gizmo. Now lets be clear. Gizmo is without a doubt the cutest film creature in history. I mean its adorable. You cant help but fall in love with it. Hell all these years later and they still make toys of it.

Now it wouldn’t be much of a film if the rules of taking care of Gizmo were not broken. First Corey Feldman gets him wet causing him to multiply. Problem is the new ones are not friendly like Gizmo, there actually quiet mean. One of them has a large white strip of hair that resembles a mohawk. He becomes known as Stripe. Stripe moves all the clocks back so they will be fed after midnight which causes them to turn into ugly (sort of still cute I guess) monsters who begin destroying the town, and killing people. Gizmo was not fed so he goes with Billy and Billy’s girlfriend to stop these monsters.

Now I’m calling it horror, because it is, but its also very funny and charming. The film holds up perfectly to this day. The effects are still top notch, and nothing looks fake, or to corny by today’s standards. To celebrate the 35th anniversary Warner Brother is releasing this classic on 4K. And let me say it looks and sounds great.

The video is gorgeous. All the colors are as bright and crisp as can be. Now Gremlins takes place around Christmas time, and the majority is in the dark and everything just pops. The dark shots are fantastic, never once suffering from that horrible blue tint you see in some films. It’s a nice sharp dark, and the random town and Christmas lights are vibrant and really show off the variations of colors 4K can do. Gizmo looks cuter than ever, and he sounds great as well. The gremlins are a very evil, yet sneaky bunch so you can hear all of there little background noises coming from your surround sound. If you own a 4K player this is a definite pick up for the collection. Its one of the best transfers I have ever seen.

Top to bottom this is a great film. Its considered a classic for a reason. If for some reason you have never seen it, watch it immediately. If you’re a fan this really is the version to own.

Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!