A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games

Gremlins (1984)

December 07, 2022 Steve Bennet-Martin Season 1 Episode 148
A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games
Gremlins (1984)
Show Notes Transcript

The Steves discuss the 1984 cult classic that is kind of a Christmas movie, Gremlins, along with that's making them happy in pop culture today!

What's making us happy?

  • Wednesday (Netflix)
  • Reboot (Hulu)

Movie Discussion

  • Names and numbers
  • Is Gremlins a Christmas movie?
  • Is it a family movie?
  • Could or would you follow the rules of caring for Mogwai?
  • The saddest Christmas story ever
  • And more!

Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.

Support the show
Steve:

Hello, returning Happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennett Martin. And this is

Stephen:

Stephen Martin Bennett, and welcome to a

Steve:

Lifetime of Happiness, the podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy, while hopefully bring us melts your face along the way. And

Stephen:

this December, we're celebrating the holidays ish.

Steve:

Ish indeed, as we cover movies that take place around the holidays but are not traditionally considered Christmas. Like gremlins. Yes. We are kicking off the month with gremlins, but before we get into that, my love, what's been making you happy? Ugh, reboots. Reboots in general.

Stephen:

Well, specifically one TV show on Hulu called Reboot, and it's a sitcom that is kind of taking on the trend. Of the reboots in Hollywood, like Fuller House and things like that. And this deals with Rachel Bloom, who we love from crazy ex-girlfriend wanting to reboot a sitcom that she grew up with and take it a more realistic and edgier tone to it and high jx and Sue and everything like. It's quite good. It

Steve:

was quite good. We finished it in one and a half nights. It's a nice eight episode binge

Stephen:

and what's really nice is it's done by I believe Steven Leviton who is responsible for Modern Family. So if you like that kind of quick witted, character driven humor this is definitely a show for you. Yes.

Steve:

And what's been making me happy is another character driven show Wednesday. Not the day of the week. Wednesday. Adams, yes, And they recently just released that on Netflix and that was just a fun Oh my goodness.

Stephen:

Romp

Steve:

so good. It was, well, I would say like, I mean I never was super in love with the Adams family. I always thought the movies were cute, but the show just like took it my love and appreciation for the subject matter. Just even more. Yeah. You didn't

Stephen:

get to grow up with. So I had TBS where we had. Brady Bunch, Gilligans Island, the Monsters and Adam's family. So these are all shows that I grew up with. So whenever the movies for Adam's family came out it was great. And it took the shows in a darker direction. Yeah. And this took the movies in a darker direction, which

Steve:

I really enjoy. They did a really good job of it, and I would definitely check it out for anyone who loves a fan of either the Atmos family or even just like, School mystery, dark, supernatural, all of those things just added up to a really fun show. And

Stephen:

Gwen and Christie from Game of Thrones is so good as the head

Steve:

mistress of the school, it only took me seven episodes before I realized that's who she was. Meanwhile, Jenna Ortega also did an amazing job as Wednesday Adams.

Stephen:

Yes. And you're gonna want to pay special attention to episode four, and that's all we're gonna. Yes,

Steve:

but let's jump into the movie of the week. Why do we love gremlins?

Stephen:

Okay, so when I was a child it was, you know, I grew up in the hills of rural West Virginia. We had a movie theater. It didn't usually show new movies because, you know, town of 2000 people. But and new movies were about an hour away. So GRS finally came along and it was just something we went to see as a family. And I will say we were not the only family there. The Mawi were definitely advertised towards children and the high jinx were done towards a comedy for all type of feel. But when we watched this a few months ago as an adult, I started thinking, I'm not sure this is child appropriate. Yeah, And then we watched it again to prepare for the podcast and it's dark and gory and has some definite adult themes now as an adult. I love every bit of it so much, and I'm still glad I saw it as a child for the nostalgia factor, but watching it again, I'm like, I'm not sure that me as a five to eight year old should have seen

Steve:

this movie. Yeah. In fact, this movie along with Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom. Our credit, which I also saw in the theater. Yeah. Those two movies are credited for inspiring the mpaa to create the PG 13 rating. Finding that both of those movies were too violent for a PG rating, but not violent enough for an R. You mean in

Stephen:

Temple of Doom, where he says Kale MA and rips the guy's heart right out of his chest and it's still beating. Yes. Yeah,

Steve:

exactly. And. So many parts that we'll get into. Yeah. Where I can see, like I grew up in, you know, where PG 13 was a very common rating for movies and I, you know, people that push that boundaries of pg, but I definitely wouldn't see gremlins being rated are, but I do see it being not PG either.

