Genre: Black Comedy / Horror (at least in these early drafts)
Premise: Billy, a young boy aspiring to be a novelist, is given a pet Mogwai by his wacky inventor father, who acquired the animal during a trip the orient. Unlike animal you've ever seen, the Gremlins are nocturnal and multiply in number when wet. They proceed to go crazy, attack Billy's dog and killing his mother so Billy teams up with Terry, the girl he likes, and another friend to defend the town against The Gremlins.
About: There are a movement in the late 80's towards Comedy/Horror films. This cannon includes Ghostbusters (released the same weekend as Gremlins) but also Beetlejuice, Fright Night, The Burbs. I guess you could say it started with the Munsters and Addams Family or Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, but this was a blockbuster genre in the late 80's. So that's the market Gremlins was nicheing itself towards. Chris Columbus based the story around heading mice in his apartment late at night, and originally just constructed the piece as a sample of his writing. But then, Speilberg caught onto it. And the rest is history.
Writer: Chris Columbus (who was a boy wonder with one filmed script, Reckless, to date at the ripe old age of 24) got sole screenwriting credit. But that to me, seems more like Spielberg consciously choosing to take his name off the project. There are definitely certain things that happened in the script's revision that if Spielberg didn't directly alter, the inclusion of Walt Disney films/certains touches that made everything cuter/the wacky inventions.
I used to feel alot of jealousy towards Chris Columbus. He's like the wonderkind of screenwriters. Had a film produced by the time he was a junior at NYU. And was writing Gremlins while living on Spielberg's couch soon after. And the thing is, Gremlins is a great film. Original. High concept. Fun. I love the feel to it. But, reading this original draft was very enheartening because I realized essentially what Columbus had written was a monster movie. And it's not a very wonderful monster movie. Totally conventional in terms of plot structure (monsters unleashed, not a threat, monsters are a threat, must stop monsters) and while written as a sample script, there really aren't that mean great speeches or lines. Alot of the characters (Billy as an artists, the father's inventions, the aspiring bank manager character, Terry's playfullness) aren't hyped up here that much. So the whole thing comes off pretty flat.
And thank God Gremlins became a softer film because as a dark script this thing is really unsettling. It's like reading an unproduced script where you find out ET is actually a serial killer. Spielberg's idea to change Mogwai to a completely good guy, and then have another completely bad Gremlin basically made this film. It's way too difficult to sympathize with a character and then watch them alter into a mother-killing dog-nibbling person. And then, these scenes aren't even that particularly amusing in a black comedy sense (the one exception being a scene at the Gremlins-raided McDonalds where The Gremlins feed on the customers and don't touch the hamburgers.
But this script, basically has the same problem the original does. I love the set up, and it's cool watching the Gremlins start to take everything over. But the scenes where the Gremlins have taken over and Billy must defend himself again them are really boring. There are nice moments sure, but it's action in a way that I'm not really that riveted and pretty much always tune out. And Billy in this script is alot dorkier and harder to believe as a developed character. Rather than paint him as a passive kid who wants to be an artist, Columbus writes Billy as an aspiring novelist which isn't nearly as fun or entertaining on the screen.
Christmas in Gremlins is just a holiday. By that, I mean it provides the movie with a little bit more concrete grounding. It's cool to watch the Gremlins take over particularly on Christmas. And it makes for a few opening scenes where people are displayed in the midst of holiday activity. But, in terms of trying to provide a meaning, I guess the script also suggests that unexpected gifts can have disastrous consequences, which is a pretty Twilight Zone inspired idea. So all negative aspects, Gremlins, as Spielberg infuenced it and not in original draft, is probably my all time favorite Christmas movie.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
Isla Prospects: Isla is too old for all these roles. Besides, Phoebe Cates did a really good job in this film so I'll let her keep the role.
What I Learned: Asking an audience to switch opinions on a characters and dislike someone they've liked or like someone they've hated can be a very alienating thing for the viewer. And it can work with mixed results. Of course, there's good films like Return of the Jedi where we kind of sympathize with Vader at the end and stuff like Taxi Driver where Travis Bickle completely alienates us at the end. But, it seems like if the character is too far one way or another the audience can't really switch. And the example of Mogwai becoming evil in Gremlins is definitely a point in case.
Script Link: This is really hard to get. If you email me at huntingforislafisher@gmail.com, I'll provide you with a copy.
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