Gremlins is both a cute and terrifying Christmas movie with plenty of easter eggs about pop culture that are easy to miss. The movie, released in 1984, played with the limits of its PG rating, and introduced the inventive lore of sweet little creatures that can turn into horrifying monsters if their owner doesn't follow a strict set of rules.
Attending to all the best holiday season trademarks, Gremlins has a unique feeling of Christmas magic gone wrong as the situation gets out of control in a small Pennsylvanian town. With Joe Dante directing the film and his long-time friend Steven Spielberg producing it, the filmmaker decided to pay homage to his fellow director and his own favorite movies with plenty of exciting references.
Gremlins has a little bit of everything; it's not only a perfect Christmas movie, but also a beautiful homage to cinema in general. Here's every pop culture reference in the 1984 movie.
Gremlins
- Release Date
- June 7, 1984
- Cast
- Hoyt Axton , John Louie , Keye Luke , Don Steele , Susan Burgess , Scott Brady
- Rating
- PG
8 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Before reaching the peak of his success with Gremlins in 1984, Dante dedicated his career to B-horror movies such as the infamous Piranha and the unconventional werewolf film The Howling. The influence of Dante's previous works and his passion for the horror genre is crystal clear in Gremlins, which takes a real dark and disturbing turn once the adorable Mogwai begin to mutate into demoniac creatures.
The horror genre was never the same after Tobe Hopper's slasher masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Dante's admiration for the horror classic can be found in his decision to keep a beloved unscripted moment of Gremlins: one of the creatures attacks Billy with a Gremlin-sized chainsaw. The improvised scene made it to the final cut and turned out to be a straightforward tribute to Leatherface's legacy.
7 Back to the Future (1985)
Fans of Gremlins and Back to the Future will likely notice many similarities between the fictional towns featured in both movies. While Dante's film is set in a Pennsylvanian town called Kingston Falls, Back to the Future is set in Hill Valley, two thematically different scenarios that were actually shot on the same set. It's not a straightforward pop culture reference, but rather a production choice.
What really sells it is the set's iconic movie theater, featured in memorable sequences from both movies: in Gremlins, it's where the creatures gather to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Back to the Future, it's where Biff and Lorraine argue in 1955. It's also fun to notice that the movie theater marquee in Gremlins states A Boy's Life and Watch the Skies, two fictional movies that were, in fact, the working titles of Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, respectively.
6 Forbidden Planet (1956)
Forbidden Planet was a genre-defining movie released in 1956 that follows a space crew traveling to the fictional planet Altair IV in search of a missing spaceship, only to be welcomed by the sole survivor and become the target of a dangerous invisible force. In Gremlins, there's a scene in which Billy's dad, Randall, makes a call while at an inventor's convention, where many of the film's pop culture references take place.
Forbidden Planet's iconic Robby the Robot makes an appearance behind Randall's phone booth speaking actual lines from the movie. In Gremlins, Robby is presented as if it's someone else's invention, but in Forbidden Planet, the robot is Dr. Morbius' mechanic servant, designed by the scientist while trapped on Altair IV.
5 The Time Machine (1960)
Another fun pop culture reference in the background of Gremlins' convention scene is the original time machine from the 1960 sci-fi classic The Time Machine, in which a Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and witnesses humanity ruining itself in a dangerous, segmented society.
Dante takes this reference way too seriously, as both the man seen inside the time machine and the device itself vanish from the background after it cuts from Randall to the wide shot previously seen, implying that time travel is a real deal in Gremlins' universe.
4 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Mysterious cocoons eclosing, otherworldly creatures spreading all over the place... broadly speaking, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Gremlins are conceptually similar to one another. In the face of Chris Columbus' awe-inspiring script, Dante didn't miss the chance to pay homage to one of the best sci-fi movies of all time in Gremlins, taking advantage of it to foreshadow a key moment in the film.
At the beginning of the movie, Billy is in his room while a scene of 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers plays on the TV. The scene features the film's distinctive alien pods busting open as a character shouts "You're next." The unsuspecting reference plays out as a bad omen: it cuts directly to Gremlins' own cocoons, which are about to emerge and turn Billy's life upside down.
Of all the movies referenced in Gremlins, Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is the only one that shows up multiple times. Released in 1982, the film was an instant success: it made almost $800 million at the box office on a $10.5 million budget. It also marked Spielberg's first straightforward family movie, just like Dante and Gremlins. To pay tribute to his fellow filmmaker and his passion for E.T., Dante inserted plenty of easter eggs in Gremlins.
Apart from the subtle reference in the movie theater's marquee, a single E.T. doll can be spotted among several Looney Tunes stuffed toys in the scene where Stripe hides in a department store. The easter-egg is a reference to the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial scene in which E.T. hides among stuffed toys in a similar fashion. Another, more obvious, reference happens when one gremlin delivers the iconic one-liner from Spielberg's movie, "Phone home," for those who thought the previous references were merely coincidences.
2 Flashdance (1983)
Gremlins is a feast for hardcore sci-fi and horror aficionados because it features plenty of references to the pillars of both movie genres. However, few people will notice the movie's direct reference to the 80s romance Flashdance, which has pretty much nothing to do with mischievous monsters taking over a small town.
It turns out that Michael Sembello, the artist behind Flashdance's hit song "Maniac" also wrote and performed the tune "Mega Madness" for Gremlins. This artistic choice results in a hilarious scene in which a gremlin, dressed like Flashdance star Jennifer Beals, shows its impressive dancing skills on the dance floor.
1 Multiple Cameos in Gremlins
Robby the Robot isn't the only cameo in Gremlins: real people also get the chance to briefly shine onscreen. In the movie, Dante doesn't only pay homage to the movies that he loves, but also to the artists who inspire him. In this context, he convinced Chuck Jones, the creator of Looney Tunes, to make a small appearance in Gremlins as Mr. Jones, Billy's mentor.
The scene is brief, but passionate, and as Jones leaves, a Pepé Le Pew cartoon airs on TV. Dante's admiration for Jones and his work isn't a surprise for anyone, so much so that the filmmaker ended up directing a Looney Tunes movie in 2003. In addition, both Gremlins and Looney Tunes share the same adorable, yet violent thematic appeal.
As one of the film's executive producers, Spielberg himself also appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Gremlins. In the same convention sequence where Dante references Forbidden Planet and The Time Machine, Spielberg can be seen in an electric wheelchair while Randall is on the phone.
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