A still very watchable comedy horror from when special effects didn't have anything to with computers. An inventor / salesman finds a strange pet in Chinatown as a Christmas present for his son. However there are rules for looking after this new pet, and unfortunately those rules are not kept. So a quiet American small town is overrun by small lunatic monsters film hellbent on having devilish fun.

Though the accent is on the comedy there are some macabre touches here and there. There are also some moral touches - so the nasty Mrs Deagle gets her comeuppance, the xenophobic Mr Futterman is another victim, and at the end there is a message about us not being ready to look after certain things.

The film starts with character comedy, setting the scene, painting the people involved. Then slowly things get out of control before the film shifts into high gear and it's all about how much destruction the gremlins can cause, and how entertainingly they can be eradicated.

A classic film.