Gremlins (1984)

Episode 62, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd:  Hello, and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig:  And I’m Craig. 

Todd:  Merry Christmas or happy holidays or happy Hanukkah, whatever you happen to celebrate around this time of year. We are reviewing Christmas horror films, and this is the last of our 4 for this month. And I think we picked a pretty good one, Craig, for the tail end. 

Craig:  I used 

Todd:  it too. This is the 1984, Steven Spielberg produced Christopher Columbus written, Joe Dante directed Gremlins. And, I have to say, as as as notorious as this movie is, as much as I remember enjoying this movie, I kid you not, I don’t think I’ve seen it since it came out. 

Craig:  Oh my gosh. That’s crazy. Here, I was thinking that I was gonna be the one who was the freak because I saw this movie. I was 5 years old when this movie came out, and my parents took me to the theater to see it. And while I enjoyed it, it really scared me too. And and when I put it in to watch it today, I realized that I probably haven’t sat down and watched this for a good 10 years. And that really surprised me because I’m a big fan of the movie. With that lineup that you mentioned, Joe Dante, Chris Columbus, and Steven Spielberg, it would have been really difficult for them to go wrong.   I mean, these are some really talented guys who, on their own have put out a 1000000 great movies. So that collaboration, I imagine and and what I read was, it was a good collaboration. They really enjoyed working with one another, and I think that, they got a really good film as a result. 

Todd:  Yeah. And you know, I’ve gotta say too, I also saw this in the theater, and this was I I just remember this was a fantastic year for movies. Ghostbusters, I think, came out the same weekend that Gremlins did, and that was huge. Gremlins was huge. And then, we had all been waiting, Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg directed film, which competed competed with Gremlins as well at the box office. All three of those movies did fantastic, and all three of those movies were hype machines. I mean, I was about the same age you were, 5 or 6, and I remember the hype behind this. I had a Ghostbusters t shirt, We had a gremlin stuffed toy at home.   I think those were really hot Christmas items, at the time. I remember going to Pizza Hut and playing now this is my recollection anyway. I remember playing an arcade game for, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that I think was there before the movie itself came out. 

Craig:  That sounds right. 

Todd:  Does that sound right? Okay. 

Craig:  Yeah. It does. I remember that. 

Todd:  Because I I I remember playing this game not knowing about the movie yet. And we, again, we went to see the movie in the theaters because it was huge, and I was like, oh, I could play this game. I could learn a little bit about the movie before I see it. Yeah. What what a year, man. 1984. If I could go back to 1984 and just live there for a while, that was 

Craig:  It was a good time. Yeah. You you mentioned those movies that it opened up against. Of the movies that we’ve watched, I mean, all of them have had distinctly Christmas elements, but this really feels like a Christmas movie. And ironically, it was intended to come out at Christmas, but, the studio realized that they didn’t have anything to compete with some of the summer blockbusters, so they rushed it for a summer release, which, you know, I don’t know. We we still went. It still got a good audience, but man, this is a Christmassy movie. This is definitely I I feel like they may have missed a little bit of opportunity by, not releasing it at Christmas time.   But but whatever, I mean, we still got it, and it’s it’s it’s great. 

Todd:  Yeah. It it is a Christmassy movie. You’re right. More so than the other ones. It definitely takes place at Christmas. It’s kind of all about Christmas. It starts out with a Christmas present. In fact Mhmm.   It starts out in a way that I do not remember it starting out, and and that is almost this honestly, the whole movie has so many nods to so many different movies, throughout it, but it opens up as like this detective gumshoe kind of way where, where this man who who looks like, almost looks like Bob Hoskins from, who framed Roger Rabbit, but you’ll recognize him if you watch a lot of television, during this time. His name is Hoyt Axton, and he’s actually more of a of a country western singer than he is, an actor, but he did a ton of stuff on, oh my gosh. He did a ton of stuff on, on television at the very least, and quite a bit of of of movies as well. I mean, you’ll recognize him, from this era. Anyway, he he’s got this voice over, that that almost sounds like, you know, she walked in, and it was, the dark stormy night. I just poured my 3rd bottle of Scotch. 

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. The whole movie kind of has a feel like it’s one of those older type movies. I mean, it reminds me almost a little bit of the beginning of the original Little Shop of Horrors first with the the narration over the opening credits and stuff. 

Clip:  Friends, let me introduce myself. Peltzer is the name, Rand Peltzer. That’s me there on the corner. I’m an inventor, and I have a story to tell. Yeah. I know who hadn’t got a story. Well, nobody’s got a story like this one. Nobody. 

Craig:  I I feel like that had to be intentional. It feels like an old movie. I mean, it just I guess by today’s standards, it really is an old movie now, but, it just feels like it calls back to an era like in the forties fifties. In a way, it’s also contemporized too in just the way that it looks because it looks so good. The colors and and, just all of the imagery in the movie is so strong. Like, it’s just a it’s a beautiful movie to watch. Even this opening scene where it opens up in dingy Chinatown and things are all kind of smoky and foggy and it’s kind of seedy looking, still the color is so Todd, and I mean, it’s just it draws you in right from the very beginning. 

Todd:  Yeah. It does call back to those, especially those older films where Chinatown was exoticized. And Right. It really runs the risk. It’s right on the edge of being a little racially offensive. 

Craig:  Sure. 

Todd:  Because he does go into this Chinatown shop and who’s in there, but this this little boy, and he follows him in, says, you’re sure this is your this this is your place? And he’s like, yeah, my dad’s shop is right down here. And of course, it’s under this building and this place that’s hard to find. And when he walks in, it looks like, an opium den, you know, from from from the Chinatown, again, from from these movies. And, the guy who’s in here is played by or the shop owner is played by a man who has been in, I think, pretty much anytime they needed a Chinese man in a film from, like, 19 thirties on, this guy was the person. I mean, he’s he his name is it’s Ken. I can’t remember his name, but he’s in this movie, and he’s 80 something years old. And, apparently, they still had to use makeup so that he looked older because he looked older. Yeah. 

Craig:  I read that too. Yeah. Yeah. And and he’s you know, you’re right. They play on a stereotype very much. I mean, this looks like, an ancient Chinese wise man, you know, not an actual American citizen of the time. But I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m just so used to it.   Maybe it’s because I’m so nostalgic for the movie. That doesn’t even really cross my mind. Yes. It’s a caricature. I could see how perhaps if if that were my culture that was being represented, maybe it might rub me the wrong way a little bit, but here, it doesn’t really bother me at all. 

