Gremlins

“Y'know they're still shippin' them over here. They put 'em in cars, they put 'em in yer TV. They put 'em in stereos and those little radios you stick in your ears. They even put 'em in watches, they have teeny gremlins.”

—Murray Futterman

Gremlins, also known as corrupted mogwai or scaly mogwai, are creatures who are the primary antagonists of the Gremlins franchise. They were once furry mogwai that have transformed into these monstrous new forms, usually by eating after midnight. They made their debut in the 1984 film, Gremlins following with an appearance in its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and in the animated series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.

History[]

In ancient China, the sibling gods of creation Nuwa and Fuxi created the mogwai as a test of humanity's morality. Nuwa created the mogwai species, and Fuxi created the rules for their care. However, because of his disdain towards humanity and his desire to win the bet, Fuxi intentionally made one of the rules that a mogwai should never be fed after a certain point when the moon is at its highest point in the sky (which humanity quickly shortened to simply midnight), or they would transform into a corrupted form of themselves, a gremlin. Fuxi also cursed the mogwai that were spawned from other mogwai to be destructive tricksters for the first century of their lives, which made many them determined to transform into their corrupted forms when the chance presented itself. Humanity soon became greedy about the mogwai and broke a rule to make more of them, and the other rules soon followed. This spawned a wave of corrupted mogwai that laid waste to Fengdong and many people died. Before the rest of China could fall, Nuwa stopped the test and intervened, reverting all the gremlins back into mogwai and hid them in the Valley of Jade.

Biology[]

Gremlin types — Gremlins in different colors and with different looks.

A gremlin is the form that a mogwai takes when they eat after midnight (or more specifically, if they eat when the moon is at its highest point in the sky). They are just about one meter tall, and they have scaly reptile-like skin, large batlike ears, three sharp claws on their feet and hands and equally sharp teeth. Their looks and color may vary, ranging between various shades and combinations of green, brown, yellow, and even black.

Gremlin birth — How new gremlins are born.

Even after their metamorphosis, gremlins still retain traits they had as mogwai, such as their vulnerability to bright light and sunlight, and most dangerously their ability to multiply upon getting wet with water. Unlike the mogwai, where small furballs pop out from their backs and quickly inflate into new mogwai, the backs of the gremlins get riddled with blisters that contain smaller gremlins, which rather quickly break free and start to grow. The gremlins that are giving birth to new gremlins are often more vulnerable because the birthing process is often extremely painful for them. Afterward, they continue to live as if nothing happened, typically along with the newly-born gremlins that have quickly grown to full gremlin size.

Behavior[]

Gremlins are all very mischievous, dangerously violent, and crazily fun-loving. Their level of intelligence varies, though all are capable of working (and sabotaging) complex machinery and devices. They take to causing all sorts of mischief and mayhem.

Most gremlins are not at all good-willed and nice. Some can be quite murderous as well, hurting and killing people on a whim in creatively twisted ways. Many of them do not seem to even value the lives of their fellow gremlins, sometimes beating or even killing each other for fun.

Despite this, however, some gremlins can in fact be good-natured under the right circumstances. Though they still retain their mischievous and destructive nature, this does not necessarily make them evil. While new ones may start out as destructive tricksters, they can still be good if they choose to be, while more malicious ones can willingly change later on.

Even though they are very energetic and often aggressive, there are certain people they will not hurt nor kill. This namely applies to whomever they have an affinity to for whatever reason and can become friends with. At the same time, there will be those gremlins have an animosity towards and will specifically target, aiming to torture and/or kill them.

Diet[]

Gremlins appear to be mostly omnivores, as they are shown to eat both meat and vegetation.

However, they usually eat food other than candy and other junk food. But while as Mogwai, Stripe and his fellow mogwai “excluding Gizmo” ate baked chicken legs, and Mohawk, Lenny, and George ate ice cream. Daffy had eaten corn, but he doesn't like chicken or mashed potatoes. Earl liked eating a sandwich left by Mr. Hanson that had lettuce, meat, and possibly cheese as he said, "Yum yum." Earl also liked the Snickers candy bar that Mr. Hanson gave him. However, Earl did not like the apple that he took a bite out of in Mr. Hanson's office, but he did like eating one of the glass test tubes. They also seemed to like Dr. Catheter's serums from Splice O' Life lab. Both mogwai and gremlins may have personal tastes and preferences for certain foods. Although the mogwai from the first film enjoyed the chicken Billy gave them to eat in the first movie, in the second movie, Daffy appears disgusted by chicken, only caring to eat corn and Hostess snack cakes.

Behind the scenes[]

All the gremlins in the film series were portrayed on screen by using animatronics and puppetry, as it was the only technique other than stop-motion to bring the creatures to life on screen.

Trivia[]

Gremlins are based on the fictional "gremlin", a creature that originates from the early 20th century described a supernatural saboteur believed to be responsible for malfunctions in aircraft and in other machinery, particularly for airmen of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). This concept of gremlins was popularized during World War II among the RAF units, referenced as the reason pilots suffered technical difficulties with their planes.
- In the television series, the gremlins are only referred to as "evil mogwai" or "corrupted mogwai", since the name "Gremlin" had yet to become known. In "Never Give Up," Riley Greene nearly dubs them as gremlins after deciding the name mogwai is too cute for the creatures, citing inspiration from the aforementioned term used by the Royal Air Force. The name does not stick, however, and in season 2, everyone calls them "evil mogwai" again.
In both movies and the animated series, the gremlins have a leader that is smarter than all others. Stripe is the leader in the first movie, while Mohawk is briefly the leader in the second movie (before being replaced by the smarter Brain Gremlin). In the first season of the series, the gremlins are led by a female one known as Claw and in the second, an intelligent one known as Noggin takes her place after her demise.
The gremlins are often seen drinking beer, yet they do not multiply. One reason this might be is that they can only multiply from coming in contact with normal water. Anything like beer, soda, milk, or other liquids trigger their ability to multiply. Funnily, Claw was shown drinking water without multiplying at all as a giantess in "Never Ever Expose Them to Bright Light".
In the first two films, it was initially unclear if gremlins had a concept of gender.
- Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai revealed that they do in fact possess genders.
- Gremlins: Gizmo had at least two female mogwai: Valerie and Grace. However, they were non-canon to the franchise.
- The second film technically did have a female gremlin, Greta, though that was originally a normal gremlin which had ingested a gender-changing serum.
In contrast to mogwai, most gremlins seem to love wearing clothing—even if they have no real sense of style.
In the George Pipe novelization, it is said that the gremlins are considered to be an unwanted side effect from when the mogwai were created on a far-off planet to be used as ambassadors of peace on other planets.
- In the novel, the gremlins are said to have caused many accidents in the past: the Memphis runaway escalators of 1972; the 1969 Super Bowl; the East Coast power failure of November 1965, a lesser known power failure a month later in Texas, New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico; the closing in 1963 of the New York Mirror (a newspaper that could not rid its systems of the gremlins); the 1962 collision of a runaway train, jet plane, and a seagoing tanker at Danzig, Poland; the Bay of Pigs paramilitary fiasco of 1961; the three-day episode at the Onawa, Iowa, buttonhole factory in 1957; countless casualties and incidents during World War II; and the disappearance of Vansk which was, until 1936, the largest city in Siberia.