Gremlins

What is it? It's your new pet. Number one, you gotta keep him out of bright light. Number two, keep him away from water. And probably the most important thing, don't ever feed him after midnight. Turn into a thought that was Mrs. Deagle. I bet every kid in America would like to have one. They might even replace the dog as the family pet. Hello, Sydney. Uh hi. Who is this? It's your killer host. My name is Parker, your resident horror fanatic. I'm Caroline, Scaredy Scream Queen. I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic. And welcome to. What's your favorite scary movie? What's your favorite scary movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time.

Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours. Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release. Gizmo's voice. Yeah, that's pretty good. Gizmo's voice at the end. I don't know why this just cracked me up, but when the the man throws the money on the couch, he goes, Yeah, yeah. The the gremlins make the laugh, and it's like Yeah, I tried to do that earlier. Like no. Okay. This episode's just a top gremlins. Hey, little gremlin. Christmas. The snow's coming down. Christmas. I'm watching it far. Is it the same note? Christmas. Christmas. Baby please. Baby please. They're singing dead hoes. I feel like everyone uses this song as an opening title scene in Christmas movies.

Um, well, if they do, they're copying Gremlins because when I was a kid, I loved Gremlins so much that to this very day, Christmas Baby Please Come Home by Darling Love is still my favorite Christmas song. Michael Bublet version is trash. Oh my god. I was really nervous about what you were about to say. Yeah, I was watching this and like I haven't listened to the original version in a long time, and I was like, man, this is so much more of a jam than Michael Bublet's version. And the way it hypes you, and it's like and then it's like bum, Steven Spielberg. Yeah, bum, gremlins. And then bong, snowball on that girl's head. Yes, I think it sets the scene, it sets the joy, it sets the tone.

I love that song. Oh, and you know what? Happy holidays to all. This is the uh the uh final ultimate episode of What's Your Favorite Scary Movies holiday celebration. I'll just say it right now. Gremlins is my favorite Christmas movie. It has been since I was a youngin'. I watch Gremlins every single year. It has been a tree decorating tradition, and this year was no different. You know, I am alone right now in the apartment I have been for a while. So I got that tree. I popped Gremlins in the DVD player. Actually, I didn't, I bought it on Apple because they had the 4K restoration. And I I just felt holly, I felt jolly, it was an absolute pleasure.

You're not alone. You have a hot dog. You do. I know, I do have my precious kitty. Well, as you may have guessed, this week we are watching the one, the only the Gremlin. Gremlins was released on June 8th, 1984. And it was I know, and I watched a lot of behind the scenes stuff, and Joe Dante, the director, said that if they put this movie out at Christmas, it would be a Christmas movie, and then as soon as Christmas is over, people would stop watching it. So they put it out in June when he said people were hot and sweaty and would enjoy watching the cold, snowy Christmas movie. So you know, I I remember we watched this last year, I think, when we were cr decorating our Christmas tree in the apartment.

And I had never associated Gremlins with a Christmas movie, and now watching it, I'm like, how could you not think it was a Christmas movie? Exactly. When I tell people Gremlins is my favorite Christmas movie, they're like, um, is Gremlins really a Christmas movie? And I say, um, have you seen it? Yeah. Yep. Uh, and then a fun fact about its release, Gremlins, like I said, June 8th, 1984, premiered the same weekend as Ghostbusters. And unfortunately, was number two to Ghostbusters for all of its run. Interesting. Sucks to suck. But that's a great weekend for 80s cinema. You know, I've never seen, you know, I've never seen Ghostbusters. Yeah, because we watched it when we carved our pumpkins and you did not participate.

Boo. Ghostbusters is a New York City classic, Ian. How can you live in New York and not have seen Ghostbusters? In fact, we watched it and then we were like, let's go find the Ghostbusters house. And we went and found it. Yeah. Alright, well, let's get this show on the road because I have a lot of fun facts, I have a lot of emotions, and so we've got a lot to get through. Gremlins is, of course, an Amblin production, which is Steven Spielberg's production company that handled classic films like E. Chi and Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg also makes a little cameo at the Invention Convention. Oh my god, Invention Convention. This movie, as I mentioned earlier, is directed by the impeccable Joe Dante.

He also has directed Piranha from 1978, The Howling from 1981, and of course, Gremlins 2, The New Batch from 1990. Oh no. It keeps going. Oh, I marathoned them. I watched Gremlins and Gremlins 2 last night, both a delight. Um Gremlins was written by Chris Columbus. No, not that Chris Columbus. The other one. He has also He also wrote The Goonies in 1985 and Christmas with the Cranks from 2004, but he's been much more prolific in his direction. He directed Home Alone 1 and 2, Mrs. Doubtfire from 1993, and the first two Harry Potter films, and movie musical Rent from 2005. Damn. This guy is rolling in it. I know. Money, money, money. Now, the guy that is actually the star of the show, because you may be thinking that's a lot, that's a loaded deck for Gremlins.

No, no, no. The gremlins themselves were created by the absolute genius Chris. Oh man, I looked up how to say this earlier. Chris Wayless. He also did the incredible effects for Raiders of the Lost Ark from 1981, Deep Star VI from 1989, and The Fly from 1986, among others. There is an incredible behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD, which Gremlins is 36 years old at this point. Um, we're not going to be saying anything new about it. We're not going to be recounting all the facts if you're here for that. We'll have some, but we're here for the joy of the holiday season. So this episode is in no way an exhaustive chronicle of all things Gremlins, because it would be not possible.

Oh God. But I watched this behind the scenes documentary and it is absolutely incredible. So some of the puppets were traditional hand or marionette puppets, but most of them were these kind of animatronic creations that had like 30 wires connected to them that would go to like a bunch of different operators, all operating the same puppets with joysticks or hand triggers that would move everything from the the Mogwire, the Gremlin's limbs to the like muscles in its face to create all of these uh, you know, they're very expressive. And so, like Zach, um, sorry to spoil some of Caroline's information, but Zach Gallaghan, who plays Billy, said that they would wire some of these cords through his clothes while, you know, Gizmo was on his shoulder and his backpack or something, so that he would be walking around trying to act.

And there would be like sometimes four or five people off to the side controlling all of these wires that are going through his clothes. There is a behind-the-scenes photo of the uh scene at Dory's Tavern, and it shows um Kate behind the counter, the gremlins at the bar, and a bunch of people on the floor with their hands up the backs of the gremlins. And it just is this incredible production with uh hundreds of puppets because Chris Wallace said, or Wayless said that the crew had to be really educated on which gremlins were capable of doing what, so that they would start the scene with the correct puppet because there were so many of them. And even sometimes, like for the close-ups of their faces, they would create giant heads for some of the gremlins or for gizmo so that they could then put all those wires to doing very specific facial expressions, and then they had to then go create oversized props for like the backpack gizmos rolling around in and stuff.

So it's just this whole like amalgamation of movie magic, and it was it's absolutely fascinating. This movie is so cool. Where did all those puppets end up? They're probably like in a storage warehouse somewhere. I know. I want one so bad. If they had an auction, ooh, the money I would put into one of those bad boys. How much? Let's get specific here. I also saw they did three months of shooting with the actors, then they had three weeks off for a way list to work with the puppets, and then did an additional two and a half months shooting with just the gremlins. That's so cool. It's pretty incredible. And then I also wanted to give a quick shout out to Jerry Goldsmith for the absolutely iconic soundtrack.

And Goldsmith also makes a special appearance at the Invention Convention as well. Uh, I I'm not going to let Amazon and Google have that information. I don't need to be tempted because I've already spent enough money on Christmas gifts. Well, Parker already stole my first intro of an actor, but we have Zach Gallaghan as Billy Peltzer. Cute. Uh he was in Gremlins 2, The New Batch, Phoebe Cates as Kate Beringer. Heartthrob, Phoebe Cates. Bangs. She has cool bangs. Uh she was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, Gremlins 2, The New Batch, and Drop Dead Fred in 1991. Classics. Hoit Hoyt Axton. I didn't know that was a first name. There you go. You could be named Hoyt Hoyt.

Um plays the role of Randall Peltzer. He was apparently a great folk singer and songwriter. He's known for writing songs like Joy to the World, Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog. What? Famous! That's cool. And uh Never Been to Spain, both made popular by the band Three Dog Night. Um he sadly passed away in 1999. We have Frances Lee McCain as Lynn Peltzer. Phenomenal. Applause all around for her job in this. Phenomenal she also played iconic mothers in Footloof Footloose. Footloose. Footloose uh in 1984, Back to the Future in 1985, and Stand By Me in 1986. Dick Miller plays the role of Mr. Futterman. Dick. Um prolific horror actor who sadly died in January of last year. He greased movies like The Howling Chopping Mall, Piranha, and of course Gremlins 2, The New Batch.

Incredible film. Um and then the ensemble also features John Louie and Key Luke as the Chinese boy and his grandfather, Corey Feldman as Pete. Polly Holliday with two L's, amazing name, uh plays Mrs. Deagle, also love her. Um Belinda Belaski as Mrs. Harris, Glenn Terman as Mr. Hansen, Don Steele as Rockin' Ricky Rialto. Rockin' Ricky Rialto. Uh Howie Mandel as the voice of Gizmo, so cute, oh my gosh. And Frank Welker as the voice of Stripe in the mix of so many horror and classic film icons. The IMDB summary reads Quote, a boy inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevol of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

Rotten Tomatoes' average critic score is 85%, and the audience's average score is a 78%. The critics consensus the critic critics' consensus is quote whether you choose to see it as a statement on consumer culture or simply a special effects heavy popcorn flick, Gremlins is a minor classic. Ooh, let's amp that up to a major classic. Put it away, Parker, we get it. Speaking of um consumerism, of course, Gremlins led to quite a run of stuffed animals, puppets, action figures, and other toys that have come out over the years and still do. They're still making these action figures every year. There were also video games, comic books, trading cards, and even a Gremlin's serial. 80s, gotta love it.

And uh even now I am recalling some comparisons to one famous um figure that has penetrated the cultural consciousness in the past few years. One baby Yoda, I think, owes quite a bit to the Mogwai. That's so true. Also, I feel like hatchimoles. Do you know what hatchimoles are? I am not, no, I do not. Hatchimoles kind of look like them, and also this whole movie I was thinking, where did that Furby go in my closet in my old house? She feed it after midnight. And as I've stated, Gremlins to the New Batch was released in 1990. It has also been rumored for absolute years, I believe starting in 2013, that Gremlins 3 is in the works.

Zach Gallaghan, Chris Columbus, and Steven Spielberg have all made statements, but I haven't heard many updates recently. Apparently, a script has been written by Chris Columbus and Carl Ellsworth, centering on Gizmo. And Gallaghan has stated that it will be a sequel and not a remake. However, the most recent news is that HBO Max is set to release an animated series called Gremlin's Secrets of the Mogwai soon. I think in the next year. That's I can't imagine that being good. Gremlins to me is like equivalent to um to zombie movies. Like I don't get it. I don't get it. And I just don't get it. What? There's a subset of people that just like ravagedly love gremlins.

And I'm like, I don't get it in the same way I don't get zombie movies. But like what is what is not to love about gremlins, Ian? Give us your your critics' consensus on what your beef is with Gizmo. Oh, is Gizmo the cute one? Yeah. There's nothing wrong with Gizmo. Gizmo's perfect in every way. There's nothing wrong with. How dare you even spit on the movie that Gizmo was in? If you can own uh if you could own one, I would own one. Oh we'd have five. But my issue is not with the gremlin, and the same thing, my issue is not with the zombies. My issue is with the story and the the plot of such movies.

So like for gremlins, like the first five minutes had me. Alright, this dad on a work trip or whatever, trying to sell and the bathroom buddy. He actually reminded me quite a bit of Ian, you know, jet setter, always a new business scheme up his sleeve. And then it just gets into this like Kremlin's around town. So what would you have preferred? He gets the pet and they just have a lovely Christmas. That sounds great too. I would watch that movie. Don't I mean they just multiply and multiply and it just I don't know. That's when I lost interest was it's nothing to do with the gremlin itself, because I think it's a f it's kind of a funny thing.

It's just like I can't follow a movie once it's like hysteria, just like and that's the same with the zombie movies. Alright, well, that was absolutely uh nonsense trash, but Caroline, I'll let you let you give me your opinion, and then I will uh I'll uh set the record straight. Um, I watched this movie when I was like probably like four years old, which my dad apparently loved this movie, and he bought it as a DVD at Walmart one day and came home with it. My mom was like, What is this trash? We're not watching this. And then my dad popped it in and I sat down and I was like, These look cute, and I started watching it, and then I had nightmares for years about the pool scene, and then now watching the scene later on as an adult when they come over that hill and they're all like in an army.

Yeah, a little stop motion. Yeah, I was like, these things are terrifying. Um again, I didn't realize it was a Christmas movie. Watching it again, I was into it. I see where Ian checks out when it gets into total hysteria, but but I Also appreciated the humor layer that they added in because it wasn't just like blood and guts, like you were watching it and you're like, this is chaos, but also like flash dance in the middle with the leg warmers, you know, like the little bandit, the bar scene, the the whole bar scene. I was just like, this is an ode to pop culture in this era, and it aged well, I would say. So yeah, it's fun.

Well, I'm going to tell you why Gremlins is the perfect horror movie. One, the way that you're saying that once there are more and more and hysteria and over-the-topping chaos as being the reason not to love it, that is exactly the reason to love it. How many times have I ever said on this podcast, this movie was great, but it didn't go hard enough, it didn't go insane enough, it didn't reach its full potential? Gremlins reaches its full potential and more. It just keeps going. They blow up the theater, spike escape, they have to have another face-off with chainsaws and guns and TVs and glub glub. Like it just keeps going. And it is absolutely hilarious.

