My kids asked me about that after midnight bit at the time. They wanted to know how the thing could eat at all, because it’s always after midnight, you know?
I never got the midnight bit. How long after midnight is it safe to feed them? And what about when DST starts or stops, do the Gremlin metabolisms adjust for that?
Plus it was snowing, and they were walking through snowbanks, and no multiplication there. Surely some snow melted into water on their skin as they marauded through the town?
As someone posted in a *Pushing Daisies * thread…sssh…you’ll wake the inconsistencies…
This “after midnight” loophole exists in a few other movies too.
There’s the Arnold film where Gabriel Byrne is the devil or something. Anyway, some prophecy is in effect where things go to hell come midnight at the Millennium (exactly 2000 years after Christ’s birth).
As to why this prophecy takes effect at midnight, in a city that didn’t even exist, in an area of the world that was unknown to the Roman Empire, 7 hours past midnight in Jerusalem… well, that’s never explained.
When I saw “Gremlins” for the first time, I was wondering what would happen if you put food in the gremlins mouth then drove across a time zone before he swallowed. Enquiring minds need to know!
G-2 mocked all kinds of stupid shit from the original. A personal favorite was Phoebe Cates’ getting smacked down for being all phobic about Lincoln’s birthday or some other weak holiday, taking off on her ridiculous Christmas-hating rant from G-1.
The good gremilns can’t eat between Midnight and Sunrise.
Midnight is a magical time and it applies to magical creatures who can all sense when Midnight occurs. It probably is technically the mid point between sunset and sunrise but that is a little complicated so 12 midnight is used.
When an evil Gremlin eats after midnight, nothing else happens, except your food is gone. They were rather ravenous eaters if you recall.
Query! I recently (well, within the last year or so) had a go at watching G1, and couldn’t make it through. I don’t recall exactly what ticked me off about it, but I think it was this sort of stupid stuff. Is there some possibility I might actually dig G2, which seems to exist primarily to mock G1?
Gremlins 1 is a comedy that dressed up as a horror film. Gremlins 2 The Next Batch is a comedy. It makes the Gremlins more cartoony and wacky yet still with an edge of danger. The Brain Gremlin is hilarious while the Spider Gremlin is “scary”.
The presence of John Glover in the second makes it superior to the first. I have never seen that guy in a movie that he didn’t make better. Sometimes he won’t be able to make it good, but he always makes it better.
I haven’t seen either movie in quite awhile. I think it’s time to update my netflix queue. My favorite line from G2 (from memory - from several years ago)
Brainy Gremlin After shooting another Gremlin in the face: Was that civilized? No, clearly not!
