Rand Pelter goes searching for the perfect birthday present for his son Billy. He finds it in a small Chinese curio shop and after trying everything to buy the unsuspecting mogwai from the storeowner he finally manages to get his hands on the cute little creature. The shop owner’s son warns him however of some mandatory rules in keeping Gizmo as a pet.

Never get him wet, never let sunlight hit him and never feed him after midnight. Unfortunately Billy manages to break all these rules pretty quickly unknowing of the consequences.

Once the rules are broken the cute and cuddly little mogwai starts to breed. His offspring aren’t like him though they become Gremlins and are vicious and a little ummm ugly!

It soon turns into American nightmare all over town gory little creatures out to kill anything they can and destroy anything they can.

The classic scene will of course always be the microwaved Gremlin, back in the days when microwaves were really only a new thing this was certainly a hit!

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
The 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen transfer is good but no cigar!

The entire transfer suffers from grain and oodles of film artefacts. There were no MPEG artefacts however, and no instances of ailiasing or edge enhancement.

Shadow detail was average but seems to have been influenced by the softness of the transfer.

There was a distinct problem with sharpness and clarity with this transfer and the entire time it gave a soft feeling, which one would normally expect in a nice romantic picture. This could also be attributed to the age and quality of the source material.

The colour palette was nice but also some issues. The tonal range was a bit out of wack and often gave colours that were either oversaturated or displayed a very slight sepia tone.

The layer change at 47.19 was not an interference in the film, and frankly I don’t see why it need a dual layer format anyway. There should have been plenty of room for a single layer with this transfer.

AUDIO
The Dolby 5.1 audio transfer was a little more pleasing. It’s good to see a film of this era with such an aggressive remixed audio track. The surround channels were used quite often and certainly gave another dimension to the audio. They were convincing at all times. The bass channel was used a little less but was still effective.

Dialogue was generally clear and easily understood. There were no sync problems.

The Musical Score comes to us from the ever-popular Jerry Goldsmith, who has developed quite an exemplary reputation nowadays. This is a decent effort and generally classically styled. Keeping the film subjects in mind the score is still a close companion to the film and befits it well.

EXTRAS
Nothing

Overall this is still a little cute but I’m a flincher for violence and blood, so it kind of distracts me after the beginning of the film. Still a good addition to your collection!.