Todd:  No. And and I think that actually the reason it doesn’t is because it’s so obviously a caricature. I think it’s I think as you said, it it starts it starts very cleverly with, that voice over, which immediately gets you thinking of old movie. So when he meets this man, and it’s not like he’s talking like, you know, Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at 10 Days. So, you know, they don’t go that far, and they don’t dwell in here too much and they don’t, you know, show you all these crazy things in the shop or whatnot. It’s pretty straightforward. I think it I think it falls on the on the side of the fence that’s that’s okay. It’s it’s enough of a throwback that it’s okay, and it’s obviously a throwback, so we’re fine with it.   And he, is looking around, and this man’s an inventor. And and this is another thing Chris Columbus loves to put in his movies, like gadgets and inventions and things and inventors and whatnot. And, this man is showing this guy this truly horrible invention called the bathroom buddy or something where it’s like a travel, contraption that has everything that you’d need in your bathroom in in one thing, like a toothbrush and toothpaste and whatnot. Of course, it doesn’t work very well. So he’s still putting the finishing touches on. He embarrasses himself in front of this guy. But it’s it’s like he’s looking for a Christmas present for his son, but he also is a consummate salesman. And everywhere he goes, he’s looking for an opportunity to sell his stuff.   And again, it’s another neat setup for this guy. Anyway, so then you have the the mad wacky inventor, scenario coming in as well. And he he goes around in the shop, and he hears some sound, and he looks and sees this little cage back there that’s covered up. And when he uncovers it, there’s this cute little creature. We don’t see the creature in the beginning, which is also an otherwise choice, but he’s taken carries too much responsibility. He’s not for sale at any price. But as Rand starts throwing money on the table, his grandson is watching and is trying to convince grandpa Todd sell the to sell the creature. And eventually, when grandpa walks away, he says to Rand, meet me outside and I’ll I’ll do the deal with you.   So sure enough, he meets him outside, Rand pays him the money, and he walks home with this cage with this maguai inside. 

Craig:  Yeah. And it’s a cute little setup, and then it throws us right into the main location, which is Kingston Falls, and it just cuts to this you know, this has all been very dark and smoky, and then it cuts to this bright snowy outdoor scene, and we’re looking at this, what looks kinda like a vintage, forties billboard for, a DJ, and and we hear the music. It it comes in loud and strong, this loud Christmas song. And it’s upbeat, and it’s fun, and we kinda scan through this this set, this town set of Kingston Falls. And it might look familiar to some people because it’s the exact same set that they used for the town in Back to the Future. But it’s all very oh, gosh. I can’t think of any word other than nostalgic. I mean, it looks like it looks like a scene out of It’s a Wonderful Life.   I mean, that’s what it looks like, and that’s the feel that you get, from the movie as it just kinda pans through this town. And we kinda see some different, people in the town for we we see the, the the Christmas tree vendor and, Corey Feldman. Little tiny young Corey Feldman is helping out at And then we meet, our main character, Billy, who was the inventor’s son, and he’s played by Zach Galligan, who, I think this was his first big break. I don’t know if he had worked at all before this. If he had, he was pretty unknown. We’ve talked about him before, he was the lead in Waxwork, and we were pretty critical of his acting in that. I think he’s perfect in this movie. They considered both, Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez for this role, and of course, it’s because I love this movie.   I can’t imagine anybody else in this role. But Billy and Zach Galligan in this movie, he’s just so doe eyed and innocent. He’s really easy to root for and identify with. And he’s got his dog, Barney, and and he’s trying to make his way to work. His car won’t Todd, and so, he says, you know, his neighbor sees that his car won’t start. His neighbor is mister Futterman played by the classic Dick Miller, that we’ve seen in so many movies at this point. This is the movie that I remember him from, but we’ve seen him in so many things, at this point. 

Clip:  Hey, Billy. What’s your mom? You need a jump? Oh, no. Thanks, mister Futterman. I’m pretty much late 

Craig:  for work as it is. 

Clip:  It Todd goddamn foreign cars. They always freeze up on you. You don’t find American machinery doing that. Our stuff can take anything. See that plow? 15 years old. Hasn’t give me a day’s trouble in 15 years. You know why? Kentucky Harvester. Ain’t some farm piece of crap you pick up these days.   That’s a Kentucky Harvester. Well, if I wanna keep my job, I really think I should be going now. Hey, how’s that, comic strip of yours coming? I expect to see you in the funnies any day now with Smiling Jack and a little Abner. Oh, well, mister Fetterman, they don’t run those comics anymore. They don’t. 

Craig:  All of this happens really fast, and it’s really just an opportunity to let us meet some of these players that are gonna come around, later on. He gets he just makes it to work on time. He’s got his dog with him. You know, apparently, he lives in one of these worlds where you can just take your dog with you to work. Work. I wish I lived in that world. And the dog’s name is Barney. And when he gets there, he’s greeted by Kate, played by Phoebe Cates, who, man, in the 1980s, weren’t we all just in love with Phoebe Cates? 

Todd:  Oh, yeah. 

Craig:  Were you? I mean, I Oh, yeah. I was just desperately in love with her. Oh, my Todd. She’s so beautiful. She still is. She doesn’t act much anymore. She kinda retired to start her family. But, just just so pretty and so girl next door and, like, your heart just melts for her.   Yeah. And and then, another employee there, Gerald is played by Judge Reinhold, who was pretty popular, at the time. In fact, he and Phoebe Cates just a couple years earlier, had filmed Fast Times at Ridgemont High together, and that, had been a pretty big movie. I guess that Judge Reinhold’s character initially had a much larger role, but they ended up cutting it down. The movie in its entirety is an hour and 45 minutes long. The original rough cut was 2 hours and 40 minutes. So they had to go and do a lot of cutting, and I think most of, Judge Reinhold’s stuff ended up on the floor. And and then the villain or what we kind of assume, it’s the Scrooge character, in the movie, Missus Deagle, played by Polly Holliday, comes in, and she has a confrontation.   She’s carrying she comes marching down the street carrying this giant snowman’s head, like a ceramic snowman’s head that’s clearly broken off of the body. And she brings it in and, she just pushes her way through the line and comes right up to Billy’s station and says, your dog broke my snowman. And I didn’t remember how dark this got. I mean, I watched this movie all through my childhood, from the time that I was a little kid, and I think that some of these darker elements went over my head. 

Clip:  I’m terribly sorry. Just tell me how much I owe you. I’ll be more than happy to   I don’t want money. I want your dog. Barney? Give him to me. I’ll take him to the kennel. They’ll put him to sleep. It’ll be quick and painless compared to what I could do to him.   What could you do?   I’ll catch the beast myself. Then you’ll get what he deserves, a slow painful death. Maybe I’ll put him in my spin dryer on high heat. 

Craig:  Like, what? Like 

Todd:  Yeah. She’s threatening That’s horrible. She’s threatening to kill his dog quite openly and quite honestly. Multiple times. 

Craig:  Yes. Multiple times. And and I guess that when Chris Columbus originally wrote this script, it was significantly darker. And there are some things that they change, we’ll talk about when we get to them, but there are definitely horror elements, and there are definitely scary elements. But at the same time, this is one of those rare movies that I think does a good job of really balancing the horror and the comedy and the family friendliness. Like, I mean, it feels like a sweet movie. It’s like a kind of a heartwarming movie, but there certainly are the darker elements of it too. 

Todd:  Yeah. And I remember that distinctly even at that time, it was a bit of a controversy. Parents were bringing their kids to this movie, and the way it had been marketed with the Mogwai and everything being so cute, a lot of parents I think were led astray and pretty upset that they were bringing their young kids in, and then they were gonna see, you know, gremlins getting blown up in a microwave and, and people getting killed and things like that. And I do remember that. Now I don’t remember my parents being so up in arms about it. I remember my parents, because Chris Columbus then did Goonies about a year or 2 after this, and I remember my parents being more upset about the language in Goonies, than they were about the violence in these movies. They’re so they’re so American. I don’t know what that 

Craig:  says about your parents. 

