Rated 4 out of 5 This fantasy film, which has captivated millions of viewers, was originally supposed to be “very dark”.

Even 40 years later, Gremlins remains one of the darkest Christmas movies ever made, but it would have been much darker if screenwriter Chris Columbus (Mum, Missed the Plane, Harry Potter) had his say.

Looking back at his 1984 Christmas horror film directed by Joe Dante – and rated 4 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers, Chris Columbus In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, he said that the final part of the feature film was “very darkand recalled the death in the original script, whether Gizmo should turn into a gremlin, and other details.

“I think my father stayed and fought the gremlins, I don’t remember if he survived or not. Mom, of course not. Billy ran down the hallway of his house and his mother’s head fell on the stairs. So there was death. And Barney’s dog wasn’t so lucky as to just get hung up on Christmas lights. He was actually hanged by the neck and died. We killed the dog!“, he recalled.

Columbus, who recently produced Nosferatu, added:They ate it! Then they went to McDonald’s and ate the people, but not the food. We had a lot of things that didn’t make it into the final script. Honestly, that kind of thing is in my DNA, so it’s nice to bring it back to something like Nosferatu.“

The Oscar nominee explained that he was too young in his career to stand up to producer Steven Spielberg and tell him that the movie had to be “as violent as possible“, noted that Spielberg proposed one of the most significant changes to the script.

“He was absolutely right“, he said Chris Columbus. “Gizmo turned into a gremlin on page 30 and didn’t stay for the rest of the movie. It was one of Stephen’s best ideas: to stick with Gizmo. He knew it and I didn’t: the audience needed someone to relate to in terms of the Gremlins, and that was Gizmo.“

What Chris Columbus fought for

however, Chris Columbus Struggled to keep part of his story in the film. “We were pretty gloomy as far as I was concerned. We have finished the father’s story Phoebe Cates He was dying in the fireplace and the studio wanted to cut him. Stephen, Joe Dante and I fought for it. That was what I was fighting for at the time.“

In addition to the 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2, The Next Generation, we were also treated to the animated spinoff series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, which aired its second season on Max last October.

To return to the world of Gremlins, two movies and series can be watched on Max.