The same way that I love Scream for making you have that uncomfortable moment of like, should I laugh? Should I cry? Should I scream? Gremlins is all of that. It's absolutely hilarious. The inventions with the Peltzer Peeler juicer, the fly swatter swatting around, the electric hammer. It's so funny. Uh oh my god, Pete's Christmas tree costume. When I was a kid, I wanted that Christmas tree costume so bad. In fact, I just tweeted at Scary Movie Pod um a side-by-side gif of Pete in the Christmas tree costume and Danny from Midsummer, and I said, same energy. I love that. Mrs. Deagle just, you know, barging down the street. That guy saying, Mrs. Deagle, good morning, and her saying, What's good about it?

That is some serious hocus pocus inspo right there. There, oh my god, the gremlin, Spike blowing his nose into the curtain after they attack the mother. That is just hilarious. And even to the point what I what I was just saying about the combination of horror and comedy being absolutely chef's kiss, the scene where the Santa Claus is being like devoured by all the gremlins on his back is just so like obscene and hilarious at the same time. Same thing when you have the gremlin in the Christmas tree, and the mom is like being attacked by the Christmas tree, and then Mrs. Deagle's death being thrown out the window by the staircase, uh whatever you would call that, electric uh staircase elevator.

Yeah, and the whole Dory's Tavern scene, like Caroline said. Like the combination of laughs and like darkness in this movie is absolutely incredible. And I think the culmination, the absolute divine, transcendent moment of this movie would be. Oh, this absolutely perfect scene towards the end of the movie where Kate regales us with the beautiful story of why, of how she found out there's no such thing as Santa Claus. Oh my god. Oh my god. Iconic for sure. Yeah. No, I have another reason to hate Christmas. Kate, what are you talking about? The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh god. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was nine years old.

Me and Mom were were decorating the tree. Waiting for dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn't home. Mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. The police began a search. Four or five days went by. Neither one of us could eat or sleep. Everything was falling apart. It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I went to try to light up the fire. And that's when I noticed the smell. Fireman came and broke through the chimney top. And me and Mom were expecting them to pull out a dead cat or a bird. And instead, they pulled out my father. He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit.

He'd been climbing down the chimney on Christmas Eve. His arms floated with presents. He was gonna surprise us. He slipped and broke his neck, died instantly. And that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus. The delivery of this monologue, she is so serious. Billy is not even slightly paying attention to her. Like he is off trying to like solve the solve the mystery. And she is just saying the most horrible things imaginable. And then there is absolutely no follow-up to it. She looks into that fire and says, and that's how I found out there's no Santa Claus cut to the next scene. That is the comedic timing and placement and structure that Gremlins absolutely nails.

In fact, in a different behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD, Joe Dante said specifically that he loves this scene because you don't know whether to laugh or cry, and that the producers wanted them to take it out of the movie, that people would walk out of the movie. But Chris Columbus said he thinks that scene is what separates from the movie from the rest of the pack, that it's unique and twisted. And I completely agree. This movie, like you said, it pretends to be a children's movie. It pulls you in with the gremlin with the Mogwai Gizmo, and it almost looks like it's like E.T., but then it just like absolutely devolves. I loved this movie when I was a kid, and I would purposefully show it to my friends to scar them.

It's incredible. I will say that that scene was pretty heavy. Oh my god, it's so good. And my other thought on why I love this movie so much is that this is clearly Kingston Falls is clearly not a real town. It was filmed on the Warner Brothers' back lot. But this the whole thing is so immersive. Like, not only do you get the like this ensemble of characters, but like you see every piece of their life. You see the school, you see the Dory's Tavern where they go to have fun and where their parents have gone to have fun. That town has a YMCA, like every town does. Running through the town square, there's a Burger King, there's the department store that is so full.

Uh, like it is absolutely stocked. There's the movie theater, like this feels like such a real town with people who are referencing each other to other people. So you're hearing about different characters from other characters. Like, I think that the way that this movie portrays small town life, you've got Rock and Ricky Rialto on the radio. Like, I think that it's spot on, and it's absolutely genius the way that they've created such a rich context around the plot of the film. Ugh. The scumbag banker guy. Yeah, getting on the waitress. Captain Clipon. Mm-hmm. I love that. Um, also the uh stepdad in Santa Claus. Oh, yeah, yeah. That guy is uh the stepdad in Santa Claus.