Todd:  I don’t know either. Oh, man. 

Craig:  But it is cute. I mean, it’s there are those dark elements, but, it it like you talked about, Gizmo. Eventually, we get back, you know, Billy’s back at his house and we meet his mom. She’s played by Frances Lee McCain. She was, Gordy’s mom in Stand by Me. She was, the she was the main kid’s mom in Footloose. She was Lorraine’s mom in Back to the Future. She was very much a go to mom of the eighties apparently.   And and I really like her in this movie, but, we meet her and there’s this running gag of of the dad’s inventions always malfunctioning and making a huge mess. And, but finally the dad comes home, and he says right away, I’ve got a present for you to the to the kid. And he and he hands Billy this box and Billy shakes it, and we hear the little Mogwai noise inside. 

Todd:  Then 

Craig:  he says, oh, no. No. Don’t shake it. Yeah. And and Billy says, oh, it’s a puppy. I know it’s a puppy. But then he opens it up, and this little creature comes out. And I’m sure all of our listeners are familiar with, what this thing looks like, but it is so stinking cute.   It’s just this cute little furry animal, brown and white fur, with these great big almost bat like ears, and it’s just adorable and it talks, Kind of talks, like it mostly just makes noises and throughout the movie, both the Mogwai and the Gremlins can kind of talk, but more mostly they just kinda repeat words that they’ve heard. But Gizmo is voiced by Howie Mandel. And so he’s got this high, just really cute little voice, and he sings. And it’s just the cutest thing. And this time watching this, I was thinking, he’s sitting there opening it with his mom and dad and the dog, and I’m thinking, Aw, poor dog. Poor Barney has just been totally displaced by this cute little by this cute little. 

Todd:  I was thinking they have so much trust in this dog to open to to pull this creature out right in front of it. I was like, wow, man. And and especially later on when he sleeps with the Mogwai and the dog is right there, I’m thinking, man, you really, this dog must be a very pacifist dog for you guys, to not even be concerned that he might, give the creature a bit of a hard time. 

Craig:  I all you know, thinking from an adult perspective now Todd, of course, I never considered this when I was a kid, but I also think, you know, this guy, Rand, must also have a lot of faith in his kid. I mean, the the guys that the kids are got a dog, and now he’s giving him another pet as a responsibility. That’s quite a bit of responsibility for 1 kid. But as it turns out, Gizmo doesn’t really need much taken care of except for the Chinese kid told, Rand that there are 3 rules. And the 3 rules are 

Clip:  Number 1, he hates bright lights. We know that. But you gotta keep him out of the sunlight. Sunlight will kill him. Number 2, keep him away from water. Don’t give him any water to drink, and whatever you do, don’t give him a bath. And probably the most important thing, don’t ever feed him after midnight. 

Craig:  It’s just a setup for him to allow every single one of those things to happen. Yep. 

Todd:  Corey Feldman, finally, his character comes over and, sees the Mogwai, and I think this is the first time something bad happens. Right? Obviously, mom takes a picture, and she flashes a camera at them, and that’s that’s the impetus for him telling the rules. But, anyway, yeah. They go upstairs, and they have a little chat back and forth about comic books. And he says, oh, by the way, I have this strange creature. And the whole time, you know, through this movie again as an adult, again, looking back on it, I’m thinking, man, nobody gives a crap that this creature that nobody has ever heard of or seen or can imagine has existed before is now just in his house and he owns 1. Yeah. Right? They’re so cavalier and casual about it. 

Craig:  I know. It’s funny. I thought the same thing, especially since later on Billy takes him to his science teacher, and this science teacher is totally cavalier about it. Like, oh, here’s a species nobody’s ever seen before. I’m just gonna do private experiments on it in my science classroom. 

Todd:  That’s right. That’s right. And isn’t this a middle school science teacher? 

Craig:  I’m not sure. 

Todd:  I don’t know. I looked at the signs several times in the background as they’re coming in and out of the main doors of that building, and it says something something middle school. I’m thinking you’re not trying to tell me that Billy is a middle school student. But 

Craig:  No. Maybe this is just one of his old teachers. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Todd does make it does make sense that it’s a middle school though because Corey Feldman seems significantly younger than Billy, and I think it’s his school. It’s his class, so it would make sense. 

Todd:  Okay. There you go. You’re right about that. Alright. So, anyway, they’re upstairs, and they’re playing around with the and Corey Feldman’s character, Pete, I think is his name, spills some water accidentally on Gizmo. And then Gizmo, like, really starts freaking out. He falls forward. His back starts to, bubble up, and out of his back pops about 5 or 6 little hairballs, that fly up into the air, fall down, and like a balloon, kind of slowly expand and molt into more mogwai.   Apparently, this is how they reproduce. But it’s interesting because Billy makes a comment later to his dad when he, when he tells him that this has happened or his mom and, and says they’re not like Gizmo. They’re Gizmo, I think, is just a character all his own. He’s cute. He’s friendly. He’s pretty pacifist. These other ones are a little more mischievous, they’re more like brothers and sisters. And so now he’s got a whole suitcase full of these little creatures that nobody’s ever seen or heard about before, and he’s like, oh, well, now I just have a bunch of them.   And and one of them, which seems to be the leader of the gang, it looks a little different from the rest, and he is Stripe. And he’s another one that I remember very much from this movie. 

Craig:  Yeah. He’s got this white mohawk that makes him, different than the rest. 

Todd:  Yeah. Otherwise, you really can’t tell them apart. And the animatronics for these creatures are pretty good for their time. You can tell, when they go to close-up that they’re using a much more detailed, mocked up, a little bit bigger puppet, for that just to get all the facial expressions and everything right, because when they’re their actual size, they’re a lot more limited in what they’re able to do, facially and everything, but they do a really good job, I think, of working within those limitations. Like he’ll he’ll pick up Gizmo, which which looks, I mean, if you’re really being if you’re really looking for how they do it, you can kind of tell there’s a doll, and then he’ll move him off screen and like set him down, and then when the camera comes down, you can see that there’s a more articulated puppet that’s that’s already set there on the desk who can move and and do things a little more. But it’s it’s really, for a movie that, as you said earlier, seems like a throwback to earlier movies, and quite honestly, just seems like a throwback to old b movies, You know? Yeah. Yeah. It it has fantastic special effects, especially for the time. 

Craig:  It really does. And, the Mogwai puppet is is really cute, and, I mean, it’s a it doesn’t necessarily look real. It doesn’t look like a living animal, but it its moves are pretty natural looking. Interestingly enough, like I said earlier, the script was originally supposed to be darker. Now these new Mogwai, like you said, they are mischievous. Like for example, I think on the 1st night that he has them, he wakes up in the night and hears his dog whining and he goes outside and he finds his dog strung up in the Christmas lights. Now it’s alive, it’s not hung by its neck, but it’s it’s just hung in the lights. And he thinks that it was missus Deagle that did it, but of course, it was these, little in the original script, they actually killed the dog.   And and like I said, eventually these guys are gonna turn into the gremlins after they eat after midnight, after the last rule is broken. But, Stripe, the leader, was originally intended to be Gizmo. Gizmo and Stripe were originally intended to be the same character, but Steven Spielberg stepped in and said that he really wanted one of them to be nice so that, the audience would feel a connection, to to this nice Todd guy one. 

Todd:  So the audience would buy the Todd. 

Craig:  Yeah. Right. Exactly. And boy did we. Man, I think I had a Gizmo lunchbox. I love that little guy. Like we said before, Billy takes, one of the new Mogwai, not Gizmo. He really Gizmo is well behaved.   He kinda keeps Gizmo as his personal pet. The other ones are really just more of a nuisance than anything else. He takes the Mogwai to the science teacher, and this is where we’re first introduced to this musical motif that becomes associated with the Gremlins. And I just gotta say, the score of this movie, I thought was excellent. I just loved it. And most of the movie is scored, except for there are sometimes when there’s Christmas music playing. And also Christmas music is incorporated into the score. But the score here is just so Todd, and that little Gremlins motif, it it it gets stronger when they actually turn into the Gremlins that were first introduced to it here.   And so basically, he leaves this Mogwai with the science teacher, and I I guess he goes to pick up Kate from her job. She in addition to working at the bank, she’s also volunteering at the local bar, Dory’s, because the bar has far fallen on hard times, so she’s trying to help out. And she it’s the end of her shift, and mister Futterman is there and he’s been drinking, and and she’s trying to get him home. He drives the snowplow, which is parked outside, but she convinces him that he’s been drinking too much, and he shouldn’t be, driving. But he has this little brief monologue. 

Clip:  You got you gotta watch out for the foreigners because they plant gremlins in their machinery. That’s the same gremlins brought down our planes in the big one.   Big one.   That’s right. World War 2. Good old w w I I. You know, they’re still shipping them over here. They put them in the cars. They put them in the TV. They put them in the stereos, and the radios just stick in your ears. They put them in our watches.   They got a little TV. I remember it’s for our watches.   Don’t think it’s such a good idea that you drive. Why don’t you walk home? 

Craig:  But then Kate and, Billy, he’s walking her home and they’re talking about Christmas And she says, mister Futterman, has been like this ever since his business went under or he lost his job or something. And Billy says, well, Christmas is supposed to be a happy time. And she says, no. People get really depressed at the hall holidays. Suicide rates are always the highest. And she tells him that she doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and and to which he’s surprised. 

Clip:  Well, what’s not to like? I mean, it’s a lot of fun now.   God. Say you hate Washington’s birthday or Thanksgiving and nobody cares. Say you hate Christmas, it really makes you feel like you’re a leper or something. 

Craig:  And he kind of apologizes and then they have a sweet moment where they’re gonna set up a date. So we know that this is our kind of cute little, love interest. 

Todd:  I have to say I was a little I kinda groaned at this scene. I thought the dialogue was kinda bad here. It felt very written. Let’s put it that way. Oh, we’re setting up the mystery of why she hates Christmas. We’re gonna discover later. Oh, we’ve got a little romance thing going all of a sudden, which, you know, they work at the same bank, and he’s he’s been in her face and exchanged looks, before that. I I was really surprised they hadn’t been on 3 or 4 dates already.   But 

Craig:  Right. Right. Well, you’re right. It is a setup for what for why she we find out she doesn’t like Christmas later, and that part of it does seem a little contrived. But I have to say that the chemistry between these 2, which is in large part why, he got the role was because during their screen test, the the chemistry between these two was good. And I think the chemistry between these two is so Todd, and it’s so sweet, and they’re both so puppy dog eyed. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  I don’t know. I I still like it. Yes. Yes. The writing’s a little bit contrived, but they pull it off, I think. I think it’s good. 

Todd:  The chemistry’s good. No no question. 

Craig:  He goes home. Billy goes home, and he’s watching, ironically enough, a Pod People movie. And the and and Gizmo is sitting very politely what next to him doing something else while he’s watching the movie. But the other Mogwai Todd, acting up, start making a bunch of noise. And he says, Well, I already fed you. But they they won’t calm down. So he looks at his clock and it’s still like 20 till 12. He says, Well, okay.   It’s not after midnight yet, so I guess I can give you some food. So they’re making all this noise. As soon as he walks out the door, they stop making the noise and they look after him for a little while, and then they all get in the huddle and kind of, and they’re like conspiring. So we know something’s up, And he brings up food and some chicken, and they’re, like, eating it savagely, and it’s kind of really these close ups on their face, and they’re smearing this gross chicken all over their face. I remember thinking that part was really gross when I was a kid. And he offers some to, Gizmo, but Gizmo won’t, eat any. And and and the Mogwai in the lab gets a Todd of some food too and eats, and we see that. But then it cuts to the next morning, and the Mogwai have all transformed into these gross looking, almost reptilian looking Todd.   Not entirely unlike the pods from Alien. 

Todd:  Oh, yeah. 

Craig:  Not exactly like them either, but but very similar. And so we know that trouble’s brewing. 

Todd:  Yeah. Again, another big throwback, and and I think even further back than Alien, of course, is, back to, I think it’s invasion of the Todd snatchers and the original one where you have these these pod creatures in, I think, what ends up being the greenhouse back, which is one of the movies he’s watching on television. So the movie is absolutely calling. It’s having so much fun with calling back to these earlier movies and just straight out throwing these nods at them, and I think that’s part of the comedy of it. But again, it’s a little goofy in that, okay, I’ve got these absolutely disgusting looking reptilian pods up in my room. Here you go, mom. Check them out. Wow.   These are really weird. Okay. Now I’m gonna go and leave. We’re all just gonna go about our daily business. 

Craig:  Right. I guess we’ll just see what happens. You know, it it there it is such a throwback to these old movies because a lot of the times in these movies, it just seems like they weren’t as concerned with believability as we are today. One of the problems that I always had with this movie, and I say a problem, I really don’t care. I don’t need everything explained to me. But isn’t it always after midnight? Like like like, when can you feed them? 

Todd:  I know. I was wondering that too. At what point 

Craig:  does Technically, 5 PM is after midnight. 

Todd:  Maybe is it 6 AM? Is it 7? That’s so true. Well, much like in these older movies, you’ve got to get the woman in peril, and by to do that, you’ve got to get the dad out of the picture. And so they have dad away at this inventor’s convention. And I just have to say something about this scene because I think it pops up somewhere around here where, they’re calling dad and they’re talking, and and you can see on dad’s end of the phone, he’s at this adventures in convention. Every single time they they cut to him at this convention, the scene is like sillier and sillier. He’s in a phone booth, which he’s sharing with another inventor, has this weird contraption on his face. It doesn’t make any sense. There’s, like, a robot in the background.   But then in the background on the right is is the time machine from h g Wells, the the time machine. Alright. And I laughed out loud at this because I could not believe it, but that’s in the middle of this conversation, they’re cutting back and forth. And when they cut back to him again, the time machine is missing and there’s like a smoky, like patch on the floor and people kind of milling around and kinda looking at like what just happened. Like at this inventor’s convention, there are people with these amazing inventions, including a time machine, which is so funny because his dad’s got the crappiest, Clearly, he has the crappiest inventions at this at this whole thing. 

Craig:  That’s funny. I I had read that the time machine was back there, but I had missed that little bit. That’s funny. It’s good. So right away, another thing I like about this movie, and I’m sure it has a lot to do with the editing, but the pacing is pretty good. I mean, we don’t get lags in in the action. Billy goes to work and the pods begin to hatch, and all this very ominous these ominous sound effects and music play. We don’t see what’s coming out of them.   We just see Gizmo kind of sitting back in the corner watching in terror and and trembling in terror. And then I think we see maybe a hand grab Gizmo or something like that. And then we cut back to the science teacher and his pod hatches too. It hatches like in class, like he’s put it like in some sort of cardboard box or something, and the box starts moving and falls off the table right as class is ending. And so he he ushers all of the kids out and, he immediately calls Billy and just says, It’s Hatch. And Billy says, Okay, I’ll be right there. And then the science teacher for some reason doesn’t turn the light on in his in his room. He’s been showing a film strip, the film strip still going on in the background.   And he he thinks that whatever the creature is is under this table, this lab table. And again, willing suspension of disbelief. He has no idea what this thing is. I think he’d probably approach a little more caution. What he what he does is he takes a candy bar and he says, here I got something for you. And he sticks it down under the table and he sticks his arm under the table and apparently something bites him and yanks on him, and then it cuts away. And we cut to Billy showing up, and he when he walks into the classroom, he sees the science teacher dead on the floor with a needle, sticking out of his butt. Another one of those places where originally it was meant to be darker.   Originally, he was going to have 100 of hypodermics sticking out of his face. But Spielberg specifically asked them to change that. And then there’s this scene that’s really pretty inconsequential, but I think I’ve told this story before. Billy immediately goes to grab the telephone and super fast, seemingly from out of nowhere from the other side of the table, this green reptilian claw like hand reaches up and scratches Billy’s, hand. And it’s a total jump scare. It’s really not even all that scary. But Todd 5 year old Craig Higgins scared me. I screamed.   We were at a movie theater full of people. I screamed, jumped up in my seat, did a 180 so I was facing backwards in the theater. And if I remember correctly, my parents who were flaking me on either side just laughed and laughed. Oh, man. But I will I will remember that story until I die, I think. So and I I’m pretty sure I stayed and and watched the rest of the movie, and I was fine, but, man, that that jump scare got me. 

Todd:  Oh, it’s our son’s first jump scare. 

Craig:  So he run the the the creature, the gremlin, goes through a vent. So all we’ve seen of it so far is its hand. Billy runs to the nurse’s office to get something to wrap his hand, and this is the first time that we get a complete look at the creature. The creature pops out of one of the cabinets and and really just kind of stands there and and taunts Billy for a second before then going through another vent. But these gremlins, I don’t know, I’d say they’re probably about 2 feet tall, and all of this is pre CGI. Completely, you know, before CGI even existed in any fashion, so everything they did had to be practical. And these, gremlins, I guess, Zach Galligan in an interview said that there were so many of these gremlins, and each one had to be made, you know, on its own, and each one of them cost like 30 to 40 $1,000 to make, which I find really hard to believe, and it must make me think that they did some really fancy camera work using the same ones 

Todd:  Uh-huh. 

Craig:  In different frames. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Because if they really made as many as it seemed like, that would take up, like, the whole budget. Yeah. 

Clip:  But 

Craig:  they look great. And I guess, I don’t know if it was a joke or if it was true, but, in the interview, he also said that, every night after filming, the security would check everybody’s cars to make sure that they hadn’t stolen them because they were so expensive. But it was worth the money because they really look good. I mean, they really, again, real. Do they look real? I don’t know, but they look pretty darn believable. 

Todd:  Yeah. I I like them. You know, they look as real as Gizmo does. In fact, maybe a little more real because they’re they’re more reptilian. They’re more creature like than Gizmo. Gizmo looks like a furry puppy, and so you start to expect, I think, a little bit more, realism out of that kind of thing because you’re used to that. Whereas this is a a reptilian monster. It could really be anything.   And so, you know, can their mouths move as much as, as you’d expect them? Probably not. But it doesn’t matter because reptiles just have open and closed mouths anyway, you know, most of them. 

Craig:  So Right. 

Todd:  Right. Yeah. You put all that on it, and it’s really a wise choice to make them that reptilian and that different looking. I I thought they were pretty good. I I thought actually that the gremlin shots and the gremlin puppets were more real than any of the Mogwai stuff was. 

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. And there may be there may be a reason for that. Like I said before, Gizmo was originally intended to turn into a gremlin. He was supposed to become Spike. So the guy that invented him or created him only had anticipated his movements for the first half of the movie, and then he wasn’t gonna be used anymore. And I guess apparently because this because Gizmo was a smaller animatronic, for whatever reason, it malfunctioned more often than the Gremlin, animatronics. And so the crew actually came to hate Gizmo, and they they they made up a list and had it posted somewhere on set.   It was something like awful things to do to Gizmo. And we got one of those things in the very next scene. We cut back to Billy’s house where his mom is, and we see that the gremlins who have hatched at his house now have Gizmo, tied up to a dart board and they’re throwing darts at him. And that was just one of the horrible things that they figured they could do at Gizmo because they hated that little puppet or that little animatronic so much. And then we get a great scene with the mom coming under siege from these, creatures. And this, I think this is my favorite scene in the movie. 

Todd:  This is so notorious. If you remember nothing else from this movie, you’ve got to remember this scene. Mom goes upstairs and sees that the pods have hatched. So she goes downstairs and she immediately starts getting terrorized by these things. She runs to the kitchen and there is one, of the gremlins playing on top of man, they they don’t have anything else but this guy’s inventions in their kitchen, and I don’t know how they have the counter space for all of it because they’re really rather big. But, there’s there’s one for juicing oranges, there’s one that’s like a blender but it’s a bowl, which is funny because I remember this in my mind as an actual blender, which makes more sense than this blender that’s a bowl. Maybe there’s supposed to be a lid for it or something. I don’t know.   But anyway. Yeah. Yeah. She she quickly runs over and, is able to switch it on, and the gremlin just totally, gets torn up and the green goo and blood is like splattering everywhere. It’s a pretty gross scene for a kid’s movie, really. She runs across, and there’s another one there on the counter, and she stabs it. Just flat out, stabs it in the chest. And I was like, woah, I do not remember this.   I mean, I remember the I 

Craig:  didn’t remember that either. 

Todd:  Man, it’s it’s dark for this kind of movie. And That’s brutal. Stabs it in the chest, and then turns around, and there’s one, that she’s able to shove into the microwave and turn the microwave on. Of course, we all remember this one Todd. And it pulls no punches. It shows you this gremlin in the microwave and suddenly it explodes, and, junk goes all over the microwave and she leaves this kitchen shaking, and, and there’s just complete carnage all over the place. And if you, you know, if it weren’t green and black and gooey, this would be like the kitchen scene from your next. Yeah.   Yeah. In fact, I would almost say the kitchen scene from your next is a bit of a throwback to this because we do get a blender death there too, but it’s a person. True. And it’s a comedy as well. Yeah. Everybody remembers this scene. It was we talked about it as kids. How can you not who went who of us had ever seen anything like this before as a child? 

