36: Gremlins (1984)

This week, Emma and Ally recap the festive chaos of Gremlins (1984), the ultimate holiday horror-comedy. From the adorable Gizmo to the devious Stripe, the hosts unwrap the bizarre rules of Mogwai ownership and debate whether this movie is the best PSA against impulse buying.

The hosts also unpack Phoebe Cates’ wildly dark Christmas monologue and discuss how this movie made an entire generation terrified of microwaves.

So, grab your eggnog, keep the snacks away, and join us for a nostalgic romp through one of the most chaotic Christmas classics ever made. Spoilers ahead—and maybe a gremlin or two in the studio.

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Transcript

Mogwai. Mogwai 

Okay.

Mogwai

I'm just trying to do a little imitation of gizmo. 

And you nailed it. 

Did I nail it? Are you just saying that? 
Well, hello everyone. And thank you for joining us for another episode of Spooky Chicks and Horror Flicks. 
We are your hosts, Emma.

my God. That was 10 times better than mine. 

Oh, but I'm also Ally. 

And we are two best friends who love to drink and talk about our favorite horror films. So welcome everybody. 

For those of you that would like to follow us on social and see what we are up to, you can find us on TOK at spooky chicks and horror flicks.

 And we also have an awesome at Patreon community. If you would love to support the podcast and , just get a little bit more involved with what we're doing on the day to day. 

Today we are reviewing 1984s. Gremlins! This movie is 40 years old this year. I want to throw up. 

Same. 

Why do the 80s feel like they were 15 years ago?

Also, we were not born in the 80s, so we were not. 

We were not. I want to make that clear. We were not. So 

I'm curious as to why you feel like it's the 80s. It was like yesterday, but I digress. just a heads up, we spoil the shit out of all these movies we review. You can go watch it on max and come back.

 but if you don't give a fuck just come and enjoy this little gremlin ride with us. And speaking of tiny green creatures. Emma, what have you been up to? 

 Well, we are, on the tail end of a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I had a really nice time with my family. And the producer and I just did a lot of stuff around the house and enjoyed Time with the puppies and it was pretty great. How have you been 

Busy? It felt like a long short week if that makes sense. 

Yes, that's how I feel, too 

I got to see my grandma I made a bunch of food with my mom and it was a lovely Thanksgiving I'm just getting confused because people get , Thursday and Friday off and I keep thinking it's Monday already 

Ugh, it's coming.

We're back to work tomorrow, so gross. 

I know, But on the topic of holidays and libations, what are you drinking today, Emma?

Okay, Als, so I actually took a little bit of a page from your book today, and I'm having a blood orange white claw surge. In honor of you.

Thank you. 

And in honor of the holiday season. 

I'm not sure how that correlates to a holiday season, but you know, I'm going to give you that one. 

And what are you drinking my girl?

I have my standard three, I have my White Claw and a little bit of warm mulled wine in honor of the first day of December and water from a big dumb cup.

Well, cheers to episode 36, I believe. Oh my God. We're old. That's great. It simultaneously feels like we've just started. And it also feels like we've been doing this forever in the best way. So cheers to episode 36. 

And getting into the synopsis for today's film, we have a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town. 

I feel like this is a little bit misleading of a synopsis, but that's okay. 

I agree. It really doesn't tell you anything.

No. Which is kind of great if someone has like never watched this and that's all that they read. Sure. I'm sorry. I'm going to go in like a mini tangent real quick, but I think that in this day and age with films we get way, way, way too much information about them before we see them. A lot of it is not by choice, it's within like marketing or you're seeing trailers and things like that.

But even trailers show way too much versus like trailers back in the eighties, nineties that you kind of got like a little bit of a taste of what the film was going to be, but. there was still so much that you were anticipating upon seeing it. And I just feel like this synopsis is the perfect example of how I wish a lot of synopsises were, honestly.

But as we get into it, I think a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules. Doesn't quite make sense. 

That's true. but I kind of like it because it kind of just throws us off, you know? Well like what three rules? Now I want to watch.

This film has a 7. 3 out of 10 on IMDb, which I will say I wholeheartedly agree with. 

For Rotten Tomatoes the tomato meter says 86 percent and I'm like, that is super fucking high. but I kind of agree because I fucking love this movie.

This film is fun. If that's one thing that we can say about it is it is a fun ride all the way through. And so I feel like that really resonates with a lot of audiences and critics that have critiqued it. 

Clearly, based on these scores. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? It's a great holiday vibe.

It is, it is. It's really honestly the best way for us to kick off the actual Christmas season or just the holidays in general, whatever you celebrate. 

This film was also directed by Joe Dante, who I love because he directed The Howling? Hello? I love a good werewolf film. 

He also did small fucking soldiers. Do you guys remember that movie? So good.

So epic 

So good I feel like there is a genre And gremlins is kind of in this too where it's not full on horror like gory slasher crazy, but it's Not necessarily children's film either. It's almost like family horror where it's like a little bit of something for everybody. 

He also did “The Burbs”, which is just a category kind of skewed in that category as well. I love the burbs.

Love that.

And then in terms of writing this film, this film was fully written by Chris Columbus not to be Confused with Christopher Columbus, and I know you had some good notes on this one. 

So, Chris Columbus is a legend in several different facets. He directed, or excuse me, he wrote “Christmas with the Kranks”. 

That is one of our favorite Christmas movies. 

I watched that on my wedding day, and it wasn't even during December. 

It is not horror at all But if you are like us and like a little bit of Christmas cheer watch Christmas with the cranks. 

It's streaming somewhere So just I don't know fucking Google it but obviously he also did The Goonies. So epic. Classic.

This film gives me Goonies vibes.

I can see that. I get Goonies vibes from The Gremlins. 

So Gremlins, was I think essentially the first script he wrote and he could not sell it for shit until Steven Spielberg was like, let's fucking do this. And I'm like, Steven, you just be creating heroes left and right.

I also love these films that I find out later on that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer on because it's just like, oh, duh, 

anyways, 

and just to shout this out as well. Not only is Chris Columbus, a writer, he's a director. So he directed Home Alone 1 and 2.

So get, get your cozies on and watch those.

Honestly, I'm about to flip this table right now because I fucking love those films too. I'm just in a mood right now.

It's December 1st. We're ravenous. 

We are ravenous for the holidays, let me tell you. That is just the best thing that you could possibly tell me. I love Home Alone 1 and 2, And 

Getting into our top billed cast. 

Our leading man, Zach Galligan, who plays Billy, is like the main protagonist in this film, I guess?
And then we have Phoebe Cates. Who plays Kate. And if y'all know me, you know, I love her cause she is in fast times at Ridgemont high, which is one of the greatest, greatest films ever, amazing, amazing for us.
And then we have Hoyt. Axton who plays Randy Peltzer, who is Billy's dad, and something kind of cool is randomly a badass composer. 

I'm reading here for Easy Rider and Forrest Gump, two of my favorite films. Yeah. 

Those are the big ones I pulled. He's composed a lot of shit. So like we love a multifaceted bitch. We do.

And then our favorite, Corey Feldman, who plays a very young Corey Feldman. Mind you, he plays Pete He's Egger Frog from The Lost Boys. We also love him in the burbs. 

He's also in the Goonies. Don't forget, he's also Goonies. Yes. What a man. We love you. That's all I'm gonna say. . 

Yes.

And then Polly Holiday. And I'm like, what a name. What a name. That must be a stage name, but I still love it. Yes. she's Marva in the Lindsay Lohan parent trap. 

Okay. I might flip this table again. Cause I fucking love parent trap.

You got to stop flipping tables, bro. 

Okay. And then I got to add in just like a couple of my faves, Al's, if you don't mind, If y'all didn't know he's not credited, but Howie Mandel voices Gizmo, the little Mogwai. A fun fact that I have for this is that little to no actual dialogue for the gremlins and Mogwai existed in the script.

And in addition to several instances of on set re-writes the voiceovers were mostly ad libs by Howie. And he had to repeat snippets of just performed dialogue or in reaction to other sound effects or the environment to this end, Howie Mandel recorded Gizmo's lines phonetically for foreign dubs of the movie where localized dialogue and jokes helped make this movie successful with audiences worldwide.

