The creatures in the film "Gremlins" were in many ways the "actors" that really carried the film. They were made vividly lifelike with complex animatronics by special-effects wizard Chris Walas, who also helped design the melting Nazis in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the exploding heads in "Scanners." The gremlins themselves required machine parts and foam latex skins, as well as bundles of cables and dozens of technicians to operate — in one scene, the lead monster, Stripe, required 64 controls. (On a side note, the lovable Gizmo was colored to look like the film's executive producer Steven Spielberg's dogs.)