Craig:  Right. Exactly. And and, you know, it’s Christmas time now. I’ve been listening to Christmas music and stuff, and I swear every time I hear the song Do You Hear What I Hear, this is the first thing that I think of. 

Todd:  That’s the very 

Craig:  first thing I think of every single time because it’s playing the gremlins turn it on really loud and it startles her. She eventually turns it off, but every time I hear that Christmas song, I think of, this scene. And after the one in the microwave, she comes into the living room and there’s something moving in one of the stockings. And I think that she stabs at the stocking, but it was just a little animatronic toy. And then I think maybe the lights go out, and, we see all all the lights on the Christmas tree, which is behind her go out except for these two red lights and you realize that they’re glowing eyes. And she walks towards the tree and the tree attacks her, like, obviously, it’s it’s a gremlin in there that’s doing the attacking, but it really looks like she’s being attacked by the Christmas tree. 

Clip:  Yeah. 

Craig:  And that’s when, Billy comes in and and, and cuts off the gremlin’s head, and it shoots into the fireplace and burns up in the fire. 

Todd:  With the samurai sword, they keep by the door that they’ve been calling attention to because it keeps falling off the wall every time the door opens. Right. 

Craig:  Right. Right. 

Todd:  Like, my gosh, family. Like, you really have no sense of safety. You have these these these strange contraptions that do nothing but harm in the house. You’ve got a samurai sword that falls off every time you get in, and then you you invite these creatures into the home. I really think it’s just this family doesn’t care about they have a death wish. That’s what it is. They have no concern for 

Craig:  their safety. It was the eighties. It was a different time. Our parents let us go out and play. Didn’t even know where we were. They didn’t have any of those baby proofing things and stuff back then. That’s true. No.   It was it was just devil may care. But 

Todd:  Now were you were you thinking, evil dad when the tree was attacking her? 

Craig:  No. But now that you say it, I am. 

Todd:  I was just I couldn’t help but wonder. There’s so many, callbacks to earlier films. I could not help but wonder if if Joe Dante was throwing that one in there too. I don’t know. 

Craig:  Certainly a possibility. Yeah. So the last I I guess, I mean, if you do the numbers, I think that they’ve now killed them all except for the one in the school that got away, which we never really see him again. We I I guess Dante in a in an interview said that he just runs and joins the other ones at some point. But as far as we know, the only one that’s left is is Stripe, and we see him and he breaks out and and goes out the window. And Billy grabs Gizmo and runs after him, and Spike leads them to the YMCA where he jumps in the swimming pool. And the swimming pool starts bubbling and smoking and flashing, and the flashes are all red and green, And, Billy goes running out and I I just love this visual. He runs out into the darkness and into the snow, and we can just see through the glass doors and windows of the YMCA, all this flashing red and green light, the kind of howling of the new gremlins, getting created.   He goes then, I think, to the cops, but, of course, they don’t believe him. But as he’s telling yeah. They’re drunk. You know, As cops will be on Christmas Eve, I suppose. 

Todd:  The 2 cops in this town, by the way. Yeah. The the no. It’s the least first. The 2 of them. It’s Mayberry, man. 

Craig:  But as he’s yeah. 

Todd:  It’s total Mayberry. 

Craig:  As he’s telling them, we get a shot. It’s a wide shot of the street in town and we see just 100 of gremlins, coming down the street and I always remember that shot too and I really like it. I didn’t read anything about how that was done. Do you think that was stop motion? 

Todd:  It it had all the hallmarks of stop motion. I think it was. Yeah. It looked a lot like it to me. I could tell there was a matte painting around, that dark spot where the gremlins are emerging from of the rest of the the street or the town or whatever. And then of course they’re in the middle and they just have that jumpiness to them. And, of course, they’re all full figured Todd. So, yeah, it had to be stop motion.   It’s not a very long scene, but it’s it’s effective. It does what it needs to do. 

Craig:  Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s really brief. I mean, just a few seconds, but you just you get the idea that there are now 100 of these things. And then we basically just get a mischief montage, of what these gremlins are doing around town. First, we, go to the Futterman’s house, where we’ve met mister Futterman before, and now we meet missus Futterman who is played by Jackie Joseph 

Clip:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Who was the original Audrey in the original, Little Shop of Horrors 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  Which Dick Miller was also in with her. And I didn’t even realize that until you and I watched that movie together and talked about it. And, the gremlins are messing with their antenna. Mister Futterman goes out to see what’s going on, and, the gremlins drive his snowplow through the garage at him, drive it into the house. And, it it appears that it drives it right into mister and missus Futterman. And all my life growing up, I thought that they died. But and so then I was surprised because they popped back up in Gremlins Todd. So obviously, they didn’t die.   I didn’t notice until today that at the very end of the movie, in the background, there’s a news report about all the weird things that had happened the night before. And it says, and we’ll be talking to mister Futterman at the at the hospital. So, they weren’t intended to die, I guess, but in my kid mind, I I thought that they had. And again, now so there’s a little there’s a gag with a post office box that a gremlins in. They’re messing with the stoplights and causing car wrecks. They kill a Santa. We hear on the radio that they’ve broken into the Craig, station. And then another scene that I always remember, and again, it’s another one of those dark ones, the Missus Deagle scene.   You wanna do the Missus Deagle scene? 

Todd:  Oh my gosh. This is also, Yeah. You’re right. This is the only in fact, I remember the scene, and I forgot what movie it was from, believe it or not. But, yeah, missus missus Deagle, who you’d mentioned earlier, who must have had a bigger role in the original script because 

Craig:  She yeah. She did. 

Todd:  She did. Okay. Yeah. She’s really just like judge Reynolds, she’s kind of introduced and we forget about her except we at least see judge, see her again, later in this scene. And it turns out that missus Deagle, I guess part of the reason she hates dogs so much is she is the crazy cat lady. Yeah. Because she’s got cats everywhere and she’s coming down the stairs in this mechanical, what do you call it? It’s like a wheelchair that goes up and downstairs. 

Craig:  Like a stair lift, right? 

Todd:  Yeah. Stair lift. But of course, she’s rich, so she has this very, ornate and elaborate stairlift. The staircase curves around what must be once or twice, to get to the top of the, of the house. Anyway, it’s a very big house. And, she is, her cats are kind of running around, she’s trying to corral them. In the meantime, there’s a gremlin you can see in there who is messing with the controls on her chairlift. Gremlins pop out, scare her, she runs to her chairlift and tries to get away, but when she turns it on, it goes super speed up and around and around and around and then completely flies out the window and over over the cop car that’s outside, and she ends up in the snow and I almost half and and her legs, it’s as much as you can do that’s not a cartoon to have 2 legs just sticking up out of the snow after somebody fell down.   Yeah. 

Craig:  It’s it’s hilarious. Yeah. It’s hilarious. It’s such a funny joke, but it’s also really dark. I mean, she is dead. 

Todd:  I’m sorry. That scene really bothered me as a kid. I was like and and I guess that was the first one time I realized, wow, a a gremlin killed somebody, and, oh, that poor lady. You know, I mean, it was just, you know, just one of those things. No. 

Craig:  I mean, even though she was villainous and we didn’t like her, I mean, that was in this scene, she’s presented more as just kind of a feeble old lady, and and you do kinda feel bad for her as horrible as she’s been. But that’s just, you know, one of those darker elements. I forgot to mention that in the original script, the ending of the mom scene was much different too. Billy, was to come home, and the gremlins were to roll his mom’s head down the stairs. 

