Villian(s)  Dangerous imp-like creatures

Actor(s):  Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday

Brief Description  Gremlins is a 1984 American comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Set during the Christmas season in the idyllic small town of Kingston Falls, the movie centers on a young bank teller named Billy Peltzer (played by Zach Galligan) who receives a strange, adorable, and furry creature called a Mogwai named Gizmo as an unusual holiday pet.

Plot:
The story is driven by three strict, specific rules for taking care of a Mogwai: No bright light: They absolutely hate bright light, and direct sunlight will kill them. Do not get them wet: Exposure to water causes them to instantly multiply, spawning more creatures. Never feed them after midnight: If they eat after midnight, they transform from cuddly creatures into destructive monsters. When Billy inadvertently breaks these crucial rules, Gizmo spawns several mischievous offspring. Led by a aggressive Mogwai named Stripe, these new creatures trick Billy into feeding them after midnight. They soon metamorphose into gremlins—reptilian, impish green monsters with a sadistic, wicked sense of humor.

The horde quickly overruns and terrorizes the entire town on Christmas Eve, wrecking havoc on electronics, local businesses, and holiday festivities. It is up to Billy, his girlfriend Kate (Phoebe Cates), and the heroic Gizmo to stop them. The movie is celebrated for using cutting-edge animatronics and remote-controlled puppetry by special effects wizard Chris Walas instead of CGI. Gremlins (along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) was so intensely violent and dark for a "PG" film—featuring memorable sequences like a gremlin exploding in a microwave—that it directly pressured the MPAA to invent the PG-13 rating later that year. It brilliantly balances pitch-black comedy with wholesome, Norman Rockwell-style Christmas aesthetics.