We were looking to monitor a favorite holiday horror of ours but had to find the right subject for the job. One whose heart was not familiar with the classic mischievous monster movie Gremlins (1984). Luckily, an eleven year old movie fanatic, Bridget, stepped in to fill the role. Would this PG film contain enough scares to fly her heart rate higher than Santa’s sleigh?

SYNOPSIS:

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

Test Subject: Bridget

Age: 11

Gender: Female

Fears: The Dark

Resting HR: 65-70 bpm *Slightly higher than our adult subjects*

Walking HR: 85-90 bpm

ANALYSIS:

Like many eighties films, a building story rather than rapid jolts affected our subject early on. The scale reflects a slow introduction as the plot was established. This tended to lose our younger subject while the main characters dealt with more adult real world problems. The introduction of the cute and cuddly fur ball warmed her heart but failed to raise her pulse. However as each important rule was broken a new spike appeared in our scale. It wasn’t until forty-five minutes into the film that our subject’s pulse truly sprang to life. Shocking moments at 57:00 brought on her peak heart rate of 85bpm as several attacks screamed onto the screen. But again, like other classic films we have monitored, there was a gradual increase in heart rate rather than a barrage of spikes. As the Gremlins went on their murderous rampage, our subject’s heart rate sustained above average numbers throughout the ferocious finale.

CONCLUSION:

If we had to monitor this film again we would pick someone a bit older. There were several times that the adult themes went over our subject’s head and eleven seemed a bit young for the dark Santa discussion. In fact, Gremlins was partially responsible for the ‘PG-13′ rating system being introduced for modern movies. The film had tons of horrific elements but not enough to warrant an ‘R’ rating.  Overall, Gremlins (1984) was a whimsical horror with scary images able to lay nightmarish eggs in our subject’s subconscious.

GREMLINS: BURNS AN AVERAGE OF 187 CALORIES

One Chicken Wing: 43 CALORIES

How many Fear Calories did you burn watching Gremlins? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook