History Film / Gremlins

* KillerRabbit: The mogwai, save for Gizmo.
** Gizmo himself qualifies when he TakesALevelInBadass and models himself after Franchise/{{Rambo}}.

* KickTheDog: In the DarkerAndEdgier original script, the gremlins killed the Peltzers' pet dog, and Billy would have returned home to see his mother's head roll down the stairs.
** In the final version they just dangle Barney up with Christmas lights, and the mother survives with minor injuries.

* KillItWithFire / StuffBlowingUp: Finding that the gremlins have gathered in a movie theater, Billy and Kate set off a gas explosion in the hopes of wiping them all out. It works, but Stripe survives because he had left the theater to get some candy from a nearby store.

* OffWithHisHead: In the DarkerAndEdgier original script, Billy returned home to see his mother's head rolling down the stairs.
** In the film itself Billy decapitates a gremlin with a sword and kicks the severed head in the fireplace, and it screams as it's on fire.

* ShirtlessScene: Billy gets one after his [[BunglingInventor father]]'s orange peeler explodes on him, forcing him to change shirts.

** So kicking out tenants that can't pay without providing them so much as a single day's extra time even if they beg for it and treating them like absolute crap (and being such an absolute bitch that everybody in town knows it) is supposed to provide Mrs. Deagle with money, ''how''...? [[spoiler:No wonder AllThereInTheManual exposes that it's a deliberate part of a RealEstateScam (a mall in deleted scenes, a company that was going to use the land to ''dispose of toxic waste'' in the novelization).]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: One particular Mogwai, stated as Earl in official media, is hinted in the film and novel as being one of the few Mogwai blessed with a more docile personality similar to Gizmo, [[spoiler:that is until he is taken to the high school to be experimented on and then happening on that sandwich, condemning him to become another psychotic Gremlin and (presumably) suffer the same ill fate as all his other brethren.]]

''Gremlins'' is a 1984 dark HorrorComedy film directed by Creator/JoeDante, and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg. The film kicks off with an inventor, Randall Peltzer, stopping by Chinatown in New York City to pick up a gift for his son, Billy. He ends up getting a mysterious, yet undeniably adorable critter called a mogwai. The creature comes [[SchmuckBait with instructions]] though, namely:

The little critter, named Gizmo, is gentle and well behaved, but after he accidentally gets splashed with water, more mogwai suddenly are formed, and this new, mean-spirited batch tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight. They all form cocoons, and then turn into ugly, frightening gremlins, who [[HilarityEnsues gleefully cause havoc and terrorize the town]].

A second sequel is rumored to be planned, read more [[http://gremlins.wikia.com/wiki/Gremlins_3 here]]. An animated series for Creator/HBOMax called ''Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai'' is confirmed in 2020, which feature the adventures of a young Mr. Wing and Gizmo as the boy learns to become the BigGood who would be the only man who could be trusted to contain the Mogwai safely. Characters from the franchise also appeared in Lego form via the video game ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions''.

This movie, along with ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', is the reason why the USA PG-13 and UK 12 rating was created.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Daffy and Lenny, while arguably the least malicious of the known Mogwai, were still antagonistic and ultimately evolved into dangerous Gremlins in the second film. In the ''Gremlins: Gizmo'' video game, they are Eternals you can choose to take control of like Gizmo.
* AlienBlood: The Gremlins bleed (often copious amounts) of green goo, even though the Mogwai bleed red.

''This page covers the 1984 movie and its sequel. For the trope, see GripingAboutGremlins.''

The little critter, named Gizmo, is gentle and well behaved, but after he accidentally gets splashed with water, more mogwai suddenly are formed, and this new, mean-spirited batch tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight. They all form cocoons, and then turn into ugly, frightening gremlins, who [[HilarityEnsues cause havoc and terrorize the town]].

''Gremlins'' is a 1984 dark comedy/horror film directed by Creator/JoeDante, and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg. The film kicks off with an inventor, Randall Peltzer, stopping by Chinatown in New York City to pick up a gift for his son, Billy. He ends up getting a mysterious, yet undeniably adorable critter called a mogwai. The creature comes [[SchmuckBait with instructions]] though, namely:

* AnAssKickingChristmas: It falls under this when the town is invaded by monsters.
* AloneWithThePsycho: After seeing the gremlin that had attacked Mr. Hanson, Billy immediately knew that her mother was in danger and quickly raced back home.

* [[IncongruouslyDressedZombie Incongrulously Dressed Gremlin]]: Whenever a Gremlin bothers to wear clothes, it's liable to be this trope. The bar scenes from the first movie in features Gremlin bar floozies, Gremlin beatniks, a Gremlin in a ''Flashdance'' outfit, a ski-masked Gremlin armed robber, and even a Gremlin ''flasher''.

* [[IncongruouslyDressedZombie Incongrulously Dressed Gremlin]]: Whenever a Gremlin bothers to wear clothes, it's liable to be this trope. The bar scenes from the first movie in particular, featuring Gremlin bar floozis, Gremlin beatniks, a Gremlin in a ''Flashdance'' outfit, and even a Gremlin ''flasher''.

* MyCarHatesMe: Played with. In the beginning, Billy's car refuses to start, forcing him to walk to work. In the middle of the Gremlin attack, it actually starts for him, indicating a Gremlin messed with it. But later, when he tries to drive it again, it won't start. Indicating that it got fiddled with ''again''.
** Or just that it's really unreliable.