Stephen:

Correct. So Tim La Doom came out in 84, which means I was five years old when it came out. So, That it's so weird to like think back as to what was appropriate for a five year old back then compared to now. Yeah,

Steve:

and this also came out in 1984. It's a black comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante and written by Chris Columbus. It had a bid budget of 11 million and made 212.9 million. So very big success.

Stephen:

Yeah. Chris Columbus is known. A lot of things. Harry

Steve:

Potter is the one thing that shows up when you Google.

Stephen:

He also wrote home Alone. Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, it, and Joe Dante's done a lot of films as well, so it's really interesting. I just still, I keep thinking, I'm not sure it's a family movie, I don't know, but, but obvious. A lot of families saw it because in the eighties to grab 212.9 million, that was a lot of family

Steve:

viewing. Yes, it certainly was. And the movie Stars, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Kates, Hoyt Aton, Polly Holiday, and Francis Lee McCain with Howie Mandel voice. Gizmo.

Stephen:

Good job, Howie. You did a great job as Gizmo.

Steve:

And so the movie starts and takes place in Kingston Falls, a small, economically depressed town in the Northeastern US That's been hit hard by the loss of jobs in the seventies and eighties.

Stephen:

It's very Grover's corners from the play, our town without the whole people being nice to each

Steve:

other. Yeah. Lots of people are out of work. One such person was ran Peltzer, a middle aged man who we see in Chinatown in New York, looking for a Christmas present for his son Billy. As the movie opens, rena had to become an inventor of dubious skills, making little money selling as usually unreliable inventions, but it's Billy who has a job as a bank teller who is keeping the family barely above. Ran hope to sell one of his inventions to the proprietor of a curiosity store in Chinatown, Mr. Wing, but he became interested in a furry little creature he found in the back. The elderly proprietor refuses to sell the creature, citing the great responsibility required with it. But his teenage grandson, knowing that their family also was desperate for money, sold the creature to Rand without his grandfather's knowledge or consent. The boy told Rand three important rules for the care of the creatures, but did not elaborate on why they were.

Stephen:

Yeah, that's always a good thing to let people know. Like it's great to give'em rules like you. Stop at a stop sign. Yeah. But it's also good to let you know you stop at a stop sign so that you don't have an accident. Yes. The grandson should have had the responsibility to say, here are the rules and here's why. But we'll get into the rules later.

Steve:

Yes. But they are maua and in Cantonese, that means Devil Demonn or Gremlin. And the Mandarin pronunciation is mug. I like Ma wine. Me too. And I feel like there were so many inventors in eighties and nineties movies, like where the dad was a wild, crazy eccentric inventor. You mean like honey, I blew up the kids? Yeah. Like with all those movies that I, I feel like there were so many, was that a job like back then where a lot of dads were

Stephen:

inventors? I don't think so. I think it's like nowadays when you're watching a movie and. I'm a writer.

Steve:

Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah. Cause they, they just kind of fill in the blank for Yeah. The job. Okay. Well, we then meet Billy, who can't get his car started one cold December morning. He goes up after a while and talks to a family friend Mr. Federman, who lost his job some while back and distressed for, and cars like Billies. But he does trust his American made giant plow that's never failed him yet.

Stephen:

he says, you have to worry about those foreign cars have gremlins. And Billy heads to the bank on foot with his dog Barney and tow And barely makes it on time.

Steve:

Yeah. Now is the whole American cars versus foreign cars still a debate? Cuz I don't really know much

Stephen:

about cars. No. So it's not really as much anymore. There was kind of a thing whenever we had the economic collapse in 2008. Mm-hmm. and they were like, we have to save the American auto. But now a lot of American cars are made overseas. Parts of them are, and foreign companies have become so popular here, but you still have some people who kind of prefer red hats, who always taught American, made like it's a badge of honor though no cell phones are made in the US and everybody has a cell phone. It's pretty much impossible these days with a global economy. Like we have to only buy American and many Americans own foreign dealer. So then when you're buying a foreign car from your local dealership, you're still supporting American jobs. So it's semantics at that point, I think. Cool.

Steve:

Straight talk now while he is at work. He's visited by Mrs. Beagle, the town cunt, who owns most of the property in town. We watch her scr out on the mother and children before going in and telling Billy that his dog destroyed one of her imported porcelain lawn. But would rather have the dog put down than paid for the damage, saying she'll put him in the spin dryer and hide to kill it. The dog that, I

Stephen:

mean, that's dark. That's dark. I mean, yeah.

Steve:

Yeah. The dog sensing that she's a bitch jumps out from under Billy's desk and frightens her. The bank manager, Mr. Corbin, yells at Billy for bringing his dog to work, but lets him keep his. Mrs. Degal also tried to play the Oh my wee, oh my Way card, as if she's about to die from the fright given to her by the dog even though we wouldn't be so lucky. Yeah. Yeah. I'm firmly on the side of the dog on this argument. Unlike Remy, who for whatever reason, hated the dog, like more so than most dogs on tv, every time they came on screen, he was not happy. No. He said, said, get this dog outta my

Stephen:

house. It was so strange, like he would run up to the TV and bark. And I don't know if Barney was on the screen more than dogs and other movies, but every single time he was on there and what was interesting, he could have give two shits about gizmo. Yeah. Who is another little furry creature, but just Barney, Remy thought Barney was the devil and get off my screen. He might as well

Steve:

have been a husky. Yeah. Now Billy's not the only one who's worked at a bank before home, babe. Yeah, I

Stephen:

worked as a bank teller in high school and. I never dealt with any customers like her. You know, you're always gonna have some mean customers, but none of them ever threatened to kill the family pet right in front of you where other people could hear exactly what

Steve:

they were saying. Yeah, that's very much not manners.

Stephen:

Now, Mrs. Degal is played by the brilliant poly holiday, best known as flow from the sitcom Alice, which I know you're not familiar with either. But this is one of those roles where I always remember her because she gets to chew the scenery so much, and she's just delightfully evil and awful. There are no redeeming qualities about this character

Steve:

at all. Not at all. Now after work, Billy stops by Dory's Tavern, where he sees one of his coworkers, Kate, whom he is, has the hots for. And she has a part-time side job at the bar. They're trying to get Dory labeled as a historic place, so won't be to down her clothes, most likely by Mrs. Degal. Billy also runs into his coworker in total smarmy muck Gerald played by Judge Reinhold. So

Stephen:

Judge Reinhold was really big in the eighties for the supporting character. And I have to wonder if there were deleted scenes later because just to have Gerald in the bank scene and in the bar scene and not tormented by the gremlins later, I'm like, did the scene get cut? Because you don't bring in Judge Reinhold to not have him tormented by gremlins. Yeah. I like, I know that things from the eighties, you're not gonna get a lot of the. Deleted scenes like you do these days. Yeah, so that would be something I'd be interested to find out is if there is a, Gerald also gets it from the Gremlin scene that was deleted. We

Steve:

can hope listeners, if you know of it at us, please. Yes. Now Billy returns home and talks to his mom just before his father ran, gets home from his trip to Chinatown with the Maua, which he's named Gizmo. And since the living creature can't wait until Christmas to open the box, he gets it. And after a flash from the camera frightens the creature. Rand remembers to tell us on the three rules.

Stephen:

The creatures do not like bright light and they'll be killed by sunlight. You must never give them any waer either to drink or to bathe, and you must never ever feed them after midnight. Now, would you follow these rules, babe? Okay. So sunlight I get That's fine. No feeding after. everybody needs water to drink, like some sort of fluid to drink and everything's made out of water. So like I just don't get the second rule of. Are these things never thirsty? Like I would absolutely follow the rules. I just worry about their dehydration. Yes, exactly.

Steve:

Plus, I remember how hard it was trying to keep my iPhones dry and the number of them that got water damage just tells me that a pet would be not long for this world if it wasn't allowed to

Stephen:

get wet. Yeah. Now did you, oh yeah. So what if the Maua rolls in poo or something, or gets something on it? Like how do you clean it?

Steve:

I don't know.

Stephen:

But Joe Dante and Chris Columbus, we need answers to these things. Yes.

Steve:

Now, did you ever get a

Stephen:

pet for Christmas? No, I got a puppy for my birthday once. Did you ever get

Steve:

a pet for Christmas? No, my parents only got dogs as family pets. Whenever one died, we got another one. Oh, well there's that. And then there was the time when we got two, but like a year and a half apart from each other. But yeah, they were always family gifts that were like just because it was in for holidays because they didn't want it to be one person. So it was a family dog.

Stephen:

Kind of like our little Remy

Steve:

Kins. Yes. Now, the next day, Billy sees his friend Pete again, and they play with Gizmo. But because kids are the absolute worst, Peter accidentally knocks over a glass of water and gets gizmo wet. Didn't even take 12 hours. Nope. Gizmo goes into a compulsion and five tiny fur balls pop out of his back. They grow and a few minutes later they develop into creatures just like gi. He had babies. Oh my

Stephen:

goodness.

Steve:

He goes to tell his father about it and his father immediately starts thinking about how he can make money selling them. The

Stephen:

Peltzer pet. Every family in America would want

Steve:

one. Yes, Peter wants to take a creature home, but Billy thought at best to take one to the local school and have the science teacher experiment on it first.

Stephen:

Yes. Because you know, whenever I'm thinking. Who has the knowledge to deal with an unknown creature

Steve:

grade school science teacher? Always. Yep.

Stephen:

In, in the middle of nowhere. Yep, exactly. Absolutely. That's who I would take it to.

Steve:

Once there, he puts a single drop of water on the creature and a new one emerges. The teacher fascinated, keeps it for examination, and Billy leaves. Now with all of them being so cute, at first, would you be tempted if you found out about the water rule to have it reproduce and make more, like if we could find like duplicate Remys just by feeding him milk or something? Well,

so

Stephen:

as we're about to discuss, once you see how the new ones behave compared to the original, I think you'd be hesitant to make new ones. But if they all acted like gizmo or re. Then the temptation would be extraordinarily strong. Yes.

Steve:

Now, as you mentioned, Billy discovers the new personalities of the creatures are markedly different than gizmos do tell gizmos friendly and playful and adorable. But the new creatures are mean nasty and destructive. Uhoh, one of them is a white mohawk, which Billy named Stripe is the new leader of the pack and the obvious villain of the gang. So,

Stephen:

All like growing up and like talking about the movie and things before we watch it again. I always thought his name was Spike. I don't know where like how I got Spike, but I guess it's close enough to

Steve:

Stripe. Yeah, Stripe tries to bite Billy's hand when he goes to Petit and that evening Billy finds his dog Barney hanging from some Christmas lights outside. He immediately suspects Mrs. Degal, but there was no footprints anywhere. Rand tells Billy that he would take Barney with him when he be goes to the upcoming inventors convention where he hoped to pedal his where somewhere to keep the dog safe. Now, in the original script, which went through a few drafts before the shooting script was finalized, at this point the dog was killed. Yeah, no, I'm glad the dog survived. I'm also glad that later on mom's head wasn't cut off and tossed down the stairs. Yeah. Obviously they would make it, it a lot less family friendly.

Stephen:

Yeah. I I don't think there's any coming back from Mom decapitation. No,

Steve:

not so much. And originally Stripe and Gizmo were the same character, with the same design. This changed when executive producer Steven Spielberg insisted one of the gremlins be the good guy with whom the audience could. and I definitely feel like that's why this film works. Is that like you have the good guy Gizmo and then you have the bad one. Stripe. Yeah. Everybody

Stephen:

loves Gizmo and I mean, whenever they were selling toys that year. Yeah. They were not selling Stripe toys. They were selling gizmos. Everybody got a gizmo. Yes.

Steve:

Now later be stops by Dory's Tavern again and sees Kate persuade a very drunk, dejected Mr. Federman to walk home instead of. Billy in which

Stephen:

he, he had driven his plow

there.

Steve:

Of course he has. Now Billy walks Kate home and on the way she tells him that the suicide rates are much higher at the holidays and how much he hates Christmas against defensive. When he asks why, just as they arrive at Kate's place, Billy asks her out and she says, yes. That night Billy's reading and the creatures are clamoring to be fed. He looks at the clock and it's 1135. So he goes and gets some, some fried chicken, which they all devour except. Who knows better. Yeah. Meanwhile, at the school, the science teacher antagonizes the creature in his care by performing blood tests on it after working well until the night the teacher leaves around 2:20 AM leaving a half a sandwich on the table, which the creature can reach from the cage and eats it. So

Stephen:

Kate is such a bundle of joy. No Like the whole conversation about the suicides of the holidays is out of place for a family. And I, I just have to guess that there aren't many young people in town and that's why Billy's only option to date is Kate because she seems like a real downer. And I would have to say like if there was a girl that worked the checkout line at the IGA or something there, go for her instead of Kate, because it seems like you'd be watching, you know, snow White and Kate would go into. You know all about indentured servitude and slavery, don't you? That's what Snow White is. Those dwarfs, she's their slave. It's the first thing of white slavery on screen. That would be Kate.