So wild 

I love Gizmo's voice and like so good when he's like 

And then lastly, I just want to bring up this little handsome gentleman Mushroom, the dog who I'm obsessed with. And Mushroom was not only the main dog actor for this film, but he was the dog actor who played Lance Henriksen's dog in the cult horror movie Pumpkin Head from 1988, 

And Mushroom's A fucking great actor. 

Mushroom is an awesome actor. I wish he was in it more, if I'm being completely honest.

He was in it a good amount. I'm happy he didn't get fucking yeeted.

Oh my god, same. I was gonna bring up the little lights thing, but we'll bring it up later.

Oh yeah, yes. I also have some other kind of fun facts real quick before we get into the film. So Gizmo was also the inspiration for the Furby, a multi million dollar, dollar selling mechanical stuffed animal that came out in the late 90s. 

Did you have a Furby? 

I hate to admit that I fucking did.

Okay. 

Remember my dad being like, This looks like Gizmo and it's freaking me out. 

I didn't have one. 

Oh, I was going to say, did you have one?

No, but I just thought the whole concept was freaky. So they can like, listen to you. for that to come out in the 90s, can you imagine if a Furby came out today? 

Dude, that's called AI now. 

ugh, scary.

Another little fun fact I have is that after watching Tim Burton's earlier short films, Steven Spielberg considered him to direct this movie, but he decided against it because at the time Tim Burton had never directed a full length feature movie, which is kind of crazy.

I'm trying to think of what his very, very first movie was. Film he was 

probably working on a nightmare before christmas during this but had not been released by then Because that movie took him like 10 years 

and like when did edward scissorhands come out was that after that was the 90s, bro I'm getting my timelines all mixed up.

But anyways, fun fact. Also an earlier attempt to have monkeys play the gremlins was abandoned because the test monkey panicked when it was made to wear a gremlin head. That's straight up animal abuse. 

So there was no CGI in this film. There's a little stop motion actually, And all of the gremlins were made out of fucking animatronics. Each of them cost at this, if they were made today between 60 to 90, 000. And holy shit, like, holy fuck. And there's a lot of those fucking gremlins just one going missing, can like set someone up greatly for a little bit. 

That's a salary right there, dude. 

Chris Columbus's script went through a few drafts before a shooting script was finalized and his original version had the Gremlins cast. Killing the dog and cutting off the mom's head and tossing it down the stairs.

 And these elements were never shot due to the fact that director Joe Dante and Warner brothers wanted this movie to be a little bit more family oriented. Hence what the producer was saying, a family horror for all. 

That would have been a very different movie. 

I would have walked out if they killed Mushroom.

Nobody fucks with mushroom. 

All right, Al's, you ready to get into it? Let's 

fucking do it, gremlin. 

Ouch. 

So this film opens with a narration by Rand. Peltzer. we come to find out a little bit later that he's a very quirky inventor and he's kind of like wandering through this Chinatown market.

He's also like trying, what he's doing there, he has like two purposes. He's trying to sell his quote unquote inventions and he wants to find a gift for his son for Christmas. And I'm like, why would you look there for your very Anglo Saxon son for a gift. Like maybe he's just trying to find some inspo.

He's, he's eclectic. And I'm here for that. I just, I'm here for that. Yeah. 

I actually have a fun fact here in the very beginning as. Rand is making his way through Chinatown. We see a wrecked car with its hood up and smoke coming out of it. And this car is an AMC Gremlin and in real life, AMC Gremlin logo bore a striking resemblance to the Gremlins featured in this film.

They were a little bit more grotesque and had a very reptilian appearance, but I thought that that was a fun little Easter egg that was kind of placed in the film. 

Shout out to Lisa who had a Gremlin. Shut up. That was her high school car and her dad painted her name on the side of it. What? Yeah.

For all of you that listen, I'm sure you know who Lisa is, but that is our, my mom. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Yes. Mama Lisa. Okay. That is amazing. Lisa, if you have any pictures of that, cause I know you're listening to this, please share cause I would love to see that. Something else I wanted to mention here too, is that as Rand is stumbling through the market, he gets introduced to someone who is credited in IMDb as Chinese boy. 

I kind of call him the kid throughout the film. 

Let's call him the kid. I like that. And the kid is leading him to a dimly lit shop which is run by his grandfather.

Oh, he's like taking him down some weird ass stairs. It's sketch. And it's like being in a basement. Maybe don't do that. 

 nother fun fact I have here is that the front door of Mr. Wing's little mysterious store has four Mandarin symbols engraved on it. And together they translate in English to gods and monsters.

Oh, cute. 

Kind of fun. Kind of a little fun fact. 

Wait, his name is Mr. Wing? 

Yeah, I guess.

I thought it was just grandfather. 

I like grandfather, but yeah, he's credited as Mr. Wing.

As Rand is. In the shop now, he decides to show Mr. Wing a gadget that he's created. And I think it's like some little device for a man who's traveling.

It's got like your toothbrush, your shaving device, kind of anything that you need. And as he's pitching this product to grandfather or Mr. Wing, Rand is starting to hear mysterious little chirping noises you could tell that he's getting a little bit distracted in his pitch. 

 wouldn't you just think it's a cat or a raccoon or a possum or a rat and just like leave it the fuck alone? 

No, I would have the same reaction. Like, what the fuck is that? I need to see what that is. It's just the curiosity in me. Curiosity killed the mogwai. 

Mogwai, I guess so. But yeah, so Randall goes to investigate it and The kid explains very casually that it's a fucking Mogwai. Like we're supposed to know what that means. And he's just like, yeah, whatever.

Sometimes it sings. 

Did you know Al's that in Cantonese Mogwai means devil, demon, or gremlin in the, Mandarin pronunciation I think is Mogwai, I'm at a totally fucking butcher that, and I apologize. But I'm trying my best. So 

I agree with the Devil, demon, and gremlin.

Yeah, which is kind of cool. Okay. Love that. Another little Easter egg.

Like, am I a mogwai?

Yes.

I'm a mogwai and a gremlin depending on my state of being. 

When we see him, he is so fucking cute. I mean, you can tell Rand immediately is like smitten and he's like, I need this little guy. And Gizmo has this little white patch of fur on his right eye and his coloring was directly modeled after Steven Spielberg's dog, which I thought was so cool. 

But Randall's like, bro, I must have him. And I like his little singing, it's a beautiful voice.

Yeah. 

He's like a musician. Honestly, cut that and put that at the top of the podcast. 

No, please don't. But I mean that sell, that singing would sell me too. And he's like, this is exactly what I've been looking for, for my son, and I'm like, the fuck? 

What? When you know, you know, 

I guess?

I guess so. And grandfather, or Mr. Wing, is like, nah, Mogwai is not for sale. And the little kid is like, bro, just go wait outside. I'll hook you up. It's like a drug deal. 

Well, and the kid is like, okay, I will give you this little Mogwai, but there are three very distinct rules that you have to follow.

Number one is you have to keep it away from any bright light. It's very dangerous for the Mogwai and it hurts them. Number two is you never get it wet. And then Als, do you want to say our number three, which is arguably maybe the most important? 

Never feed them after midnight. Wouldn't you ask the kid, okay, so what happens if these things are, what do I do if this happens?

100 percent I'd be fucking asking. 

But Randall's like, word, bye, thank you for this transaction. It's fine. It's fine.

Totally. 

We are now introduced to the town of Kingston Falls, which is a fictional town. It's supposed to be kind of modeled after maybe a New York state city.

We don't know for sure exactly where it is, but it's giving off New York vibes a little bit. 

It reminded me of Bedford Falls and “its wonderful life”. 

Yes.

And which we will see a lot of cues to in this movie. 

Well it has some cute, little small town vibes. One thing I really liked is it kind of reminded me of a very Norman Rockwell inspired aesthetic, it was snow covered streets and we've got some holiday cheer happening.

People are kind of prepping for Christmas and one other thing too, is that the set for King's Sin Falls is the same one used for Back to the Future.

And this is the universal backlot, which is kind of fun. 

Which you can go visit.

You can.

