Monster Invasion in Consumer America : An analysis of social criticism in Gremlins

This thesis explores the social criticism expressed in the two films Gremlins (Joe Dante, USA,1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, USA, 1990) and how the films criticizeUS-consumer culture in the Reagan Era, addressing the wide-spread economic problems.To find an answer I have asked the following questions; in what way do the Gremlins filmsexpress social criticism, what are the threats and what functions do they have and has socialcriticism developed between the films and if so how? My hypothesis is that through anallegorical story, Dante attacks the capitalist society, and he does so by letting gremlins,monsters that previously attacked the machines of the allied forces during World War II,destroy the safe society that the Reagan advocated. The home, the finances and even SantaClaus himself, no one is safe from Dante's criticism.The films also reflect the fear of the unknown, such as the Soviet Union, the Asian market andthe African American population. In this thesis I arguethat the films, rather than perpetuatingthis fear, criticize it in the hope that some form of consensus can be created. I have alsodiscovered that the creatures in the movies reflect desire, greed and violence, and I believethat Dante may well want to tell us that the very thing that separates us from becomingGremlins which will lead to our total destruction is our desire to be better than them. If thatwill doesn’t exist inside us, consumption and fear will not disappear, but instead increase. Ihope my analysis of Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch will provide a broaderperspective on the genre. Because if two simple monster movies have been shown to criticizeseveral major societal problems in American society, what more overlooked horror movieshave done the same thing and deserve to be discussed