"They fear daylight, multiply underwater and turn ugly when fed after midnight..."

A clumsy engineer stumbles upon a discovery while visiting a Chinese antique store. He purchases a mogwai, a rare animal of which most people ignore the existence. He offers it to his son, for Christmas. Then, he explains the strict rules that need to be followed to take care of such a special creature. First, the mogwai must never be exposed to light. Then, it must never be fed after midnight. Finally, its hair must never be in contact with water.

By accident, light strikes the mogwai. However, nothing really bad happens. On the other hand, when it touched water, a few fur balls flew off of its back and grew to become other mogwais. These newborns are not as cute and respectful as their parent. They spit, make noise and play tricks.

One day, the worst happens: they are fed after midnight. Immediately, they lock themselves up in their cocoons where they spend a few days until their metamorphosis has ended. Then, they flee into the street where they wreck havoc and murder just for the fun of it.

This is one of the only horror movies (along with its sequel), that is aimed at all audiences. It is addressed to children because of its simplicity and its immature characters but brings to life mutilations, pulverizations and other things that the MPAA usually succeeds in ruining in the best horror movies. The most amusing is that the scenes pass well because they are presented with Christmas music in the background or because of a progressive camera effect. Maybe this is all that was needed to create a diversion and mislead the small brains that are responsible for the censorship.

Overall, this movie is excellent and also a classic. The theme music is memorable and very appropriate. The actors are sublime and know what they are doing. The accent has been put on their personalities without becoming clichés. The way in which the events worsen exponentially is amusing and very well orchestrated. The idea of three rules is pure genius: these three vital needs for men are actually menaces for the mogwais.

A few devils bite the dust but most of them have easy deaths, unfortunately. They are well conceived and animated, which easily makes us forgive this flaw. Gizmo is so well presented that he is truly cute. When this movie was released, every child wanted a “Gizmo”.

The final battle between the chief of the mutated mogwais is very satisfying but finishes with a surprise ending. Also, however, this ending is different from the usual routine and condemns abuse of power. This film is filled with such social messages but is still very entertaining.