The bank. The Santa Claus? It's uh what's his face? He makes one of them for the city. Tim Aller's a therapist. Yeah. Yeah, no, I know exactly what you're talking about. I just haven't seen it recently enough to remember it that well. Um I have to bring this up. There's that scene where where the gremlin cuts the the the lights on or changes the lights to both green on both sides. And you know, for the stoplight. And I'm just like, I'm never gonna look at a stoplight and trust one again. It's like the the smallest detail to pick up on this movie, and he's been talking about it this whole time. But like, you know how much trust you put into like stoplights only to then.

Yeah, one gremlin and it's all over. Well, that's the thing that's so fascinating about this movie is that the gremlins are equally like fantastical and crazy, and oh, that could never happen to me. But then also the way that they're set up and portrayed, it's like there could be gremlins around me right now. And a little fun fact for you the way that the gremlins were first imagined is that in World War II, old WWII, as Mr. Futterman says, uh, when members of the Royal Air Force would uh they would blame mechanical failures in their planes on little monsters in their engines, and they would call them gremlins. And then gremlins entered more popular culture because Roll Dahl wrote a book called The Gremlins, and there was a Bugs Bunny episode about gremlins.

And so the actual like term gremlin comes from this idea that there are little monsters inside of you know machinery that screws things up. I was just thinking they multiply with water. So do you think when they touch snow and it melts on them, why aren't they multiplying? That's a good question. And actually in the sequel, they kind of raise some of the sequel's hilarious, and it's even it's less horror than the first one is, but there's a scene where they get so it takes place in Manhattan, and they're inside this giant um it's all it's like a mall and a giant tech building. It's almost like Amazon. This like big corporation has taken over everything, and there's like a food court in it.

There's like genetic experimentation happening in part of it. Like it's absolutely insane. And there's a part where Billy is trying to explain to the scientists there that, like, hey, there are these creatures in the that have gotten loose in this building, we need to stop them. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Uh what if one of them eats something at 11 o'clock, but then he gets something stuck in his teeth? Yeah, like a caraway seed or a sesame seed or something. Whatever, right. And then after 12 o'clock, it comes out. Now he didn't eat that after midnight. I don't make the rules, okay? I don't believe this. Oh, wait a minute, what about this? What if they're eating in an airplane and they cross a time zone?

I mean, it's always midnight somewhere. They do the same thing in the in the sequel where they're like, there are flaws in your plan here. So I think So we don't actually find out. Yeah, it's unexplainable. So really you just have to floss. The Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus mentioned it, it hit on this uh this theme of consumerism. And I think let's hit some thematics, and then when we do our wrap-up, we'll kind of do our favorite scenes. Because, you know, if I had to pick my favorite scene, uh, there's this one that lasts about an hour and 45 minutes. That's the entire movie. So that's my favorite scene. Um put it in your keep it in your pants.

So obviously, consumerism is kind of the big theme that this movie is hitting on. Rand Peltzer, the dad, is a producer. He thinks as uh, you know, someone creating product and about capitalizing on consumers. There's the scene where Billy tells him that they multiply with water and he says, I'll bet every kid in America would like to have one of these. So I think that's pretty uh on the nose there. I also think that this manifests in Mr. Futterman's patriotism, or we could say um xenophobia. Obviously, the Mogwai is Chinese. Mogwai is actually the Chinese word for uh, I believe devil, and comes from Chinatown, and Mr. Futterman is talking about how uh gremlins are being put into cars and things by foreigners.

He's also a World War II vet, and at the beginning, Billy can't get his Volkswagen to start. So obviously, World War II Germany, a little bit of uh of uh heads budding there at the beginning of the movie. So there are so many toys and gadgets that children get every year for Christmas that have big made in China labels, uh, be obviously because of things that are in, I feel like the news every year about um production costs and big business and things like that. And this movie is kind of you know addressing the big picture of how we take big, sometimes sinister issues like that, and we turn them into like cotton candy, bubbly fun things like Christmas.

And just like Random Billy mistreat the Mogwai and want to exploit them for a financial gain, the gain, the same thing happens with labor. So I think that this movie is kind of uh examining a larger picture that to I think a lot of you know movies in the 80s probably was uh a big, a big ass to tackle. Ask. Ask. So I think that Gremlins is not only an absolute pleasure and a delight, but it is also very smart because it also hurt hits on um lends itself to this idea of like natural con conservation. Obviously, the mass distribution of the Mogwai is bad because they're beasts, and Rand isn't considering how to properly care for and support the creatures, and people that he would distribute them to definitely wouldn't either.