* NothingIsScarier: PlayedWith. While the Gremlins have a ''lot'' of screen time in the second half of the film, including a full ten-minute scene of them wreaking havoc in the bar, after the Gremlins first hatch we see almost nothing of them. Only a few hands and arms as they push their way out of their cocoons, scratch Billy's hand, and tear out the phone cable in Billy's house. We get a brief glimpse of a full-body Gremlin as it pops out of a cabinet in the Nurse's office to startle Billy, but through the first third of Lynn Peltzer defending her house from the Gremlins, we only see handprints and a shadow on the wall. Then Lynn comes around the corner into the kitchen, the camera pulls back, and we see the first Gremlin in all its hideous glory. The scene builds tension superbly, letting your mind run away with trying to figure out what these creatures are, and then you finally see one, ''and it's even more horrific than you were imagining!'' Part of this is the limitations of the puppets, and Chris Walas always racing to keep up with the film's shooting schedule.

* PupatingPeril: It's eventually discovered that Mogwai who are allowed to eat after midnight end up encased in creepy, Giger-esque cocoons as they begin metamorphosing into Gremlins. This is played for much ominousness when Billy discovers that six of his five Mogwai are now cocoons clustered around his bed; it eventually results in an especially nightmarish moment in which the newly-metamorphosed Gremlins begin clawing their way out of their cocoons while a terrified Gizmo tries to hide.

** Rockin' Ricky Rialto's billboard is a reference to ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', complete with Rialto's name in the same font as ''Raiders''' poster and Rialto's likeness dressed as Indiana Jones.

* SympathyForTheDevil, the second Gremlin Billy's mom kills is stabbed to death with a butchers knife. [[spoiler: Or so you think until you see it behind her pinned to her cutting board wiggling around trying to pull the knife out! Sure they are nasty little monsters but being pinned to the ground with a knife through the gut is a horrible way to go. Finish the little bugger off at least.]]

* ThemeNaming: All of Ms. Deagle's cats are named after different currencies: Dollar, Kopeck, Drachma, etc.

* AndYourLittleDogToo: Mrs. Deagle's EstablishingCharacterMoment involves her showcasing herself as a very vile woman in many ways, mentioning that she hates the Peltzers and culminating with threatening to kill Billy's dog in the most grizzly way she can think of in retribution for it accidentally destroying her property.

* DeadlineNews: Subverted with "Rollin' Ricky" Rialto's radio broadcast. We hear him believing the radio listeners calling to denounce the gremlin-caused chaos are pranking him and then his desperate screaming as the Gremlins attack him before the transmission cuts off but he comes back a few scenes later having apparently fought them off by himself.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Mr. Wing's shop is in a basement deep in Chinatown and his own grandson mentions that clientele doesn't arrives very often as a result.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Possibly with Rockin' Ricky Rialto. The gremlins attack him while he's on the air, but he later comes back to the airwaves, apparently none the worse for wear. This could imply that he managed to defeat whatever gremlins attacked the radio station, although the gremlins may also have simply broken off their attack to the movie theater with the others.

** In the film itself Billy decapitates a gremlin with a sword and kicks the severed head in the fireplace, and it screamed as its on fire.

*** Billy when he gets the phone call from Mr. Hanson saying that "it just hatched."

*** Billy calling his mom to warn her that "they've hatched, get out of the house!"

*** Billy running out of the high school, trying to make it home.

A second sequel is rumored to be planned, read more [[http://gremlins.wikia.com/wiki/Gremlins_3 here]]. An animated series for Creator/HBOMax called ''Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai'' is confirmed in 2020, which feature the adventures of a young Mr. Wing and Gizmo as the boy learns to become the BigGood who would be the only man he could be trusted to contain the Mogwai safely. Characters from the franchise also appeared in Lego form via the video game ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions''.

A second sequel is rumored to be planned, read more [[http://gremlins.wikia.com/wiki/Gremlins_3 here]]. An animated series for Creator/HBOMax called ''Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai'' is confirmed in 2020. Characters from the franchise also appeared in Lego form via the video game ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions''.

* CuteIsEvil: The cuteness of the Mogwai/Gremlins blinds people to the fact that they could possibly be dangerous.

* ItCanThink: A lot of the problems arise from the human characters fatally underestimating the Gremlins' intelligence. After the evil Mogwai are spawned, they trick Billy into feeding them after midnight by sabotaging his digital clock, and on several other occasions they damage equipment to cause accidents, like cutting the brakes of a police car. Stripe knows full well that water creates more Gremlins, so he jumps into a pool when Billy pursues him, and also knows how to operate tools (he attacks Billy with a pistol and a ''mini-chainsaw'').

* HorrorHatesARulebreaker: The series is a classic in this genre. The adorable little Mogwai named Gizmo had a number of rules that anyone taking care of one needed to know. Never place a Mogwai [[WeakenedByTheLight near bright light, especially sunlight as that would kill them]]. Never to get any water on them or have them drink it. Never feed a Mogwai after midnight. Breaking the second rule creates a batch of new Mogwai, who're far less nice than Gizmo, them tricking the protagonist into breaking the third rule allows them to metamorphosis into the eponymous gremlins. Luckily, the first rule proves to be the key to defeating them.

A second sequel is rumored to be planned, read more [[http://gremlins.wikia.com/wiki/Gremlins_3 here]]. An animated series for Creator/HBOMax called ''Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai'' is confirmed in 2020.