Gremlins and Beyond
Dante directed episodes of cult television series Police Squad, before Steven Spielberg invited him to join the directing team on anthology movie Twilight Zone: The Movie. Dante's segment, 'It's a Good Life', featured cartoon-style special effects, and revolved around a woman (played by Kathleen Quinlan) who is 'adopted' by an omnipotent boy.
Gremlins (1984) proved one of Dante's biggest hits to date. Combining horror and comedy elements, the film revolves around Billy (Zach Galligan), who is given a strange creature he calls Gizmo, as a pet. After Billy fails to follow the rules for looking after Gizmo, the creature spawns other creatures which transform into destructive monsters who then begin rampaging through the local town. Six years passed before Dante directed the even more anarchic Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), set this time in a New York high rise.
Aside from the Gremlins films, Dante also worked with producer Steven Spielberg on comedy adventure Innerspace (1987), in which Dennis Quaid's character is miniaturised and injected inside a human body. His 1985 boys meet alien tale Explorers marked the film debuts of actors River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke. Dante would later work with Tom Hanks on The 'Burbs (1989), a black comedy in which Hanks' character deals with nightmare neighbours.
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