Todd:  Oh my gosh. And 

Craig:  I I I gotta say I gotta say I’m glad that they toned it down a little bit, because I think that might have been a little bit too much. I I don’t think it would have been as heartwarming if some of those things happen. Then we cut to a really funny scene where the gremlins have taken over Dory’s the bar, and it’s just full of gags. I mean, it’s played completely for the comedy. There’s, like, a Humphrey Bogart gag. There’s a Gremlin doing the Flashdance, or or similar dance gag. They’re smoking, they’re drinking, they’re dancing and laughing. It’s really funny, but they’re also menacing Kate who I guess decided that she needed to stay in 10 bar even though the other 

Clip:  one went 

Todd:  to her. Yeah. I couldn’t figure that out either. She’s she’s really trying her best too, to keep them happy. I don’t know what she thinks. If I placate them, they’ll leave me alone. I don’t know. Right.   It’s a pretty silly scene. 

Craig:  It is silly. I but it’s fun, and it appealed to me as a kid, you know. I don’t know. A more mature audience might think is a little too goofy or over the top. I just think it’s funny. Like I said, I think it’s a good balance of the goofy and the scary. But Billy shows up and rescues her, and, they have to run I think they run to their bank. And and while they’re in there, Kate finally tells her story of why she hates Christmas. 

Clip:  It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 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. His mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went and still nothing. 

Todd:  So the 

Clip:  police began a search. 4 or 5 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. Firemen came and broke through the chimney Todd, 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 arm is Todd with presents. It was gonna surprise us. He slipped and broke his neck died instantly.   And that’s   how I found out there was no Santa Claus. 

Todd:  I didn’t remember this scene, obviously, as a kid. I can’t remember everything about this movie, but I watched this and my eyes were rolling. I know that people are divided about this scene. I know that even Spielberg himself and some of the, some of the studio heads wanted them to cut it, but John, Joe Dante was like, no, you’ve gotta leave it in because it’s, it’s a metaphor for the whole movie. And what makes this scene, I thought, uncomfortable is that you don’t know whether it’s supposed to be funny or whether it’s supposed to be sad because the story she’s telling is a well known urban legend. Right. In the in the world of this movie I don’t know. I just I just Was 

Craig:  it was it well known before this, though? 

Clip:  I 

Craig:  Or does it come from this? 

Todd:  No. I I think this is a well known urban even before this, I you know, it did not come. Christopher Columbus did not make this one up. No. The whole the whole, you know, dad was missing. It was Christmas day. We called people, then we found that he was stuck in the chimney, chiming down. Yeah.   That that’s that’s an old story. It’s an old story. And and for her to tell it about her dad, and it’s supposed to be the sort of sad moment, plus I feel like it was shoehorned in. It’s like it just comes out of nowhere. And this isn’t the first Christmas. It was horrible for me. And she tells this story and then it’s like, okay, we move on. You know, it’s not a setup for them to get closer.   It’s not at the it just it just feels wrong, I think. I mean, it it doesn’t feel wrong for a goofy thing like that to be in a goofy movie like this. I mean, I get the director’s point, but I just I just think it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s just too much. 

Craig:  Now that you say that that it really isn’t connected, there’s really no purpose for it. I had never really thought about that, but you’re absolutely right. I mean, it’s really inconsequential to the plot. It it doesn’t forward the plot in any way. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I love it. And and I think it is melodramatic, but Phoebe Cates plays it with such sincerity that for me it’s almost like, Oh, this should kind of be funny, but she’s playing it with such sincerity that I almost feel guilty for even having an inclination to laugh. And I don’t know, it just, oh I just think that she delivers it so well.   I I don’t know. Had I never seen it, of course, I wouldn’t miss it. Maybe it would’ve tightened the movie up a little bit further, but you’re right. Dante wanted to keep it. And I totally understand his rationale that it really is emblematic of the tone of the film that, it is both dark and light. And this is one of those moments where the balance is, it could tip either way. I don’t know. I I and and it’s, you know, again, I feel we’ve said this a 1000000 times.   This is a a classic movie in in especially for those of us who grew up in the eighties. So all a lot of these things are iconic. But people remember this scene, like it or don’t like it. People remember this scene. And if you talk about this movie, for me, this is one of the first things that comes up. Yeah. So I don’t know. There’s that. 

Todd:  You’re right. I mean, the the sincerity is there in the acting and, you know, put other words her mouth, and I’d probably love this scene too. Although, the that’s part of what kind of, like, distracts me from it is because all I’m imagining is, jeez, how many takes did they have to do before they got one where she just wasn’t busting out laughing in the middle of 

Craig:  this? Sure. Sure. You know? Anyway And and then we’re we’re leading up to the climax of the movie. They they leave the bank, and and when they were running to the bank, the town was just in chaos. There were gremlins everywhere. There were fires. There was, you know, just chaos all around. When they come out of the bank, everything’s eerily quiet and, Kate says, where did they all go? And Billy says, well, it’s gonna be light soon.   They’re probably altogether somewhere that’s dark. And so where’s a big place where they would all fit that somebody’s where it’s dark? The movie theater. And so they go to the movie theater and they find that, yes, all of the gremlins are there. They’ve all congregated, and they are watching Snow White, and they are absolutely loving it. And I love this scene too. I mean, it’s just all these gremlins in the movie theater, and it’s gags. You know, they’re wearing sunglasses and Mickey Mouse ears, and they’re eating the pop corn, and they’re, like, you know, drinking out of the soda fountains and stuff. It’s it’s goofy, but, I just love it.   And I love that they are transfixed by Snow White. It’s cute. It is. Even these, you know, these mischievous villainous gremlins in this scene are cute, and and I I love it. 

Todd:  Yeah. It really endears you to them, and and that’s part of how this movie works is by, yes, it shows you this violence and these guys are are can do these terrible things, but there’s this party that’s drawn to them as well. It kind of makes you think, you know what? If it weren’t for the fact that it might murder me in my sleep, this would be kind of a fun pet to have at home. 

Craig:  Yeah. They’re mischievous. You know? It’s it’s almost like I mean, I guess they do have some murderous intent, but more than that, it’s just causing mischief and chaos. And there’s something cute, about that. I like it. 

Todd:  They’re having fun, right? And they’re 

Craig:  Right. Right. 

Todd:  They’re seeing these other small creatures up on the screen, and they think it’s cute. This was definitely dark days at Disney. I think it was the mid eighties, 84 and 85. Disney was really, actually a threat of hostile takeover. I think they were not doing well. That’s the only way I can imagine they would have allowed, Snow White to play such a prominent role in this film. You would never see this today. 

Craig:  You would Yeah. That’s true. I had never even thought about that. 

Todd:  Oh, they would never give the rights for something like that. They really don’t let their movies show up in any other movies, let alone something like this. But, 

Craig:  it’s true. It’s interesting. 

Todd:  We’re so lucky because it it totally it’s a very endearing scene. You’re absolutely right. 