And what I will say is this is a very pleasant opening scene with, or opening title scene. And it's like, I kind of wish it were a real place because the kids are all having fun. Everybody's happy. Throwing snowballs. And the townspeople are all nice to each other, and I kind of wish this was real. 

It's cute. 

Then we meet Billy, our protagonist character. And he is in front of his house. He's trying to start his VW Bug, which I love. I always wanted a VW Bug. 

Same. And it's red.

Yeah, it's so cute. 

But I'm also like, he's trying to start it and it's completely covered in snow. And I'm like, maybe we start there. 

Ally and I, we're two California girls so we don't know jack shit about starting your car in the snow.

But I had multiple times during this film where I was like, Is your car even gonna start? It's snowing. 

It's snowing, but his car doesn't start. So. It doesn't start. He gotta walk. He's gotta walk. Well, and that, but first we met his neighbor, Mr. Fetterman, and he's being so nice to him. Like, yo, you need help with your car.

Well, Mr. Futterbin has a little tractor in the front.

It's a snowplow.

Oh, that's what it is. Yes. You're right. It's a snowplow. We also get introduced to little Mr. Barn or Barney, which is his dog again, played by mushroom. If you guys remember.
At first I thought that his name was Barn because he calls him Barn instead of Barney in the very beginning. And I'm like, Barn is a fucking cute name for a dog.

That is kind of cute. It's more like a Tennessee kind of name. It is. It gives, it gives me South. Yeah, a little bit. 

Barney gives me purple and green dinosaur. 

Okay. Anyways moving.

On as a sweet neighbor. Mr. Futterman. is trying to help Billy and he's just trying to chat and be like a chatty Kathy. Billy's like cool. Cool. Cool. Maybe later i'm late for work and i'm saying be nice to your neighbors. You never know when you're gonna need their fucking help. 

So true. So true 

Mr. Futterman is actually played by Dick Miller, who is also a king and also in Small Soldiers. And the Burbs.

Something I loved about him in this movie is that he complains about foreign cars and foreign electric products throughout this entire film. I'm like, all right, you go

You American man.

Then we see Billy and he's running / walking to work with Barn. 

If your house is that close, wouldn't you just walk anyways?

Yeah, I mean you don't need to drive.

I'm just saying also love the product placement for the massive burger king in town square. It made me want Burger King. So it worked and If you notice, all the snow on the ground in town square a lot of it is made out of uh, Just white sand. It's just white sand.

And if you look closely in some scenes, you can tell when the sand's being picked up by people running or their feet, their shoes are dragging it up.

Really? 

Yeah. 

Oh, I did not notice that.

And I want to know how they got it in and out of there. Cause that sounds like a bitch. 

Oh, Yeah. That's a really great question.

But not my job. I'd love to know that.

Billy is getting settled at the place that we find out that he works at, which is the town bank. He kind of places Barn under his desk, tied to a leash and Barn's a real good boy. And he just lays there. 

He's a good boy, but why don't we just leave him at home?

I know, 

Cause I'm pretty sure his mom, Lynn, doesn't have a job. She could watch Barn.

Just a man and his, pooch, ? They just can't be separated.

Regardless, Barney is there. and Billy actually sits next to Kate, who's played by Phoebe Cates, who's also a teller. And you can tell she has those googly eyes for Mr. Billy. 

She loves Billy.  

Then we meet the town's villain so to speak. This is Mrs. Deagle and you can see her storming up to the bank and she has like a broken snowman decoration head that she's carrying on her side and she comes right into the bank with this decoration we kind of can deduce and we'll find out a little bit later too that she's like a wealthy miser who owns much of the town's property and she threatens Billy she's like Billy, your dog broke my decoration and basically, I'm gonna take him and I'm gonna put him down because he fuckin knocked over my decoration earlier that morning.

It's giving Mrs. Gulch of The Wizard of Oz when she's like I'll get you and your little dog too. And Mrs. Deagle's literally saying how she could torture this dog by herself in front of all these townspeople. And then Barney hears that and he comes over the teller thing and knocks her over. And she deserved that yes.

And then she's crying crocodile tears and she's like, Oh, no, I have a weak heart. 

I have a weak heart. 

She's crazy. Well, and she talks about fucking putting him in her spin dryer on high heat. 

What the fuck? 

I literally wrote in my notes in all caps, nobody fucks with barn or I'll fuck you up. Nobody puts Barney in a barn.

Spin dryer. Fucking spin dryer. 

For fucking real.

Later after that whole fucking altercation, we see Billy he's at the bar and he's sketching because we find out that he's a little bit of an artiste.

As he's sitting there, drawing his dragon or whatever he's drawing he's sitting next to another bar patron and showing him his drawings and the dude is like hey, these are really good.

And that's actually Chuck Jones. Who is the animator of “Looney tunes” and the original Grinch and a bunch of other really fucking famous shit. What it's actually him and you can hear Billy later say “thanks. Mr. Jones” 

Wait, that's amazing. I did not know that at all. That's fantastic 

And then fucking Billy's bank colleague, Gerald, comes in being a total dick to him and basically saying I'm better than you and I'm gonna be running this company in like three years.

He's like berating him about the scene that happened earlier. He's like, I'm 23 and I'm already the VP. it's like, okay bro, fucking calm down. 

Also, is that how old these people are supposed to be? 

I guess, but I also thought that Billy was definitely younger than 21.

So how is he allowed in a bar? But also, maybe this bar is just a little loose on their regulations.

Yeah, but how would he be working at a bank with all that knowledge? And Okay, it's a movie.

It's a movie.

And Gerald, is actually played by Judge Reinhold, who stars in Fast Times at Ridgemont High with Phoebe Cates he's the one that She's her, her titas. Her boobies. 

Her yabbos. 

And this is a small role for Judge Reinhold because I'm pretty sure we don't see him after this. And I'm like, okay. 

Yeah. I don't think we do actually. Very ancillary Character.

But he also comes in hot. He also is talking shit to Billy too. 
He's like, Billy, I know that you're supporting your family, but you got to be tough. Then there's like no more of him after that.

I wonder what his sign is. 

Later at home, Billy is helping his mom in the kitchen and he is trying to use one of his dad's gadgets to crack some eggs for his mom and it is not working well. And this is our first indication of okay, it seems like Rand's inventions don't work very well or if they work.

In the beginning, they kind of lose all hope within a few uses. 

What I think is that they're completely unnecessary and make your tasks that you're trying to do more difficult. 

Yeah, it's not great. So I'm sorry, Randall. 

Yeah. But maybe we just crack eggs like normal people do. 

It also kind of reminds me of holes, like Stanley Yelnats's dad, Henry Winkler. He was also an inventive man. 

I'm tired of this, grandpa. 

Well, that's too damn bad.

Epic. So then Billy and his mom. They get interrupted by Rand coming home and he's all jolly holly christmas like hey Billy I have a gift that's all wrapped up for you and we know what's in this package and I'm like excuse me how is a Mogwai breathing through this wrapped up present. He's in a box. That has like no air holes. 

He's in a box that has wrapping paper over it. But anyways, so Randall's like, let's turn the lights down and we need to open it right now. Obviously, because this is a living breathing thing. 

Yeah. Doesn't he say like, we can't wait till Christmas.

Yeah. Yeah. Get this like open. 

And doesn't he think it's like a puppy? 

He thinks it's a puppy. Also, don't disrespect. Don't disrespect Barney who can hear you. 

Honestly, justice for Barney. 

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. 

The producer even said, he's like, why would your dad buy you a new pet when you have a perfectly good fucking family animal at your beck and call? Who's your best fucking friend. And literally everybody loves him except for Mrs. Deagle. 

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. You're getting passionate. 

Sorry.

As you should though, as you should. 

So they're opening this present and we see these precious, precious little hands emerge and cling to the side of the box and then, 

oh yeah, the hands, I forgot the hands.

Gizmo just kind of, lifts himself up and it's fucking cute as shit and gizmo reminds me of a perfect mix of my cats bug and james And Billy's like fuck. Yeah, this is awesome and Lind Now tries to take a picture of Gizmo and Billy and everybody in this house needs to remember the fucking rules.

