For today’s Saturday’s Six, we’re going to look at the efforts of underrated cult movie director Joe Dante, whose works stretch back to the 1970s!

The Howling (1981)

From our review: “Aside from the traditional presence of Dick Miller, I wouldn’t have pegged The Howling as a Joe Dante flick if I saw it blind. It’s a lot more serious and less cheeky than his later works, that’s for sure.”

Gremlins (1984)

From our review: “First off, how could you keep a living creature away from water which includes the toilet, rain, snow, tap water, spit, dog drool, and roof leaks? For PoolMan’s sake, the earth is somewhere between 30 and 90 percent water! And then, what exactly constitutes “after midnight”? All time is, if you want to get semantic about it, after the previous midnight. So maybe you can only feed them on 12:00 midnight on the dot?”

Explorers (1985)

From our review: “Explorers is far from perfect, and kind of goes wildly off the rails in the third reel, but the charm of its leads, coupled with the sheer whimsy of the goofy sci-fi concept makes this film a widely undiscovered gem in the treasure chest that is eighties film-making.”

Innerspace (1987)

From our review: “It’s just such a good movie stocked with excellent actors, fun special effects, and Joe Dante at the helm (with Steven Spielberg executive producing). You don’t get better ’80s pedigree than this.”

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

From our review: “At least the filmmakers recognized that the true stars are the nasty little green guys, and in that, and there is such a splendid variety. I’m reminded of the ’80s Garbage Pail Kids collectable cards and its gruesome genetic freak show.”

The Hole (2009)

From our review: “For somebody like that, you’re always hoping that they’ll get one final chance to return to form before they cash out — and, sure enough, Dante got his shot with 2009’s The Hole. I think it’s no coincidence that this movie exudes an ’80s feel despite being set in the modern age.”

Want even more Joe Dante?

We’ve covered his Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The ‘Burbs, Small Soldiers, and Burying the Ex.