And at the end, Mr. Wing says, You do with Mogwai what your society does with all of nature's gifts, and then there's the very telling line to hear one only has to listen, because Billy has been with Gizmo the whole movie and never even listened to him. To hear all you have to do is listen. So I think that's pretty smart, and I think that especially during Christmas time, when some people get a little confused about the difference between giving and getting, Gremlins has a pretty um timely message about enjoying what we have and the ones around us and listening. Hey Parker. Yeah. I'm gonna put you in a hot seat right now. Oh, ow, hot.

I know you love this movie. Yeah. But I need I need I need something critical. Okay, I don't like the beginning. I think that the introduction with uh Mr. Peltzer going to the Chinese shop, obviously that sets up the entire movie and how the Mogwai got there. I think uh, you know, we talk, especially Caroline and I, who are dance majors, we talk a lot about exoticism, exoticism, and Orientalism, especially in dance and the in the 1900s. Uh Ruth St. Dennis was a modern dance was a modern dance creator who was American, she was Western, but she was creating forms of dance based on her idea of what people in the East were like, and this beautiful idea that she created that turned into a form of racism.

And I think that you know, there's a lot of American culture and imagery that is created the same way, and that this hyper-orientalism that is happening at the beginning, uh, questionable, and I also just think it's boring. And if the movie started at Christmas baby, please come home, and then he had showed up and been like, Oh, I got this at a shop in Chinatown, that's all I would have needed. I have no complaints behind that though. Gremlin says, A cab, all cops are bastards. It also says landlords are evil. So very timely 2020 messages as well, Gremlins. I was thinking when you started the conversation around consumerism, there's a way that you could look at this, and it the whole movie seems like racism towards China in general.

Uh, especially when you bring in the veteran who's talking smack about you know, foreign-made cars and that, you know, yeah, Mr. Fetterman's got a lot of problematic speech there. Yeah. Like there's a lens where you can watch this movie and you just think, oh, they're invading and messing up everything because it's uh something that came from a foreign country. Yeah, and actually I have more information on that for you because uh I'm taking this from a direct source because all three of us are very quiet, and so I definitely want to get the um this argument right. So uh there's been additional commentary outside of just the Orientalism about the film's depiction of racial stereotypes. Uh so I'll be quoting and paraphrasing from a chapter in the book Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture by Patricia Ann Turner from 1994.

In this essay, she's comparing Gremlins and Little Shop of Horrors, another movie that I quite like. So here's a direct quote from her. And Gremlins, the first victim of Gizmo's malicious offspring, is also an ethnic minority. She's referring to the science teacher, Mr. Hansen. Uh, determined to learn all he can about the mysterious Gremlins, Billy's African-American high school teacher prods and pokes until the gremlin in his laboratory destroys him. On the surface level, the teacher is being punished for investigating matters he had no business pursuing. On a deeper level, the punishment may be for pursuing a place in a predominantly white society. She then goes on to list how the gremlins display stereotypes of African American people, like procreating in abundance, the way they devour the fried chicken, and their initial pursuits of the women in Billy's life.

This is of the Dory's Tavern scene. Quote, in some unexplained way, several of them have managed to acquire shades and caps that cover their eyes, cigarettes droop from the corners of their mouths, they make haste to a tavern where they cannot get enough to drink. Here we see their love of music and their ability to break dance. And then she concludes her essay by comparing Gremlins in Little Shop to the fantasy trope of slaying the dragon. She says both films are about white men slaying the other, who they initially welcomed and now think are trying to steal too much power. There has just been a lot of discourse about Gremlins. That is not necessarily our experience, but I didn't want to toss it aside just because the three of us are white.

So there you go. Do with that what you will. Interesting. Now, what I think is really interesting about Gremlins is, like I said, it's commentary on Christmas. So I love the dichotomy at the beginning of Mrs. Deagle, who honestly I see a lot of myself in. A house full of cats hates children. Ugh. I literally, when she was coming down the stairs in her chair with the cat on her lap, I was like, This is my future. Yes, oh my god. And she's like, Christmas carolers. I hate Christmas carolers. So I think her and Kate show kind of opposite sides of the the coin here. So Mrs. Deagle, she wears Holly in her hat. She has yard decorations, her imported Bavarian snowman.

And she adheres in every way to the outward image of Christmas. Obviously, image being the key word here because her attitude is not so nice. But she's clearly a turd and not only unwilling to show a little holiday generosity to Mrs. Harris and her children. I'm afraid that neither one of us will be paid for two weeks. Couldn't you get Mr. Corbyn to well to just give us a little more time? Mrs. Harris, the bank and I have the same purpose in life to make money. Not to support a lot of deadbeats. Mrs. Deagle, it's Christmas! Well, now you know what to ask Santa for, don't you? A particularly cruel line that I think is hilarious.

