Harry Potter Director's '80s Cult Classic Is Officially a Streaming Hit Again on HBO Max

Erielle Sudario is a Collider News and Feature Author from Australia and has worked in the journalism industry since 2018. She has a passion for entertainment and pop culture news and has interviewed YouTubers, voice actors, film directors, and musicians throughout her career. When she’s not writing, you can see Erielle building keyboards, reading a good book, playing video games, and creating content on social media.

One of the biggest cult classic films of the ’80s has resurfaced on the streaming charts decades after its debut. The movie grossed over $212.9 million worldwide, and its success spawned a franchise featuring a sequel, animated spin-offs, and a third film on the way. As fans await the next installment, they’re revisiting where it all began.

The film in question is Gremlins, directed by Joe Dante, who also worked on Hawaii Five-0 and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and written by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus, who later worked on the Harry Potter films. The movie follows Billy (Zach Galligan), who receives a cute, furry creature called a Mogwai for Christmas and names it Gizmo from a man named Sam Wing (Keye Luke). However, Billy must follow three important rules when caring for his new pet. When these rules are broken, chaos ensues as reptilian creatures known as Gremlins emerge and wreak havoc.

Recently, Gremlins landed on HBO Max’s worldwide Top 10 movie chart, reaching No. 3, between Evil Dead Burn and Secret Window. The film has enjoyed lasting success since its 1984 release. In addition to its box office performance, it received widespread critical praise and currently holds an 86% critics score and a 78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its success also led to a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which received mixed reactions from audiences. The franchise later expanded with an animated prequel series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, set years before the original film. It follows Gizmo’s original owner, a 10-year-old Sam Wing (Izaac Wang), as he embarks on adventures with the creature and his friends.

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

• He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
• Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
• The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
• You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.

• But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
• Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
• Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
• You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

• You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
• The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
• Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
• Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

• The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
• You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
• That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
• It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

• You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
• Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
• Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
• Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

What Do We Know About the Next ‘Gremlins’ Movie?

Since the release of Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990, there have been discussions about a third movie, including whether it would continue the franchise or reboot it. However, it wasn’t until 2025 that a third Gremlins film was officially announced, with Columbus attached to write and direct. While plot details remain unrevealed, Columbus has said the Gremlins in the upcoming feature will not be created with CGI. The project has also undergone a release date change since its announcement. Originally scheduled for 2027, the third installment is now slated to arrive in theaters on October 6, 2028. As of now, no cast members have been officially announced, and the only names attached are Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, listed as screenwriters.

Gremlins is available to stream on HBO Max. Follow Collider for more updates.

Gremlins

A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.