--- title: "Gremlins: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/gremlins/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/gremlins" critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gremlins (1984): what the critics said Critics' score 68 from 9 reviews: 5 positive, 4 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Gremlins, praising Joe Dante’s collision of small-town Christmas cheer with unruly black comedy. The praise centres on the creature effects, the jokes at the expense of familiar film conventions, and the willingness to disrupt a comforting picture of American life. For the more enthusiastic reviewers, the mixture of adorable creatures and spiteful humour is precisely what makes the film work, with its mischief giving the seasonal setting an unusual bite. The reservations concern how reliably that mixture holds together: several reviews find the mayhem predictable, the humour uneven or the human characters underdeveloped. Others question the emotional impact and the aggression towards a young audience. The spread is wide, though none of the reviews is wholly negative: Digital Spy celebrates the sadistic comedy and consumer-culture satire, while Variety finds that the effects leave the humans with little to do. ## Radio Times — John Ferguson Rating 4/5. This anarchic black comedy remains one of Hollywood's darkest mainstream hits, gleefully undermining feel-good depictions of small-town America through in-jokes, cameos and Phoebe Cates's memorable Christmas speech. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-adwoo9/gremlins/) ## Time Out — Tom Huddleston Rating 4/5. 4 December 2012. The film skillfully walks the line between wholesome Christmas cheer and subversive mayhem, with Dante leaving audiences unsure whose side to take in the gremlins' chaotic assault on small-town America. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/gremlins) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 8 June 1984. The film pits a wholesome small-town Christmas against mischievous, monstrous creatures in a witty B-movie style. Ebert praises the clever send-ups of movie clichés and the first half's cute gremlins but notes the second half turns nastier. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gremlins-1984) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 18 June 1984. Dante delivers an unholy mix of whimsical pop shocker and movie references but struggles to cohere the ideas into something with emotional impact. Kael highlights inventive sequences like the theater rampage and kitchen battle while noting the overall affectless tone. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1984/06/25/the-pop-junkpile) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 8 June 1984. The creatures are the real stars, with the mogwai's unstable nature driving the plot in a mix of Capra-esque whimsy and grotesque horror. Canby finds the humor unreliable and the violence overly aggressive toward a young audience. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/08/movies/screen-gremlins-kiddie-gore.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 45/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1983. The story follows a mysterious creature bought as a Christmas gift that spawns evil, killer gremlins after rules are broken. The review notes the initial preciousness gives way to predictable mayhem with humans serving mainly as extras for the effects. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1983/film/reviews/gremlins-1200426079/) ## Digital Spy — Ben Rawson-Jones Rating 5/5. 6 December 2012. The review hails the film as a fiendishly funny classic and enduring mainstream masterpiece, commending its sadistic humour, dazzling effects, critique of consumer culture, and memorable subversion of Christmas movie tropes. [Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a443304/gremlins-review-fiendishly-funny-classic-re-released-for-christmas/) ## Den of Geek — Simon Brew Rating 4/5. 26 October 2009. The critic calls Gremlins a delight and a terrific film under Joe Dante's direction, praising its blend of dark comedy and adorable elements along with superb creature effects and memorable moments like the Snow White screening. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/gremlins-blu-ray-review/) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 22 December 2007. The film succeeds by tapping into children's desire for cheerful mischief and irreverent violence. Its appeal to adults is limited beyond nostalgia, with a plot that becomes predictable and descends into incoherence. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/gremlins-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/gremlins.md