Steve:

Yeah, she seems like a downer, but the next day is Christmas Eve. Nothing can go wrong on the holidays, eh, wrong in the morning. Rand has left with Barney for the convention. Billy S's mother to come upstairs and look. All the creatures have disappeared except gizmo and They've been replaced by soccer, ball size, slimy green cocoons, like out of aliens, which appear in art and definitely evil. Yeah, 100%. His mother asked if he fed them after midnight, and Billy looks over at the clock, which still reads 1135. He checks and discovers the wires were deliberately chewed up, so it was really after midnight when he fed them. Oops. Oh,

Stephen:

they're so

Steve:

sneaky. Now. Yeah, they are sneaky and anything cute that goes into one of those things that's not coming out looking like a beautiful butterfly.

Stephen:

No, this is definitely a reverse metamorphosis. When you're already cute and you go into one of those cocoons, my guess is you're not coming out better.

Steve:

I would be tempted just to crush'em all at that point. Like I don't even wanna see what they come out to be. I would just take a bat to it or a flame thrower or something. Set it on fire. Yes. Now in the afternoon, Rand calls home from the convention. It was out of his league and the event was, are far more advanced than he was. So he's coming home early and would be in later that night. Meanwhile, Billy and Pete meet the science teacher at the school where the creature there has undergone a similar transformation. The teacher refers to it as the pupil stage. Afterward the bell rings and the teacher wishes his Stu students and Merry Christmas, and I'd see them after winter. And then the cocoon starts to hatch

Stephen:

at the peltzer house. A terrified gizmo takes refuge inside a football helmet, and the teacher calls Billy at the bank telling him they've hatched, and Billy, who is just getting off work, runs to the school there. He finds that the creature has killed the teacher and shoved his syringe from the blood test into his butt. Immediately alarmed. He reaches for the phone, but a clawed hand rises up and bats him. He follows the creature through the building and gets his first look at the now vaguely reptilian creature. When it takes another swipe at him. It isn't much bigger than before, but it's even more malicious and has teeth and razor sharp claws, which it uses to create havoc and the creature

Steve:

escapes now. The teacher had a coming, doing the experiments on them, right? So I'm

Stephen:

not sure that a blood test test deserves. But they needed a death at this point in the movie to show how dangerous the gremlins are. And so I guess someone who didn't respect the creatures is an easy

Steve:

target. Yep. Meanwhile, at the Peltzer house, the creatures have pulled gizmo from his hiding place and are torturing him. Poor Gizmo. Mm. Billy's mother here sounds upstairs and goes up with a knife to investigate. She finds nothing except the five hatched cocoons. Just then. Billy calls her from the school warning her to leave the house immediately, but one of the creatures disconnects the phone. Then she hears noises downstairs, goes to investigate them and sees them making a mess of the place using household items. She kills the creatures one at a time. One of them was eating outta the blender and she switches it on killing it. She uses cooking spray to make another one to retreat into the microwave, which she switches on, causing it to explode. She stabbed a third on the kitchen counter. The fourth was hiding in the Christmas train at attacked. Billy who had just got a home from school, arrived and grabbed a sword that was just lying around their house and killed the creature, sending it headlong into the fireplace. The fifth one, the one with the mohawk named Stripe, escaped from the house. So

Stephen:

earlier in the movie, they had shown us that they had swords hanging on the wall. And that was one of those things that they can at least say, Hey, we showed you the swords hang on the wall, and we showed you that when you close the door too hard they fall off the wall. So it kind of made sense that there was gonna be a sword handy because we'd already seen it.

Steve:

Yeah. And just good on Billy's mom for being a badass bitch and getting shit done. Yeah, I was not expecting that from like the matriarch of a family in an eighties movie. Yeah.

Stephen:

And I remember laughing as a child at the one in the blender and the one in the microwave. As an adult. Again, I have reservations about children seeing some of those things, but it's still awesome. But as an adult, I think it's brilliant and I absolutely love it.

