Gremlin

Not an entirely bad movie. The story concept has a lot of promise. An insidious curse is placed on a mysterious box that contains a blood thirsty gremlin. Before the gremlin is released, the person in possession of the box must pass it off to someone they love, or the gremlin starts killing everyone around them.

It's actually an entertaining movie with some pretty bad acting. Not all acting is bad, but enough to raise eyebrows many times throughout the movie. A few actors are pretty good.

The nail in the coffin was what the writers did with the script. There were some seriously illogical (dumb) decisions made in the movie. Why on Earth would the characters do some of the things they did? No answers, except some seriously bad plot writing. There was so much more the writers could have added and subtracted to make this a good film. Like redo the dad character and add maybe add a little more X-Files like mystery to the detective. And darken the film and give the creepy critter some shadows to hide in like old 70's flicks with horrifying creatures that hide in the dark.

Otherwise, it was entertaining and had a couple scenes I didn't anticipate.

Not as cheesy as ScyFy flicks. Could have been on par with other creepy critter flicks with more budget, small plot rewrites, and more creative camera work. Maybe a big studio will get some ideas later.

A good concept, not an original one but with a real potential to be both fun and scary, and a creepy-looking DVD cover were what drew me into seeing 'Gremlin' in the first place. Also do have a high appreciation for horror/sci-fi, and thee are a fair share of good to great, even classic, examples.

'Gremlin' is not to be confused with the 1984 film (a great one) of the same name, either as a film or in assuming it is connected to that film. They have nothing in common other than the title. Seeing 'Gremlin', it has its good points, that stop it from being a complete shambles, but a lot of bad ones that stop it from living up to its concept. There are certainly far worse films in the genre and overall and it didn't leave me angry or cringing, just that it is very underwhelming that doesn't do a good job with its objectives of being fun or scary.

There are good points. The creature effects are surprisingly competent and the monster does evoke some genuine creepiness. 'Gremlin' has moments of excitement, creepiness and suspense, like with the Anna and the monster confrontation.

It's effectively lit and shot too sometimes. The soundtrack has eeriness when it isn't being intrusive or obvious.

Sadly, too many things bring it down. The acting ranges from barely adequate to embarrassing, worst of all being Kristy K. Boone whose performance was all over the place. The characters are uninteresting and annoying, with naively silly and sometimes illogical decision making and behaviours, a primary example being with the police.

Excitement, thrills, creepiness and suspense are too far and between. The scares are generally not enough and suffer from predictability and lack of tension. The lack of atmosphere makes the pacing suffer, giving 'Gremlin' a dull feel frequently. The story is far too minimal, another thing that affects the pacing with the padding and over-stretching, bland and often ridiculous.

Rest of the visual effects are pretty bad and the editing is sloppy, also too many instances of the camera work being unfocused and the sound/soundtrack killing the atmosphere with over-obviousness. The direction is not a hack job as such, but there is very little distinguished about it.

Overall, 'Gremlin' wasn't irredeemable but it underwhelms. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The survival instincts of the characters of this creature feature were worse than a zerg rush. It seems that literally the family fighting the creature threw every member at it trying to beat it. Because they are not murderers. The family doesnt even hardly fight the thing its like the characters gave up at the beginning.

The creature is about the size of a chihuahua. Its hard to be intimidated by it. Lets imagine this put a chihuahua on chopstick stilts and give it butt knives anyone who was not caught of guard should be able to kick or swat it away in which the the teen daughter shows this is possible and the 9ish son tosses it. So this in the end is like the wilderness magazine that tried to pass off the 15 minks as a life or death struggle.

So they really need to focus on better creatures or make the creatures behave in ways that make them more threatening

Saw this on a rented dvd. Had seen the trailer n was excited. Apart from the name there is nothing in common with the 1984 movie of the same name. Inspite of some very good kills, good pacing, decent creature effects n cinematography, there was something lacking in this film. The acting was awful but i still feel something more was missing. In fact, the creature doesnt hesitate to kill n no mercy is shown to anyone n no time wasted in unnecessary jump scares. It is a horror film with no holds barred. Unlike most horror films where they end in such a way that the cops never believe the mythological stuff, here in this film, the creature comes out in the open leading to action n mayhem. Mayb, the director tried to b different from other horror films n it backfired. One grave n clear mistake the makers of this film did was that they showed on the posters the climax of the film of the creature with its full size n out in the open. But the posters showed some helicopters as if its a large scale action/horror film which was a lie as there were no helicopter scenes.

If you enjoyed The Gate (1987) you will enjoy this.

The acting is low caliber, but it doesn't detract from the movie. I've seen worse acting in recent Hollywood blockbusters.

Definitely worth a watch.