Craig:  Right. Right. It works. Well, Billy and Kate break the gas line, and they they run out and they blow up the theater, but not before Stripe leaves the theater because he sees candy in a department store window across the street. So we presume that all of the gremlins are dead, except now Stripe, who’s in this department store, and they chase him in there. Billy sends Kate to go try to get the lights turned on somehow, which she does. She goes to the control room, and she’s flipping on, various lights. But she also one of the light switches she turns on turns on this fountain.   And of course, we know if spike or Stripe gets water, he’ll just, reproduce again. So we know that that’s probably gonna play into it. And then again, it’s just kind of a montage. It’s it’s a clever montage. I like it. They Billy chases, Stripe through these various, parts of the department store. So there’s 1, in, the hardware section where throws saw blades at him. There’s one in a sporting goods section where he, like, hits him with a baseball bat and shoots him with a crossbow.   Then there’s one in, like, oh, gosh. I guess it’s hardware again where he gets a chainsaw, and is is going after Billy with a chainsaw. 

Todd:  I was watching this with my wife, and I think it was at this point that she turned to me and said, boy, these gremlins are pretty smart for newborns. Like, they know how to operate a chainsaw. They know how to operate a gun. 

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. Smart and strong for as small as they are, apparently. Meanwhile, Gizmo has gone off on his own, and there’s this really funny little scene of him, like, army crawling across this store. And then he gets a Barbie car and he’s driving around in this Barbie car which is just so cute. And it all ends at a confrontation at this fountain where Stripe now has a gun, and he’s shooting at Billy and getting ready to jump into the fountain, which he doesn’t jump in. He just dips his finger in, but the it’s he’s kinda starts to reproduce. But here comes Gizmo in his Barbie car to save the day.   He jumps his Barbie car over this ramp and, is able to somehow knock these blinds open that allows the sunlight to come in, which causes, Stripe to melt ala the Wicked Witch of the West. Yeah. And again, good practical effects here for this, melting. 

Todd:  Oh, it’s such a gross scene and that was one that stuck with me as a kid Todd. In a delightful gleeful way, we all loved seeing Stripe meltdown and then come back out for one final jump scare before he completely belts into nothing. 

Craig:  Yeah. Jumps out of the the fountain just as a skeleton, and the skeleton is still kind of like, undulating, like it’s breathing. But, then it just dissolves into a puddle of goo that just bubbles. So, yeah, it’s it was good. It’s memorable. And that’s pretty much the end except for that we get a cap. We get we go back to, Billy’s house, where his family has gathered, and the old Chinese guy from the beginning shows up and says, I told you with Maguai comes much responsibility. He takes Gizmo back, which I remember as a kid thinking, that was so sad.   Like, here, Philly and and, Gizmo have been through so much together. They’ve watched each other’s back, and now he has to go back and live, with the Chinese guy. But and and so the last shot that we get is the Chinese guy but he says, Gizmo says, Bye, Billy, to Billy, before he leaves. It’s really sweet. And then the last shot we get is the old Chinese guy walking down the street at night at Christmas time. Beautiful, beautiful shot, the full moon in the background. And we return to the father’s, narration and he closes out the story. And then that that’s the end.   At the end of a great movie, you know, I I asked you. I don’t remember which one of us brought this one up, as a suggestion for this year, but I specifically asked you if we could save this one for the last because I just have so many fond memories of this movie. I just like it so much. I just kinda wanted to save the best for last this year. 

Todd:  Yeah. It is a Christmas movie through and through as we said, unlike some of the other ones we’ve watched, which, either just sort of take place at Christmas’s convenience or just throw some tinsel up every now and then. This movie is all about giving a gift. It’s about the terrible tragedies that happen during the holidays that, throw people into depression, the caroling, of, you know, there’s caroling 

Craig:  Making Christmas cookies. 

Todd:  That’s right. And eating the heads off in a sinister way, all that stuff. So it’s perfectly encapsulated in this film. It Todd warm you up. It is a warm movie even as dark as it is. I didn’t remember it being this dark, of course. And so watching it again, I realized, wow, for a kids, they just aren’t gonna make another movie like this. Nope.   They don’t do this kind of thing. And they’re certainly not rated PG. This this movie was one of the 2 movies, the other one being Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, that just Todd that line where they couldn’t be r, but they were really not as kid friendly as PG tends to be. And so because Steven Spielberg is all powerful, he said, well, MPAA, you guys just need to make another rating and put it in between. And so, he got a PG 13 movie. It’s a p Steven Spielberg used to insist that I do not make r rated films, and that’s 

Craig:  Right. Right. 

Todd:  That’s kind of the bullying that he did to make sure that this movie, got a whole new rating made. Well, not for this one, but for subsequent films. I think Red Dawn was the next was the one to actually get the first PG 13. And then I don’t think he 

Craig:  he really did make I think, was one of the first ones too. 

Todd:  Yeah. And, he didn’t make a r rated movie, I think, until Schindler’s List. So it was a little ways after this Yeah. Before he actually but but, yeah, I liked it too, and I still enjoy it, and I like the, the back and forth. I’ll be watching this one again, more soon. 

Craig:  Yeah. You know, you say we won’t get another movie like this. I would say Krampus was pretty close, in tone. But not not appropriate. 

Todd:  Not so kid friendly though as this one is. 

Craig:  Yeah. I I guess. I mean, I think we’re you and I might be thinking about this from our own perspective. I don’t know. Someday, maybe, if either of us have kids, we might be a little bit more, guarded about what we would share with them. I know my sister wouldn’t let her kids watch this. Not yet anyway. I mean, we were watching it when we were their age, but there’s no way she’d let them watch this.  

I know. There was a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which really amped up the comedy and, toned down the darkness. I liked it. I didn’t think it was nearly as good. I didn’t think it had nearly the heart of this one. It’s it’s far more goofy. I was surprised to read today and looking, at at stuff about this movie that Joe Dante actually prefers the second one, which kinda surprised me. But yeah. 

Craig:  And, you know, there’s been talk there’s always talk. There’s been talk for years about rebooting this franchise, may maybe, you know, whether it be in a a direct sequel or a remake, and I have mixed feelings about that, because you know if they did it now, it would all be CGI. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  It would probably not have the dark under tones that the original has. It would probably be much more family friendly. Not that there’s anything wrong with family friendly fare, but this is one of those movies that there’s a part of me that kind of is secretly hoping for a sequel, but if there was one, I would hope that they would try to do as much of it practically as they could to be in keeping with the original. But I just, the other part of me thinks that would never happen, and maybe we should just leave better or, you know, good enough alone. So I don’t know. 

Todd:  Yeah. You know, you’re right. The way that they bounce around and the way that the gremlins interact with each other and the way that they move, it just works better as a puppet show, you know. Yeah. I just I can’t see it as a as a CGI animated thing. It it’ll be too slick and too smooth, and it’ll lose a lot of its charm. 

Craig:  Yeah. Well, regardless of what happens, we’ll always have the original. So, I’m grateful for that. 

Todd:  That’s right. That’s right. Well, thank you again for listening. This has, been your Christmas edition of 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. You can find us on Itunes and Stitcher. You can also like us on Facebook and, Google Plus. We have a couple pages there.   Leave us a comment. Let us know what you thought of this episode and about this film, as well as suggestions for for future episodes. Until then, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.