Steve:

Yes. Now Billy grabbed Gizmo and they track the creatures to the Y M C A where it had broken in. The creature takes another swipe at him and Billy is, they're just in time to see it jump into the pool, multiplying exponentially as the water bubbles boils and fogs Billy. Now hopelessly outnumbered retreats from the Y M C. As a few minutes later, thousands of little gremlins emerge. Billy returns home and takes his mother to see the doctor for the wounds inflicted by the fourth gremlin. Then he goes to the police station and tries to get cops to take action, but they just assume he is drunk even though they're drinking themselves. They refuse to do anything, but the first calls are coming in about freak accidents and fires caused by the gremlins and the cops go to check things out leaving Billy alone in the police station. Of course. Would you believe Billy's story? Not at all. I wouldn't either. No. I wouldn't be calling someone drunk while I'm sitting there pounding back. Yeah. To Scotch

Stephen:

Yeah. That's one of those things. And also like, yeah, we're gonna leave you here in the jail. Obviously we're a small town and there are only two people here. Hopefully there's no one in the cells that now were leaving unattended. Yeah.

Steve:

Now the gremlins are busy little creatures and set out to destroy as much as they. They injure a man who's putting mail in the mailbox tampered with the electrical grid causing sparks to fly and lights to go on and off all over town causing wrecks by making all the lights at the intersection green. And they kill Mrs. Deel by tampering with her stair lift, making it go so fast. It flings are out of an upstairs window, but I'm okay with that. Yeah.

Stephen:

And they get into the Federman snowplow and use it to demolish half of his house and potentially crush he and his. Because we never see them later, and the last we see is the plow going right towards them while they're stuck up against a wall. Probably crushed to death.

Steve:

Probably crushed to death. Yep. They disabled the brakes in the police car, so when the cops are going to the fireman's, they wreck their car, which is also not cool. Pete manages to keep the gremlins at bay from his bedroom

Stephen:

window. Now the Mrs. Deel death scene is one of those that sticks with all people that have seen the movie, especially kids, because I remember the first time I ever saw one of those chairlifts in person, I kept thinking, I wonder how fast it goes. Yeah. Only to find out that they don't go fast at all. And it is that sort of physical comedy with a death of someone who deserves it. That makes it really funny. Yes,

Steve:

exactly. Now Billy goes to Doris Tavern to check on Kate who's being held hostage by the gremlins. I have issues with that whole scene. Yeah. She's been serving them all night long. Happily, but all of a sudden she's in danger. Yeah. The gremlins are drinking beer, getting drunk, playing cards and cheating, and

Stephen:

one's a female dressed as like a gangsters mall.

Steve:

Yeah. There's one that's break dancing, people playing on the ceiling, fans tearing stuff up as best as they. Kate notices that they shrink away from her matches when she goes to light their cigarettes,

Stephen:

which is so like, like my cigarette. Okay. I'm the good bar made. Yeah, like run

Steve:

away, Kate. Yeah. Once she figures that out, she picks up a camera and takes their picture and the flash each time makes them cringe. She uses that to get to the door, but is confronted by another gremlin wearing sunglasses and holding a gun. Even this gremlin's forced to retreat when the glare of Billy's headlights illuminates the bar's front. Kate leaves with Billy. Meanwhile, Rand is still on his way home, stopping at a gas station to call home again, but he can't get it through because the line's out. Oh. He does manage to bring in a little money by selling one of his inventions, a smokeless ash tray, which is billowing smoke, right? The attendant Barney barks at him, which irritates him. They still have a long try ahead.

Stephen:

So there's one other gremlins in there that gets behind the bar with Kate and is wearing a gremlin size trench coat and sunglasses, and he pulls the trench coat open and kind of dances. As a child, I didn't get it like what a flasher was. Yeah, I didn't get like, I was from the hills of West Virginia that we didn't have flashers. I'm

Steve:

sorry. We had them on every corner and it was always a lucky site, Just kidding. Now this time the car doesn't start, so they have to make a run for it. They go to the bank only to find that it too has been vandalized by the gremlins.

Stephen:

And maybe that's the scene where Judge Reinhold was killed by the

Steve:

gremlins. You. They can hear small explosions in the distance. And Kate now says that she's ready to share why she hates

Stephen:

Christmas. Thank goodness, because the movie wasn't dark enough. Yes. Do you wanna go for it? Am I love? I would love to. So when she was a little girl, her father disappeared without a trace on Christmas Eve. He didn't turn up on Christmas Day either her, she and her mother were too nervous to eat for days on. He was discovered dead several days later in their chimney where he had dressed Lake Santa Claus. He had been hoping to surprise Kate coming down the chimney with lots of presences for her, but he had slipped on the top, fallen down the chimney, and broken his neck, and his body had gotten stuck in the chimney and they hadn't noticed until she had gone to go like the chimney. And there was a horrible smell coming from.