And I will say Rand does a good job of being like these are important like he's not laissez faire about it, 

but he hasn't told them yet

Oh, has he not he has not but I think you lead with the rules. Yeah 

No, 100% rules should have been established before he even fucking opens the box 

So the flash goes off on Lynn's camera and Gizmo's like “Bright Light”, Kevin and I say that to each other when we're trying to go to bed. And when somebody turns a light on, 

wait, I'm going to start saying that to the producer. 

And then Randall's like, Oh, Oh, word. I got to explain these rules. You're right. Yes. And we just need to all be accountable for explaining Mogwai rules here. What a bitchin’ present, by the way, like, Yes, it's very obscure, but I would love it.

And then Gizmo and Billy are hanging out in his room. And I guess Gizmo's some kind of musical genius because he can like match keys. Billy's playing on his um, what is that called? 

Keyboard? 

Keyboard. Yeah. And they're, they're all, they're matching notes together.

And then he starts singing and I'm like, what the fuck? What is this animal? This musical genius.

He's the Elton John of our time. 

Honestly. But we get to see these bonding moments at the very top of the film. And we're like, okay, they already trust each other and love each other. And I'm like, damn, I want a Mogwai But my cat bug would probably beat the shit out of it.

So accurate. 

Yeah, just for the safety of a mogwai. I can't 

Billy puts a little santa hat on him because he's a cutie patootie. He needs a little Santa's cap and then shows him a mirror so that Gizmo can look at himself and the light kind of catches the reflection of the mirror and sort of shines into Gizmo's face and kind of scares him a little bit.

And so he falls down. He's not seriously hurt, but he does have a little bit of a, a boo boo, I would say. 
And then Billy takes him into the bathroom to kind of try to patch him up and have a little, little sweet moment together. 

I want to know how Billy already had a tiny baby Santa hat ready for Gizmo.

Maybe it was Barney's, which is heartbreaking if it was. 

Also, Barney is in the room right now, again, justice for Barney. 

I agree. 

He's watching all this bonding. 

Totally agree. That must hurt his doggy heart. 

So rude. Well, and then the next morning after Billy and Gizmo have a really cute little night sleep together, Billy is trying to make some orange juice with one of his dad's gadgets and of course, it doesn't fucking work.

As the orange juice thing is like spraying everywhere and you can fully see Zach, the actor who plays Billy, just breaks character and is laughing.
He's like, this is ridiculous. Yes. And I'm like, are you a good actor? Yeah. Just kidding, we love you. And then, Billy's friend Pete, who is played by Corey Feldman, comes into their house dressed as a fucking Christmas tree again?

Does he work at the lot or something? 

We don't see him, but at the very beginning of the film, when we're introduced to the town, it is presumably Corey Feldman who is helping with Christmas trees and he's inside of one of the Christmas trees and he does it again coming into the Peltzer house and yeah, I guess he works at the Christmas tree lot and he's supposed to be 13 apparently, and he does not look 13. 

I don't think you think he looks younger. Yes. I guess my question here is why's Billy ,who's supposedly 23, is hanging out with a 13 year old.

Well, we don't know if he's 23 or if it was just what's his face That was 23, but I have an answer actually. 

So I did some digging and I guess the reason that Billy hangs out with the 13 year old is because Corey Feldman was cast before Billy was aged up.

I think Billy was supposed to be a lot younger and they aged him up for some reason, maybe like everything to do with the bar and Kate working in the bar and stuff. But that is apparently why, cause I had the same question as you. To me, Billy seems not as advanced for his age.

Well, that's also wild, because in terms of continuity of the plot, Billy works at a bank. He's obviously of drinking age. He looks much older than Pete. but I agree with you, like the maturity level. I don't think he's quite... 

 He's very innocent.

I'm like, have you even kissed a girl, dude? I think it's naive.

No, that's probably it.

So I don't know if that answers your question, but basically the film decided to just roll with it. For sure. maybe Pete, Corey Feldman's character, is just supposed to be that pesky little town kid that thinks he's BFFs with Billy, but maybe, 

I don't know. We'll see. We'll have to see. 

I didn't have neighbors growing up, so I'm not really sure. 

Billy says, Pete, let me show you fucking Gizmo. this is my little buddy.
And as they're hanging out and everything, Pete accidentally spills a glass of water on Gizmo after he comes to deliver the Christmas tree.

This causes Gizmo to writhe in pain. And he goes into this weird kind of metamorphosis and these small furry balls pop off of his back and they quickly grow into five new little mogwais.

This is funny.
Cause when I was watching this with the producer, he was like, how did they do this effect of these balls growing on this little mogwais back. And apparently it was done with balloons and they expanded just like balloons. 

Good for them. 

Yeah, 

It worked for me, but Billy, if this is your pet or whatever, take accountability and warn everybody about or educate everybody about the rules. 

It should be like before you even introduced him.

There should be a poster.

Everywhere. In every room.

I agree.

And like those health safety posters you see in restaurants, just plaster those all over the house.

I totally agree.

Unlike Gizmo, these new creatures, these new mogwais have kind of mischievous personalities a little bit.

And all of them are marked with different little personalities. Like one of them even has like a stripe of white hair, which we come to know that his name becomes Stripe. Later on, we'll act as sort of the leader in the film. So it's kind of important right now, because this is like our first introduction to him.

And then Gizmo, little sweet Gizmo, is looking on with some fear and like dismay. And this is giving us a little bit of foreshadowing trouble to come. 

I will say I do love Stripe. I identify with him a lot. 

Did you know that Stripe and Gizmo were originally the same character? 

Yes.

Which is absurd. 

Well, and this changed when Steven Spielberg insisted that one of the Gremlins be a good guy with whom the audience could identify, which I actually really do appreciate, and I'm really glad that they kept with that. 

Well, it made it more, like, friendly for a wider audience, you know?

And while Gizmo's, procreating with himself Billy's like, holy shit, this is amazing. And we see all these new Mogwai's and Pete, his little friend is so unfazed. Like, yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh. It's so neat. 

Oh yeah. alien creatures in front of me multiplying before my eyes because of a glass of water I spilt?

Yeah. Okay. So Pete, you done fucked up and This is all your fault. 

It's all Pete's fault. That's so true. Oh shit. It is all Pete's fault. 

Is Pete our antagonist? Is he the villain of this story? 

No. 

We need an origin story of Pete. He's only 13. 

I want to know where he is, where Pete's now, because he's probably in a mental asylum or something.

He's like still like fucking having a lot of issues from, he knows that it was his glass of water that caused all of this. 

Actually, I think Pete seems narcissistic enough to be like, whatever, dude.

He probably is actually, you're right.

So Billy goes to tell his dad about the new Mogwais, and he goes to show him too, and they're all in the living room fucking up all the presents and decorations and everything.

Meanwhile, Gizmo's just playing a little toy trumpet under the tree, and rather than being like, What the fuck is this actual shit? Randall's like, we can capitalize on this. Every kid in America will want a Mogwai. Let's do this shit. Let's get that money. And that's the wrong train of thought, sir. 

Well, he literally says this may replace the family dog.

The Peltzer pet is what he wants to call it.

Oh boy. Oh no, Rand, don't fucking do this.

Well, then later that night, while Billy and all of the Mogwai are sleeping, Billy hears Barn whining and crying and goes outside to find him. He's strung up and wrapped in Christmas lights.

And it is obvious by like some of the looks that we get from the little mogwais as billy goes to investigate that is obviously them that did it but Billy immediately thinks that it was Mrs. Beagle somehow 

That it was Mrs. Deagle.

 You're just, you're just thinking about dogs now. 

I literally wrote Mrs. Beagle on my notes. Whoops. 

But I, I want to know how these five newborn mogwais could just find lights. string them up somehow, like, and then the lights would support a, maybe, I don't know, 60 pound dog. 

They're a little fucking mischievous fuckers. That's all I could say. They're resourceful is what I like to say.

That morning, I guess pretty curious about the phenomenon, Billy takes one of the new Mogwais to his former science teacher, Mr. Hanson and is trying to ask him what's going on? Like, do you know what this is?

I mean, we know what's going to happen to Mr. Hansen shortly, but I think it was smart to sort of tell someone at least of like science knowledge, what the fuck is happening here? 

