Its a Wonderful Life meets Batman Returns

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 2003)

**1/2 out of ****
Being someone who was scared witless by this film at the age of six I still think it's amazing that Steven Spielberg and director Joe Dante got away with releasing what I believe to be the most violent, gruesome, mean-spirited(and entertaining)kids movie you're ever likely to see; its beaten only by its nutso sequel THE NEW BATCH. I'd say it was ahead of its time but I was only just born when it was released so I can only imagine what it would be like in a cinema full of littlies and their parents and their subsequent reactions to certain scenes. Take the sequence where the mother is fending off the little mutants by throwing them in a microwave and a blender only to have another one jump on her and start brutally choking her with christmas lights. What about Phoebe Cates' monologue explaining why she hates Christmas... "and that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus." Now THAT'S gutsy film making.