Steve:

Yes. I mean, surprisingly dark given the family friendly differences they made. Right? I mean, you would think that when they were like, all right, let's not have the dog get killed. Let's not have the mom get decapitated. Should we leave in this story where Kate's dad,

Stephen:

dad's stuck in the chimney after he broke his neck, while

Steve:

also breaking the whole No Santa Claus for all these kids watching the movie. Yeah. No, let's leave it in. It just seems like a very odd choice.

Stephen:

Again, Billy, there has to be other girls in this town.

Steve:

I don't know. Being from a small town, babe, I mean, did you have more than one option in high school? no comment. Okay. Now, after telling this story, they noticed that Calm has returned to this town. As everyone is super bummed out by her fucked up story, figuring they must have gone someplace dark. They go to the local movie theater where sure enough, all the gremlins are inside watching Snow White. And living for

Stephen:

it. Yeah. So they go around to the back behind the screen, which is always so cool when they show that in a movie, being behind the screen and getting to see it projected on it. Yeah. And they go down into the cellar and they turn on the gas. And they leave some burning newspapers and towels intending to destroy the building, which is probably a historical landmark, being that old of a movie theater in the Northeast, and they're hoping to blow up the building and the creatures inside of it just as they're leaving the gremlins, detect their presence and go after

Steve:

them. Yes, Kate and Billy, who still have Gizmo flee through the back door with the gremlins in hot pursuit, and they managed to barricade the door, trapping the gremlins inside, just as the gas leak causes an explosion and all the gremlins are killed.

Stephen:

Now, I do admit that this is a smart way to get rid of most of the problems quickly in terms of storyline with us seeing earlier the stop motion gremlins coming down the street. Yeah. We saw how many of them there were after the Y m. It would've taken forever for them to kill the gremlins one by one. So at this point in the movie, they had to have something to get rid of most of them.

Steve:

Yes. And Kate spot's one survivor, Stripe, of course, in the window of Montgomery Awards department store. He left the theater briefly to get snacks and candy, and saw the explosion. Determined not to let Stripe escape. Billy and Kate break into the store. Billy takes the bat and goes to look for Stripe while Kate goes into the back room and starts looking for anything useful like lights. So

Stephen:

I loved Montgomery Wards growing up. They had a great toy and video game section and I never heard of it before. Oh really? Maybe, huh. I wonder if it was regional or something like that. But yeah, we had Montgomery. It was good. Okay, cool.

Steve:

Stripe uses the items he finds in the Star to attack Billy, like a tennis ball launcher, a conveniently sized child size crossbo, and later a Chucky size chainsaw. Kate in the back room finds a set of circuit breakers and starts turning shit on and off, randomly the background music, some lights and a water fountain that.

Stephen:

For

Steve:

shadowing folks. Billy's using the bat to defend himself from strip's chainsaw, when the lights come on. Distracting Stripe who has to retreat and is dragged away by the chainsaw.

Stephen:

So the whole child size crossbo, like I understand smaller chainsaws. That makes sense. But that crossbo is teddy bear. Like I hope that they're not like. Baby's first's first Crossbo. Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking. Hopefully they just made it small so it didn't look as ridiculous. In Stripe's Hand.

Steve:

Yes. Now Gizmo has left Billy's backpack and is roaming the store. And he and Barney meet up once more. Gizmos found a toy car to drive around with, which I bet was like the Christmas toy of the season with him in the car.

Stephen:

Yeah. Remote controlled gizmo in the pink car. Yep.

Steve:

They finally locate Stripe, who has discovered the water fountain and also found the gun sale counter. Yes. Billy rushes into the garden area with the fountain only to find stripe posed and ready to reproduce again. Oh, Stripe shoots the gun. But miss. It's gizmo to the rescue as he drives his toy car up against a leaning shovel, flying through the air and striking the window shades, opening one of the shades, rolling up all the way to the top, letting and streaming sunlight directly onto Stripe, killing it. I was waiting at this point for him to have been hit by the sunlight in the process and he wasn't. Thank goodness. Yes. And is belly watches stripe melts into a puddle of gunk that's disgusting and foul before falling into the water. And so

Stephen:

what's really interesting in that scene two, Yay. Barbie Car of the Rescue, and two, the sunlight is on the fountain. So it's like stripe is reproducing, losing parts of himself and they're melting at the same time, which is causing all of that extra just awfulness.