Yeah, but do you think it's smart that when he is with Mr. Hansen, he dumps more water on this one new Mogwai? Like, would you do that when you don't know anything about what might happen?

Scientist, man. 

And then, After that, Billy is on the way home and stops to see Kate at the bar and Mr. Futterman is fucked up. And they're like, we gotta go, bar's closing, blah, blah, blah. And he starts ranting about gremlins being in his bar. His snowplow, I love, I love the rant, but that will come into play later.

Oh, What does he say?

He goes, foreigners like to plant them in the machinery. I don't know why I'm giving him a Southern accent, but I like it though. 

But I love him. And Billy walks Kate home. And she starts to talk about how she hates Christmas and I'm like, bitch. But at least fucking Billy asked her out finally. Balls up, bro. 

After the bar, when Billy gets home, the Mogwai. It's funny because Gizmo is sort of in bed by himself and then all the little extra Mogwai's are in a trunk and they're like jumping up and down. And I guess to Billy, that is them complaining of hunger 

Billy goes to the fridge to get food.

Well, cause he looks at the clock and to his perception, it is not midnight just yet. So he's like, okay, I can feed you guys. 

 Even though he already fed them.

But he does go to the fridge to get food. And a little easter egg is you can see a sticker from The Howling on the fridge.

So cool. So cool.

So, if the Mogwais are so efficient and they can get outside and hang a dog from Christmas lights, can't they just bounce the fuck down to a fridge and feed themselves?

That's a great question. I'd love to invite any Mogwai's in the audience to come on to the podcast and actually answer that for us, please.

I'm here. It's because we're lazy.

Billy gives them chicken and they devour it like so greedily. There's this crazy close up shot of all of them, like shoveling this chicken into their mouths. And it's interesting because Gizmo. is the one who is refusing to eat and you can tell that he's like sensing a little bit of danger going on.

I want to know how the Mogwais know the rules even though they were just boring. How do they, because they, these, these little devious ones are like, fuck yellow, we're going to eat.

They know that they're against the rules. Maybe it's just like in their blood. Like they just know it's not in Gizmo's blood. Well, Gizmo knows no Gizmo knows he's like, I'm not supposed to eat right now. 

Yeah, but the other ones know that too, and then they still do it. Because they're trying to be mischievous.

Fair enough. 

Because they know shit's going to go down, and they're going to become crazy little gremlins. 

Well, good on them for being young and knowledgeable.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hanson is still observing the Mogwai. At night, seemingly past midnight. At the school. At the he's like, mm, it's getting late.

My guy, my guy, Mogwai. And he leaves his sandwich that he's been eating by the cage where this Mogwai is. And then he bounces out and obviously the Mogwai fucking grabs it and eats it. And, again, Billy, you're dropping that fucking ball. You should have told Mr. Hansen about the rules.

In the morning, Billy wakes up and discovers that his clock wire was chewed through. He sees that all of the Mogwai that ate the chicken that night are now in this chrysalis cocoon. And it's kind of crazy.
These cocoons are disgusting. They're encased in this like green slime.

They're not cute. Let me just say it. They're not cute. And Billy alerts his mom to this and they're trying to figure out, like, what's happened. And they conclude that, oh shit, he indeed fed them after midnight because his clock was wrong. And Sweet Gizmo obviously remains unaltered, but he's sort of cowering in fear a little bit as he's watching this cocoon situation happen.

And it's this impending doom almost, I feel like a little bit. 

For sure. And these sacks are fucking gross, but I think it achieved what it was trying to do. So good for them. 

Yes, this is like the first turn of nastiness. 

And all I have to say is Billy needs a fucking watch, especially you work at a bank, bro.

 Be finance-y with your fucking finance watch, okay? And take better care of these fucking Mogwais, okay? 

Be finance y like Patrick Bateman, all right? 

Okay. I don't know if that's a good role model. 

My bad. My bad. 

After Billy and his mom have discovered these cocoons, Billy grabs Pete and they go visit Mr. Hansen momentarily and find that his Mogwai is also in a cocoon because his Mogwai also ate a fucking sandwich and I love this scene because the cocoon has outgrown the cage.

that Mr. Hansen had the Mogwai in. And did you notice as he's like clipping the cage off of the cocoon because it's growing outside of it?

It's fucking gross. And Mr. Hansen's like, it's just going through all these changes. And Pete is like, Oh, just like my mom. 

And he's like, I don't think it's the same thing. And then after that, Billy goes to the bank and he's back at work and we see Mrs. Deagle comes back in and she is depositing some money and she yet again Threatens barn and I tell you when I could throw a right hook at this woman for threatening barn.
Nobody fucking threatens barn with a spin dryer

Back at the Peltzer house Rand calls Lynn who's at yet another fucking convention and kind of fun thing We see Steven Spielberg make a little cameo. 

I did not know that was him.

Yes, Randall is sitting in a phone booth kind of thing and Steven Spielberg rolls along on some kind of trike little cart vehicle thing and And I'm like, good for you, you little prodigy, you. Also, what the fuck kind of convention is held on Christmas Eve? 

He mentions to Lynn, he's like, I'm trying to come home, I know it's Christmas Eve, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah. Why are there, no. There are no conventions on Christmas Eve. Not to my knowledge. And if there are, they're not successful. 

Yeah. Probably. I'd hope not.

And then at the school, Mr. Hansen is showing an educational film to his class and shit's about to go down, but kinda fun.

The film he's showing to the dudes in his class, the dudes, to the people in his class is a real film by Frank Cappa, who also did It's a Wonderful Life, which we saw playing, there's a lot of odes to this in this movie. Also, we can see the box where the Gremlin is now being held is kind of like shaking and rattling.

Who the fuck would keep an unknown creature in a class with kids? 

Dude, this guy is about to fucking hatch, and you're just, teaching a class, like, very casually. I mean, I get it, you obviously don't know what is, like, about to happen, you probably think things are, like, fine and dandy and a little fucking butterfly is gonna come out or something, That's not what's about to go down here.

This is called child endangerment. But anyways, once class is dismissed, he calls Billy to tell him that the Mogwai has hatched. And so Billy just dips out of work and I'm like, is that allowed? But he's on his way to come check it out. And poor Mr. Hansen just wants to see the gremlin and be like, bro, what do you look like?

I want to know more about you. He wants to give him a candy bar. 

My favorite part there actually is that he opens, I think it's a Snickers, but he takes a couple bites out of it as he's also trying to. get the Mogwai to come to him. And we don't necessarily see the Mogwai necessarily, but we, we hear it a little bit.

The gremlin. It's now a gremlin.

Yeah. Spoiler alert. It's really sad because Billy makes his way to the school, He finds Mr. Hansen has been killed by the gremlin with a syringe in his ass. 

I was like, do we know he's dead? But then I read that Joe Dante, the director, is like, yeah, bro's dead. 

I think it's implied that a lot of what's going to happen now moving forward with the gremlins, if someone's passed out, they're probably dead.

Like if they have been attacked by the gremlins. Billy injures his hand at one point, trying to find this little gremlin that did This to Mr. Hanson and he runs to the nurse's office to wrap his hand. And this is where we as the audience and Billy see the gremlin for the first time, as it busts out of one of the nurse's cabinets.

I like this gremlin cause it just kind of, it keeps going yum, yum. And we'll eat anything, including glass or, you know, just like paper. So it's kind of a vibe, but then this gremlin gets away from the school. And so, whoo.

After this little guy has hatched, this obviously means that the ones at Billy's house have hatched as well, and so we get another scene where we're now back at the Peltzer house and Stripe and his gang, who were the original little Mogwai crew that We're hanging with Billy. They begin causing chaos immediately.

And one of the first things that they do is they tie up poor little Gizmo and terrorize him. And a fun fact I have here is that the Gizmo puppets were very frustrating, apparently On set and with the crew because they were smaller and they, broke down a little bit more. And so consequently to satisfy the crew, a scene was included in which the gremlins hang gizmo on the wall and throw darts at him.

And this was included on a list that the crew created known to them as horrible things to do to Gizmo. 

Oh, that makes me 

really sad. 

It makes me sad, but also I understand that need to break shit that you're mad at. 

Meanwhile, while all this is happening, Lynn is downstairs just baking her little cutie patootie gingerbread man.

