HORROR 101 with Dr. AC: GREMLINS (1984) / GHOULIES (1985) DOUBLE DOUBLE FEATURE!!

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The early 1980s were a magical time for fans of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy fare at the cinema, with genre fare being cranked out by the fistful and practical effects ruling the day, making viewers gasp, gag, gawk, and greedily gobble up all they could find. Tonight, we’ll take a look at two franchises birthed by two mighty masters of the art form, at different points on the budgetary spectrum.

The inhabitants of small-town Kingston Falls are inundated with mischievous creatures after a well-meaning inventor brings home an unusual life form to his son as a Christmas present, failing to adhere to three simple rules: Keep it out of the light, Don’t let it get wet, and Never, ever feed it after midnight.

Having proven his box office clout in the director’s chair, Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg began testing his powers as a producer, with Poltergeist, E.T., and Twilight Zone: The Movie all proving successful. Armed with a wicked script by Chris Columbus and special effects by future Oscar winner Chris Walas, Spielberg tapped his Twilight Zone pal Joe Dante to helm a sparkling combination of comic hi jinks and monster movie called Gremlins.

1990 saw an even bigger-budgeted sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, with Rick Baker handling the creature effects, and Dante’s love for creature features, political commentary, and Looney Tunes cartoons realized to their fullest.

Further down the Tinseltown food chain, Director Luca Bercovici and co-writer Jeremy Levy conjured a reliable “old dark house with dark family secrets” yarn called Ghoulies, complete with Satanic rituals and possessed souls, but the secret ingredient, which was almost an afterthought, was John Carl Beuchler’s rubber latex monsters as our dark magician’s evil familiars.

The success of Gremlins inspired producer Charles Band’s infamous “toilet monster” ad campaign and “They’ll get you in the end” tagline, and the results were a box office bonanza... at least by independent film standards. Several sequels followed, and Empire Pictures became a legendary success story that gave way to Band’s Full Moon Pictures that still survives to this day.

Please join AC and his awesome panel of guests (Dodd Alley, Kevin Matthews, and Derrick Carey) for a lively discussion about these two rubber monster franchises from the 1980s! YUM YUM.