Steve:

Yeah. Caton Rand arriving the room and see the mess. Stripes to king body jumps out the fountain for one last scare, but he can't handle the sunlight and collapses, and they all return home saying, Ew, gross.

Stephen:

Stripes, mutilated corpse, not family friendly

Steve:

chefs kissed to the, whoever designed it. It's the stuff of nightmares. Oh my God. So much so. But I can't imagine bringing my five year old to the movie and being like, right honey, have a sleep. Have a good night's sleep tonight. No nightmares.

Stephen:

Maybe that's why I've always had such messed up dreams,

Steve:

probably. Thanks, mama and Papa Martin Now in the evening, the Pelters are watching the news about the destruction where it's described as a series of unexplained accidents and fires, possibly a mass hysteria. Yeah. They're confronted by the owner of the Chinese Curiosity Shop, who is Basical. Fucking Americans. Yeah. Takes the maua, who knows exactly where to go once he heard the news. And the Chinese man can barely conceal as disgust for television in Western society in general, as demonstrated by the family's carelessness causing the destructive gremlin infestation. Mr. Wing returns rans$200 and takes gizmo back with him. But before he goes, he tells Billy that one day he might be ready to become the creatures caretaker, to which I say really. Isn't he? The kudo caused all of this stuff to happen? Yeah.

Stephen:

Like yes and.

Steve:

Between like the talk of the car at the beginning, how economically depressed the whole place was, how much of a boner killer Kate was. Yeah, I mean, and like this ending, like is there like some sort of whole philosophical commentary about how Americans ruin everything?

Stephen:

A, we do. Yeah. And b I, he says you have done to the mawi what you have done with all of nature's gifts. You do not understand and you are not.

Steve:

Facts. Yep. Now the movie ends with Rand's voice telling viewers that if they have any unexplained electrical or mechanical problems, they should be alert for gremlins.

Stephen:

Oh. Or it could be Mercury

Steve:

retrograde. Yes, there's that too. So final thoughts on the movie? My Love.

Stephen:

I love it. As I've said repeatedly, not a children's movie like it, I thought it was growing up and now I first told you, I was like, oh, this is a movie from my childhood. You're gonna love it. And we're watching it and we're like, that's dark, but it's really well done. The special effects for 1984 are fantastic. I still would want am maua. Cuz Gizmo is the best. I love it. And I hope to introduce you to Gremlins too soon.

Steve:

Yeah, sounds good. Other fun little bits to wrap up with is that in the original script there was also a scene where the gremlins attacked McDonald's but they were eating the customers instead of the burgers. Maybe that's what happened to your guy.

Stephen:

Maybe he was having a Big Mac at Burger King and the, the gremlins came in and ate Judge Rein. Yep.

Steve:

And before Mrs. Degal went flying we got to see her in her house talking to her cats. The different names that we hear are co ruple, peso, drima, and dollar bill, all different forms of currency cuz she's a greedy old lady. Yeah. And in the creating process Chris Wallace suggested they use puppets instead of the proposed stop motion. As a compromise, the studio suggested a spider monkey in a suit, which was tested at Joe Dante's office. The animal went crazy, tearing the office apart and pooping everywhere. Dante screamed at the trainer to get the animal and then asked Wallace soap puppets. puppets. Indeed, yes. And so, yes. It was a great movie to revisit. I don't like, again, I think that it's perfect for this month's topic because. Takes place at Christmas, but is no means, in my opinion, a Christmas movie, even though it

Stephen:

is about a Christmas present and everything like that. It is not something that will give you the feel

Steve:

goods. No, not at all. Unless you enjoy pain and destruction. Ugh, my favorites. Yes. But stay tuned cuz we have some more off colored Christmas movies coming up. Yep.

Stephen:

We're gonna be covering Die Hard. Mm-hmm. Batman returns. Yeah. And Queen Latifah's last

Steve:

holiday. Yes. But we'd love to know what you thought of gremlins, as well as any other movies you're excited to hear about coming up this month. You can email us at happy life podd gmail.com

Stephen:

or you can get in touch with us on all the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. Happy

Steve:

Life Pod and until next time, everybody, stay happy. Stay happy.