And she's like, what the fuck is that noise upstairs? She goes to investigate. And um, can you clarify it? Does Billy live in the attic? 

I believe so. Yes, yes, yes. 

Cool. I feel like that's like a Midwestern thing. I feel like a lot of kids, like, that was the cool place to, like, have your room. 

Dude, he's like 23.

He's helping his family, Allison. Oh, okay. 

My bad. My bad. My bad. And while she's investigating this, Billy calls the house and is like, my guy, my mom, you need to bounce. All the gremlins are gonna be coming to get you. And while they're on the phone, the gremlins actually cut the phone line. So that's not great.

And they start blasting Christmas music. And you can also hear one of the Kremlins say, E. T. phone home. 

Wait, I missed that. That's amazing. Dude, they're ugly little fuckers. That's all I have to say. Hey, be nice. 

I'm sorry? 

I like them.

And so back down in the kitchen, I guess, Lynn is already there and she sees one gremlin homie chowing down on some Christmas cookies and that's all that he wants to do, you know?

And this looks like me eating cookies in my mom's kitchen. And Lynn fucking yeets it by putting it into some like power mixer. And I get that this is a tumultuous time, but I don't condone killing a gremlin, especially when all it wants to do is chow down on some delicious cookies. And the next kill we see is a gremlin going into a microwave, and I was like, was this necessary?

Yes. 

Was it? Okay. I just, that scene made me think, how is this movie PG? And then I did some research, and this movie and the Temple of Doom, We're the catalyst for the PG 13 system. 

Really? It was just PG or like straight up R? Like that was it? before PG 13?

Interesting. Or X. 

I think they still had X at the time. 

Oh my goodness. I did not know 

And while all this is happening, Billy finally fucking gets home, took you long enough bro, and he yeets another one of the gremlins by throwing it into the fire. But then we see Stripe jump the fuck out of a window, classic.

And at least he finds poor Gizmo in a laundry shoe and he's Fine enough. He's alive. 

Yeah, Gizmo has managed to make himself safe during that time. Thank God Billy is immediately like okay shit. Well, like where is Stripe? I gotta go find this motherfucker and we find that Stripe has escaped to the YMCA.

I want to know a little bit more. So Billy goes there to find Stripe. I want to know how he thought, why did he immediately think, yeah, the YMCA. 

Oh, I think he's actually following footsteps in the snow. I want to say. 

And something kind of scientific, if Gremlins can multiply in water, Why can't they multiply in snow? 

Girl, I have this as a fucking note Because even if you are in the purest of snow There are still areas that are puddly right and when it snow is water and when it melts on you That's water.

I don't know. Again, get a fucking gremlin here on the podcast. 

We'll interview one. 

Let's pick one out of the audience right now. 

Okay. 

And we'll bring him up. 

It's me. 

And we'll ask him. 

It's me. 

In the YMCA, fucking Mr. Stripe jumps into the swimming pool and this triggers a mass reproduction spawning an army of gremlins.

And I just want to say that I loved this effect with all of the smoke and the light they really, I feel like went full force to make it look like, okay, some shit is going down in here. But one other thing is I think what I would have loved even more is that I would have loved it if all of the gremlins walked out like the village people singing YMCA.

That would have been great. 

That would have just been a, knowing how funny they are and comedic they are. Honestly, I feel like that was a miss. 

Let's call Joe Dante right now. 

We should, we should. 

Actually Chris Columbus. 

Christopher Coll.. oh wait, no, not Christopher. 

Well, and then they immediately go to the sheriff's station.

And Billy's like, dudes, we have a gremlin problem, and the sheriff and his colleague are like just straight up drinking on the job, and they're like, cool, cool, cool, why don't you go home, chill out. 

yeah, he tries to warn the sheriffs.

He's like, dude, they're going to overrun the town if you guys don't do anything. But they just, of course, just like a lot of themes in a lot of horror movies with law enforcement, no offense, but a lot of times they don't believe what's actually happening. 

And there's this epic scene where all of the gremlins are running down the street and it's very clearly like miniature stop motion and it's the only one in the film but it's very lovely.

The producer and I were actually wondering if that was like a mini set which it must have been. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, which is so cute. 

I love that. And they're just like about to tear shit up and we're back In Billy's neighborhood and Mr. Fetterman, his TV goes out and it's because the gremlin's fucked with the tv antennas and he goes to look outside and they see gremlins come out on his plow and crash into their house, and he's like, holy shit, there really are gremlins in my cab, and I'm like, oh, your drunk premonition came true.

After that, we see one of them pop out of a mailbox after a priest and a townsman are trying to put mail in it. We also see them sabotaging traffic lights, causing numerous accidents, there's like all kinds of shit happening. And then back at the sheriff's station, the sheriff is admiring Gizmo because Billy's like, okay, well I'm going to prove to you that I have this little creature.

Then he starts getting calls about some of the quote unquote, “accidents” that are happening around town. So I feel like he's starting to kind of believe okay, some shit's actually happening.

This is such a great scene too, because I feel like all the carnage of the town is juxtaposed with a lot of really humorous moments.

So some of these little gremlin fuckers are outside of Mrs. Deagle's house and her house also works as her office, I suppose. And her sign says she's only open for 45 minutes a day. I'm like, wow. Dreams. Love that. Goals. That is a goal. Do what you do and make that money girl.

And I love that she is a cat lady. A lot of her cats are actually named after like. different currencies, including Kopeck, ruble, peso, drachma, and dollar bill. 

She's all, okay, dollar bill. I'm like, Oh, what a long name, but okay. 

She's really involved with that money. She loves money.

Side of her life. hears some shit outside, and this is probably one of my favorite scenes, and she opens her door and she recognizes it's carol singers, and she's like, I fucking hate carol singers, but then she sees it's fucking gremlins, All of the gremlins are going 

la la la la la la la 

la la la even though they're still looking at their books like trying to read the lyrics.

This is so classic.

Wait, can I say too, they're all literally dressed like actual carolers. Like how the fuck did they get all of this garb? 

I feel like gremlins and leprechaun would be besties. 

Oh my god, there should be a crossover. 

Resourceful as fuck. 

Wow. Yeah. 

And  I love that for them being festive and resourceful and killer.

Literally. Literally. And the cops that we were with earlier see Mrs. Deagle being yeeted. 

Well, back up Als, we gotta say why she gets yeeted.

So, she has one of those chairs. That is for someone who might be disabled or not able to go up and down their stairs, it's a chair elevator kind of thing where it goes along the railing of the staircase.

It's a little funny because at the very beginning of the film, we see her fully able bodied walking across town to get into the bank. And then now we're in her house and she's using this chair. So I feel like it's giving this She has, “fuck you money” and can just have dumb little gadgets that she doesn't even need in her house.

Anyways, after she gets really freaked out by seeing the gremlins as the carolers, she locks her door. She's all freaked out and she gets back in her chair. And I think like one of them has like fucked with her chair or something. It basically goes into turbo mode and yeets her all the way back up the stairs and out through a window and she crashes right in front of the sheriffs who are now out patrolling as they've gotten all of these calls about like all the accidents that have happened.

And the cops were like, that was Mrs. Deagle. And then they also looked to their side and there's somebody, one of her neighbors who is also being attacked by sheriffs. He's the town Santa. But they're like, what the fuck is that? And now they're starting to believe and Sheriff Frank's partner is like I'd really like to go back to the station now.

This is supposed to be Christmas. And I'm like, okay, now you scare bro, that you should have been scared when you were being warned. And it turns out a gremlin fucking cut their brakes. 

Before this scene is done though, I want to mention one other little thing is we get a small brief moment where we're with Pete and he is fighting off gremlins outside of his bedroom window.

And it's so funny. He has a little Slingshot and everything. I just think it's so adorable. Like it gives me home alone vibes a little bit too. Cause it's kind of like, Oh, find whatever you have around your house to like, try to fight off these little gremlin people. Like, what would you do to fight them off if they came here right now?

Um, like what would you use? 

I am a gremlin. So I'd probably join them. 

 You would be like the queen of the gremlins. Yes. No, we already have one of 

And number two, we'll get into that. He's not giving his character.

