June 28: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is 80s comedy! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

Any movie that has Harvey Korman as a space archaeologist is pretty much one I’m going to watch. I don’t know why it took me so long. I used to stare at this box in the video store and was just amazed that it had a little monster drinking a beer, smoking a cigar and looking up someone’s dress.

That lil’ guy’s name is Arnold and he came from a cave in Peru. Simon’s son Paul (Charles Stratton) and his girlfriend Cindy (Nadine Van Der Velde, who was also in Critters) lose him to Simon’s evil twin, snack food magnate Cecil. The problems kick in when Cecil decides to draw and quarter Arnold after he tries to attack the snack king’s son. Instead of dying, he splits into four more creatures.

How do you stop a Munchie? You electrocute it and that turns it into stone. I would not have guessed that, nor would I figure out that Machu Pichu was the toxic waste dump of the gods.

Director Tina Hirsch was assistant editor on Woodstock and Hi, Mom! before heading out West and working for Roger Corman, editing Death Race 2000, Big Bad Mama and Eat My Dust. She also edited a lot of Joe Dante’s films, like Gremlins and Explorers. She’d always wanted to direct, Corman always wanted to make a Gremlins rip-off and hey, they made this in 12 days of human shooting and 3 days of puppet pick-ups.

Seeing as how the Munchies drive an AMC Gremlim with an OHGIZMO license plate, I think that Hirsch, Corman and Dante were all on the same page.

I am also legally obligated to mention that Paul Bartel is in this.