Um. And then also, if you've seen the deleted scenes, which I'm assuming you and Ian have not, there is A side plot that Mrs. Deagle has closed the local noodle production plant, which is where Mr. Futterman works because he says he was recently laid off. Um, and now a lot of the townies can't pay their bills, and so she's gone to the to the bank to have them immediately foreclose on all of the laid-off workers' houses at Christmas. And so that's kind of a side plot that got cut from the movie. So she has Oh, with the one woman who is saying that they couldn't make Christmas. Yeah, the payment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like she has Christmas all over her house, she wears Christmas on her hat, and yet she is absolutely the antithesis of what the Christmas spirit is.

On the other hand, you have Kate, sweet Kate, who celebrates Christmas in no shape or form. She says to Billy, when some people are opening their presents, other people are opening their wrists. She doesn't celebrate Christmas. She's got what appears to be a massive house, judging by her front door, and it is the dark house on the street. There is no Christmas lights up. But throughout the movie, she's actively advocating for Dory's tavern and like giving her time for free or little pay to work there to keep it going for the good of the community. And so she's the kind and charitable one, but she doesn't actually celebrate Christmas. And so I think this movie is also, you know, continuing that lovely message of Christmas is a state of mind, a state of being and generosity and giving, and it's not about the presence and the imported Bavarian snowman.

Isn't that beautiful and heartwarming? That's lovely. A few other ways that um Gremlins absolutely changed the world. So it came up against some pushback from parents who saw it and weren't expecting such violence from a PG movie. So Steven Spielberg suggested to the MPAA that they adjust their rating system because Gremlins and also similar complaints about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. So the PG 13 rating was officially implemented on July 1st, 1984, after Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. So thank you, Gremlins. Also, the film was originally much darker before Amblin got its hands on it. Uh Chris Columbus's original script included Billy's mom being decapitated, the gremlins actually eating Barney the dog, and an at an attack on a McDonald's where the Gremlins went in and ate all of the customers but left all of the food on the tables.

Oh my god. So we could have had a much different movie, but I am not mad about the movie we ended up with because it's an absolute delight, and that makes me think what is your favorite murder from Gremlins. Gremlin in the microwave. Oh, yes, and that makes me think another thing that I love about Gremlins that other movies just don't have the opportunity to do is that you know, we have some characters die, and that's exciting, but the gremlins themselves, how often do we see our heroes able to be put into kind of the slasher killer POV and get to fight back against the abundance of gremlins, uh, you know, from the opposite side. So that's another thing I love about there being so many gremlins is that we get people death and we get gremlin death.

I obviously was anticipating this question, and so in the whole movie I was thinking like, oh, that one's gonna be my favorite. No, that one's gonna be my favorite. No, that one is. But I think I have to go with Mrs. What's her face? Deagle. Yeah, I think I have to go with Mrs. Deagle literally spiraling to her death up. And then her sweet little slippers over the top of that chair. Amazing. Just catapulted out the window. Honestly, I thought that looks like a really fun way to go. Yeah, probably. Uh, this is such a hard choice for me because there's so many hilarious and good uh deaths in this movie. I love the comedy of even like Stripe popping out of the fountain for one last scare.

I love Mrs. Deagle, of course. I love that basically you can imagine an entire town of people were murdered by the Gremlins. But I think I'm going to give it to Mr. Hansen because when I was a kid, him finding him on the ground with that syringe sticking out of his butt was absolutely hilarious to me. And then I think one of the best jump scares of the movie is Billy sees that he reaches for the phone and that claw goes and scratches him. And I was, when I was a kid, I was an anticipator. If I had seen a movie before, I would be scared of a scare that was coming up because I didn't want to see it.

When I watched Edward Scissor Hands when I was a kid, when Kim sees him in her dark bedroom and screams, I was always terrified to get to that scene because the scream scared me so much. Same thing here. When that hand scratched him, and then later when he pops out of that cabinet, that always scared me so much. So that whole sequence, most memorable murder for me. On a scary scale of one to five, how would you guys rate gremlins? I would give it a three. Mainly because the scares have been haunting me from when I was really little and I watched this. I would have to give it a one. Wow, little Grinch over there in the corner.

A gremlin. Yeah, exactly. He wishes he was as cool as a gremlin. I'm going to give this movie uh about a three, of course, because I do think it's disturbing. It's scary. Like there's a town being massacred by these gremlins. But um I think that it can be particularly traumatic for children. And you know what? I'm going to go back right now and change my answer. Mr. Hansen, admirable kill, but I just remembered how much I love that whole theater of gremlins watching Snow White exploding, and then there's the first explosion. It flashes to the inside of the burning theater, and there is a gremlin with a surgical mask and a knife being like as a mad surgeon, and then it explodes again, and it makes me laugh so hard.