Pete is not giving you a frog brother with his slingshot. 

I didn't even think of that. For those of you listening who haven't heard our episode of "The Lost Boys", go back and listen to it. Cause that's a great one. A little bit of a connection. 

This was Edgar frog in training, but what would you do if they were coming to attack us right now?

Okay, so I think I would use my feet as much as possible. These guys are little I would kick the shit out of them I'll punt that motherfucker across my fucking neighborhood, And then also too I have a field hockey stick in the back of my car I've had it since I played field hockey in high school because that is like one of my weapons of choice that I think I could like beat the shit out of a little Gremlin That was trying to kill me. 

I think they're stronger than you think they are.

I think so too, but I mean, I'm not going to put up a fight. 

Or just join them. 

I don't know if I'm quite there yet, but I can maybe use a little bit more convincing.

I'll convince you. 

Then we see Kate and she is at the bar where she works outside of the bank and she is trapped in this bar because she's forced to serve the gremlins as they are smoking, drinking, playing cards, just like reeking.

Absolute havoc and I just have to say this one part and the producer may cut this but during this part he literally goes, uh, they're not creatures. They're just Irish.

I was dying. For our Irish listeners, that is the highest compliment. It is a compliment. We mean that in the nicest way. 

But I love how Kate is just straight up just like Serving them. She's frantically serving them. Just like trying to light their cigarettes and stuff 

She's just like don't bite me and I'm just gonna get your drinks.

Whatever and What I will say is I think gremlins must be super smart because they learn extremely fast so fast. Like they learn a lot super fast. I'm like, why don't we all just become gremlins? I don't know and I just love that. They're all getting fucked up and falling off stools They're chain smoking and Stripe is leading a poker game in the corner and shoots one of the people he's playing with because he's like not cooperating and one of my favorite things is I know what you're gonna say.

I'm sorry. I'm excited. There's a single gremlin who's smoking by himself in a corner just trying to enjoy a Jack Daniels on the rocks and listening to some jazz and in peace. He just wants that moment to himself and some little fucking gremlin comes up and is doing like sock puppets up above the table, just meh, meh, meh with his two little sock puppets.

And then my little jazz man just bashes him on the head.

I love it. I just love all the chaos and all of the characters. I think there's a flash dance one in there too, like a flash dance girl in there. 

It's so cute. There's like a gremlin that is at the poker table too that has lipstick and earrings.

And she's like, Smoker's voice.
No, I just love all their little characters and tropes. I want to be friends with them. If I were Phoebe Cates, I'd be like, I'll just live here. But speaking of Phoebe Cates one of those screams she Screams during the film is real because she saw a fucking cockroach By her feet on set while she is behind the bar.

I would lose my shit 

I think when stuff like that happens for horror film directors It must be so nice because you're like, oh wait, that was actually fully genuine and no acting and We might be able to use that in the film. 

Great. Just trauma for the actor. 

Just trauma. I feel like I'd be a fucked up director because as nice as I am, I might look for like small ways to like scare my actors to get a genuine reaction from them.

All right. Yeah. All right. Stanley Kubrick, just fuck with your actors. 

I can't remember if Kate knows the roles. For the Mogwai's, but I don't think she does somehow. She deduces that using a Polaroid camera flash might. kind of hurt them and so she tries to flash them several times, but unfortunately, it's not enough but Then we have our hero Billy and he comes and rescues her by blinding some of the gremlins with his car headlights And she's kind of able to escape the bar Thankfully 

and I'm like, okay.

Well your car conveniently works for like a second. Since the movie even started and now it's not going to work since you've rescued your girlfriend. 

Totally. 

So they ran to the bank to take safety. 

The whole town is in disarray. So as they are on foot running to the bank, Billy and Kate are just like, holy shit, stuff has gone awry.

Billy makes a call back to Mr. Futterman talking about the gremlins, which I love because it seemed like such a random scene earlier when Mr. Futterman was drunk coming out of the bar. But, uh, But he makes a callback of this is what Mr. Futterman was talking about. And yeah, like Ali said, they head to the bank to hide and they're trying to just talk about what these creatures are, how can they defeat them?

Kind of like what's happening. And while they're hiding in the bank, Kate has this moment. at this point, it's kind of random But she has this whole like monologue where she reveals why she hates Christmas and it's because her father died Trying to climb down the chimney dressed as Santa and he broke his neck killing him instantly this is so fucking grim 

I appreciate the character development, but was this a necessary plot point?

I don't really think so. I think her loving or hating Christmas does not really add anything to the story or the plot. I don't see it as a clear thing. Maybe someone else does, but it's kind of random. 

It reminds me of Creepshow or something for some reason, but I digress. I just don't think it was necessary for this film, but good for her. She got a monologue 

Yeah, we love that for her 

They ended up leaving the bank and walking outside to see more of the carnage of the town and all of the damage and things have seemed to calm down like momentarily It seems like all of the gremlins are off the streets and things are a little bit calm and quiet and Billy's like Well, they probably went somewhere dark to hide since it's gonna be daylight soon 

So as they're walking around, they pass the local theater, which actually looks super cute.

It does look really cute. 

And Billy's like, okay, they're probably in here. Inside the theater, they're all tearing shit up, going wild. And all the gremlins are just having a great time doing whatever they want to do. Well, and they're in one theater together, like in all the seats, like they're about to watch a film.

It's so campy. 

It's so campy. And, But they're going chaotic and then one of the gremlins puts the reel to reel on and starts showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and they're all like, oh They love It. They're eating it the fuck up 

They're and they're they went from chaotic to just enjoying a film and I'm like, this is so precious I know I also love gremlins tells another one to go get him fucking milk duds And I'm like not my choice of candy for a movie, but respect.

Wait, wait, wait. What's your choice of candy? You like at a theater.

I'm gonna say Reese's pieces. But like my fav, my all time favorite movie theater food or like snack is fucking buttered ass popcorn. 

Do you put your Reese's Pieces in?

No, fuck that. 

Okay. 

No, separation of church and state. 

Got it.

Absolutely. Got it. My bad, my bad. 

What are your go-to snacks? 

So if I'm getting, if I'm dedicated to getting that candy at the theater, it's going to be cookie dough bites. 

Ooh, that is a good one. 

I, but it's not at every one. 

No, I know. It's kind of hard. So in that case, I will just sneak in my own Sour Patch Kids.

And White Claw. 

Love that. Love that. Yeah, I mean, the producer and I are even known to get an entire Panda Express bowl and sneak that in. ? I mean, my hands are up. Nobody arrest us? I do get copious amounts of wine, though, at theaters that offer alcohol, so.

So do I. 

They're like, six ounce or nine ounce? I'm like, nine.

That's $40, And I'm like, okay.

Take my card. Take it, take it.

Okay, so, as they're all now enjoying Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs they're all kind of going in unison, like rocking back and forth, singing, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go.

I love it. And you can even see one of the Gremlins wearing Mickey ears. Which we love. 

So cute. 

Kate and Billy start to make a plan because they see that basically all the gremlins are in one place.

So they're like, where's the boiler room? And, as they're going to execute this plan, we see Stripe Looking for candy in the lobby and he's, he's like, yum, yum.

And then he sees a candy store across the street and he's like, fuck this. I'm gonna go there. 

Billy and Kate managed to ignite an explosion and this. totally destroys the entire horde of gremlins that are in the theater, which I will say, fucking effective. So like, great job, Billy and Kate for doing that.

But then while Billy is looking for Stripe, he finds that Stripe is now in a neighboring, department store, and they're like, okay We need to take them all out and that includes stripe and like we need to get this fucker 

I have a question: Do you think that Billy is liable for all these damages throughout the town because it's his pet thing?

I think the chain of blame goes honestly all the way back to quote unquote Chinese boy 

It's a court matter. It is a court matter. 

Got it. 

That I don't think that we are capable of doing. Yeah, yeah. Right, right, right. But I do appreciate the question. Yeah. 

As Billy is looking around this department store, he stumbles into the electronics department and there's all these TVs and I love that Stripes' face pops up on this room full of TVs and Billy has procured a bat and smashes it like one of the TVs with a Stripe's face on it. 

I'm also, So, how is he now an IT expert as well?

