10 Dark Theories About Family Movies That Actually Make Sense
6. Gremlins: A Tirade Against Imported Asian Goods
Maybe not what we’d class as a kids’ film today but back in the 80s a film about a small town overrun with tiny, terrifying goblins passed as acceptable viewing for young, impressionable minds. In addition to scaring the pants off a generation, one fan theory posits that Joe Dante’s comedy horror pushes another agenda entirely and one that’s political and little xenophobic in nature.
The fictional town of Kingston Falls where Gremlins is set is the quintessential small American town and representative of the US as a whole while protagonist Billy’s inventor dad Rand, whose creations are rather shoddy, represents the state of the American economy and manufacturing industries during the 1980s.
Hailing from Chinatown, cute little Gizmo and his not-so-cute offspring are a stand-in for imported Asian goods and the havoc they wreak on Kingston Falls a metaphor for the effects on the Asian economic boom upon the USA’s domestic market.
Remember Billy’s crabby neighbour Mr Futterman? The one that rambled on about foreign cars, foreign TVs and other such foreign pieces of crap? He’s basically the overriding message of the movie that foreign imports are destroying the US. Gremlins is pushing a ‘Buy American’ agenda. Trump would be so proud.