With a characteristic mix of narrative anarchy, cinephile allusion, cartoonstyle slapstick and black-tinged comedy, Dante gleefully sinks his teeth into the kind of fluffy, sugary, sickly small-town fantasy beloved of his pal and sometime producer Spielberg. It starts with a Christmas gift – a cute, cuddly little ‘mogwai’ – but the time of goodwill soon turns hellish when, splashed with water, the creature starts sprouting the titular monsters, whose sense of mischief extends to the murderous and beyond.

Dir: Joe Dante. 1984. USA. 106 mins. PG. Hoyt Axton, John Louie, Keye Luke, Don Steele, Susan Burgess.