He could be. These fuckers are smart. 

And I'm honestly impressed and he could probably fill every C suite role that he might want to do. He probably could. 

He could start his own business. Yeah. His own multi conglomerate. 

He could have his full C level suite just be him.

That's very true. 

And he and Billy are sort of having this like cat and mouse chase. And I love one part when they're kind of chasing each other through the store where Stripe rides away on a red tricycle. And I'm sorry, but was this like maybe the inspiration for Jigsaw perhaps?

Or Leprechaun? This is a multi generational inspiration. I love this.

Well, then meanwhile, Kate is trying to turn on various things in like a control room type of place. And Gizmo escapes from the backpack that they had him in. He kind of finds a skylight and he's eyeing it a little bit.

So as the audience, you're like, Oh, he's going to try to like, figure out some way to like, open this bitch up to open this pit up. Know what I mean?

Gizmo be smart. Gizmo is so smart.

They're so fucking smart. 

While all this is happening too, little fucker Stripe finds a chainsaw and it gets very next level and Billy is trying to fight Stripe with a baseball bat and I'm like, how do you think this is gonna go bro? Chainsaws are meant to go against wood but I will say I feel like this pays homage to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. I believe so and so they're fighting whatever and Stripe gets kind of dragged away by the chainsaw cord.

And this reminds me of when Leatherface fucks himself up with his chainsaw at the end. I'm like, oh, it's so sad. So sad. 

Kate finally finds some of the store light switches. So she's able to turn those on, but it doesn't seem like that's quite enough to really put Stripe into his place.

And then. Meanwhile, in a separate scene, we see Rand and Barney, the dog, and they are driving to the department store and Barn jumps out, sensing that Billy's in danger and like jumps into the department store window, which also is like, I don't know how he knows that Billy and Kate are at the department store, but I'm just going to like.

It's a movie. It's a movie. And Billy, after this like chainsaw fight and there were some crossbows involved too and like darts. There was like a lot going on. Billy finds Stripe at this water fountain in the garden area and he has also procured a gun and he tries to shoot Billy with the gun, which is so gnarly.

Again, resourceful. He and Leprechaun are best friends. It's funny.

That's so true. So true. It's so wild. And then you as the viewer, you're like, fuck, he's going to jump in the water and start this whole fucking thing over again. 

I'm curious as to why Stripe has not done that already, because just like fucking do it.

What's the holdup? What are you like waiting for? 

Well, and then our little fucking hero, Gizmo. Is in a toy car. 

It's like a precious Barbie pink car. 

It's adorable. And he looks amazing. He looks like a movie star. 

He does. 

And he is using this toy car to try to get as close as he can to like where the skylight is.

And he somehow, he almost uses like a shovel and the shovels handle to be like a ramp, but it doesn't get him quite as high, obviously as like the skylight, but it does land him in some plants where he is close to the cord that you would pull to like open up. The skylight and what does that motherfucker do?

He fucking opens it and he exposes stripe to all the sunlight and stripe immediately starts to melt into this like of goo in this like really gruesome kind of sequence and rand comes in we've got Billy Kate we've got Gizmo we've got the dog everybody's there and they're just like watching all of this shit like happen 

But yeah, and we, we get a little like, Oh, is he dead?

No, he's dead. So, and that's great for them. I love Stripe, so not great for me.

Billy, Kate, they wrap up Gizmo in Rand's scarf and they're like, okay. Come on, little man. Let's get out of here. 

Back at home, Mr. Wing from the beginning of the film, who gave them the Mogwai. 

No, 

Sorry, his grandson gave them the Mogwai.

He arrives at the Peltzer house, scaring the shit out of mom. And he scolds them for their irresponsibility and caring for the Mogwai as the Peltzer family is watching the news of everything that had just happened to the town. 

And basically Mr. Wing says, I told you with Mogwai comes great responsibility. Sounds like a line from Batman 

What is it? Like with great power comes great responsibility.

That's Spiderman.

But he's like I'm taking this homie home. He says you're not ready for this but maybe one day you will be and I was like, oh my god daggers in my heart and Mr. Wing is speaking Mogwai with Gizmo and he's talking, he's saying they're just having this exchange and he says, Oh, Billy, he wants to say something to you. And he's like, well, you can understand. He's like, you can understand too, if you really want to. And he says…

“Bye Billy”

That sounded like Schmeagle.

It did? Wait, you try.

“Bye Billy”

I was almost like too good.

“Bye Billy”

Oh, that sounds scary. God. Okay. Well, you get the point. He says fucking bye, Billy. 

That always gets me because I'm like, Oh my gosh. Can even for the few days they've known each other. Like, can you imagine just getting that ripped out of your arms? 

It's like a heartwarming, but also heartbreaking goodbye.

Cause you're like, Oh, Billy, like really loved him.

In our final narration, we have Rand again, who was narrating at the top and he is warning viewers that, you know, , if you have any strange events that happen in your homes, anything like that , it might be due to gremlins.

He's like, if your AC is on the fritz, if your refrigerator goes out, et cetera. And so I kind of love that I don't know. I just feel like that was like such a good way to end the film. 

One thing I love too, is at the very end of the closing credits, once the theme has ended, you can hear sounds of laughing and I think it's so great.

No. And that's why I always either skip towards the end of the credits or just stick around because I just, they're like, 

It's so good. And it kind of leaves it like a little bit open because as long as there was a Mogwai still alive, I mean, technically. More gremlins can be created pretty much at any time if somebody is like not responsible enough to follow the rules So kind of love that 

you guys follow the rules and that's the end of the movie.

What are your final thoughts? 

I fucking love this movie I feel like gremlins are just Taurus's when mercury is in retrograde like just hungry Anxious chaotic that's basically what it is. So I resonate with that Also I feel like I'm a mogwai because I'm, like, nice and cute, and then I drink and eat and turn into a gremlin and I hate bright light.

So gremlins are basically day drunk mogwais. 

Okay, Ally, what have I actually called you for the entirety of our ..

I'm a gremlin. 

I was gonna say. The entirety of our friendship, once Ally gets to a certain point in the evening, she gets non verbal. And starts just like putzing around and like, I'm like, she's actually a gremlin.

No, I am.

I know. I know.

But I do really love this movie. I've loved it since I was a little kid, so I'm glad we got to review it. But what are your final thoughts?

God, I just love this film. I've seen it so many times. I've watched it a lot with my parents, with my family. It's just, to me, a Christmas classic.

I haven't watched it in a couple years, but I do try to watch it, like, at least once a year around Christmas time because it just is so fun and, like, gets me, like, in the spirit.
And again, it's not super scary. I know one of our questions is, Do we think it's scary?

I personally do not think it's scary at all. But I will say when I first saw it as a kid, I definitely was like, oh shit. And then especially when I got a Furby , is that guy gonna change when I'm not looking? 

That definitely adds a new level of scaredness to it. 'cause I did not, and I think that would've changed everything for me because, no, this movie was not scary.

It's just a good fucking time. 

Yeah. 

Well, and what was your favorite scene? 

Okay, so. I love the bar scene just because it's so chaotic and I, I don't, this sounds weird but I can resonate with it because it's a lot of my personalities in one bar. 

You just loved it. 

I just love, and I love the movie scene too where they're all enjoying the seven dwarves.

I thought that was, I just love the chaos of all and the different personalities of all the gremlins. 

They're so good. What's yours? I think my favorite might have been when they are caroling outside of Mrs. Deagle's house.

That was, that was definitely one of mine too, but I'm, I can't have, otherwise I would say this entire film was my favorite scene.

It's all just so good.

It's so good.

But yeah, that was the film, you guys.

Thank you so much for joining us again on another Mogwai ride in a VW Bug. We really appreciate it.

Again, if you want to find us on social media, you can find us at Spooky Chicks and Horror Flicks on Instagram and on TikTok.

We also have a Patreon if you'd like to support the podcast. And honestly, please just tell a friend. feel free to leave like a review, but at the end of the day, all we can ask is that you just keep sharing it with other people that also love horror and that love listening to us fucking talk, I guess.

Exactly. 
And with that, you guys, obey the Mogwai rules. Happy fucking December, I can't believe it. And stay spooky fuckers.