That scene is hilarious. Milk dud. Oh my god. I I love that scene so much. They love Snow White. I think my favorite part of all of this is watching you get so excited about this movie. This movie's incredible. I look forward to it every year. I have to stop myself throughout the year from just watching it whenever I want because I have to make it special. So I love Gremlins. Gremlins is it's just the most fun I think I've ever had watching a movie. And it's hilarious. We'll have to do the sequel. We'll have to do the sequel for our Patreon sometime. It's not a holiday movie, it's just a regular movie. So we'll watch that sometime.

Especially if there's ever finally a Gremlins 3. Now, would you give Gremlins a smash or a slash? I wonder what I would give it. I wonder, Ian. A slip. A hardcore slash. What a contrarian. An entire world of people adoring a movie, and Ian's just gotta come in here and shit on all of us. Little Mrs. Deagle back there. Um I would give it a smash, but I think I need to like watch this movie every other year, not every year. Oh, you're trash. Both of you are trash. Hmm, smash, slash, smash, slash. Uh, I'm going to give this a smash. Gremlins is incredible. It's an absolute classic. I'm actually like, I was watching this and I was honestly getting sad that they don't make movies like this anymore.

That they spend six months filming and that they make like hundreds of puppets for. I feel like this amount of movie magic just is impossible anymore because of how quickly we, you know, movies and film have become so um commoditized. Monetized, yeah. And this whole movie is uh a you know a comment on consumerism, and that's what the entertainment industry has become. And so, you know, they're just not going to put the resources to creating something as wonderful and magical as gremlins that really hits every single aspect of its potential. And so, as much as I love that I have this and I get to watch it every year, I mourn for movies and that we can't have more things like gremlins.

I was thinking watching this, how cute little gizmo is, and then I was like, they should never remake this because they would try to do some sort of CGI gremlin, and it wouldn't be the same. Well, why do you think that everybody loves Baby Yoda so much? Because he is this like tangible textured puppet. You know, if they'd CGI'd Baby Yoda, like in the in the prequel Star Wars movies, actual Yoda, not Baby Yoda, but actual Yoda is this like CGI monstrosity that's so stressful to look at, whereas in the originals he was like a puppet thing. And so Baby Yoda is the same thing where he's so adorable and everybody loves him because he is this incredible, like hand operated thing.

And so I think I hope that, especially horror creators where we love our oey gooey gore so much, I hope that they give us a little more gremlins and a little less um my favorite thing to shit on on this podcast, Curse of Law Yorona. You know, that was just such a mess. So, what would you guys say is your favorite scary movie? I'm sticking with Hellhouse. I'm gonna stick with Newsflash Black Christmas 2006 because it changed. Yes, and if you want to hear us discuss Black Christmas 2006, head on over to patreon.com slash scary movie pod to get even more of our holiday cheer in your noggin. Oh, you know, you guys, I don't know, favorite scary movie?

I don't think No, it's definitely Gremlins! Gremlins is definitely my favorite scary movie, and I have no shame in saying that. Uh we could be seeing a pretty strong contender for what will remain my favorite scary movie. Alright, you guys. There's nothing I love more than talking about Gremlins. So, alas, I mourn the death of this episode. That uh this episode is the reason I found out there's no such thing as Santa Claus. Tragic. I know. That's when I noticed the smell they pulled out of my chimney. Not a cat, not a rat, but this episode, because it's dead now. Goodbye, gremlins. I'll miss you. Alright, next time on what's your favorite scary movie? Oh, it's just me again.

I will be looking at the new thriller Sweeping the Nation, starring Carrie Mulligan, Promising Young Woman. I cannot wait for that. And until then, you can head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and a review. That would help us so much and be the best Christmas gift you could give the three of us, of course. My name is Parker Heron. You can find me Jinglin Jinglin Jolly on Twitter and Instagram and letterboxed at Parker Delray. I was gonna say, my name is Caroline, you can find me ho ho hoing on Instagram. Hell yeah. At Carol Manifesto. My name's Ian. You can find me on YouTube if you search Life Nomading. Alright, you guys, I hope you have the happiest holiday no matter what you celebrate.

Tis the season. I hope you are happy and warm and merry and bright. And for those of us having a lonely or not so happy Holly Christmas or holiday, like Kate said, just know that there's a belly waiting for you someday to brighten your day. So hug someone you love and look under your bed, look in your cabinets and your closets for gremlins. Turn the lights on. Bright light, bright light.