If you didn’t want your own Mogwai as a kid, you’re either lying or you weren’t a weird 9-year-old watching ’80s horror movies for fun. Your loss. My childhood hamster, Gizmo, was a reverse Gremlin: He turned feral if you didn’t feed him after midnight (RIP Giz). As for Gizmo in "Gremlins"? He’s a sweet little angel baby who can do no wrong.
Joe Dante’s creature feature may not be the first movie people think about when they’re stringing Christmas lights, but it should be. And I don’t mean pausing in the ornament aisle because a Santa-hat-wearing Gizmo made you say, “Aww,” before moving on.
