Don't get him wet, keep him out of bright light, and never, ever feed him after midnight. These were the 3 rules to keep a Mogwai. Well as you probably know, the rules weren't obeyed and as a result, the evil Gremlin, Stripe, was born. Gremlins is one of those rare movies that blends horror and light-hearted humor to where a kid could watch it and not be terrified, while an adult can view the movie and not think, "Eugh, not another family movie..." For a movie that was rated PG, there's a surprising amount of violence and gore... granted the gore is mainly in the form of the slimy green blood of various Gremlins being splattered on screen.

Now most people seem to recall the Gremlin-in-the-microwave scene from the first movie as one of the most gory moments. While I agree that it was a great scene, I still believe that Stripe's last stand is far better than anything else in the movie. Most horror character icons could only dream of having such a well-crafted demise...

After his initial Gremlin army is killed off, Stripe (who, by the way, was voiced by the legendary Frank Welker) manages to escape into a nearby department store. He fights Billy for a while, and even manages to wound him, but then discovers a water fountain in the garden center. And you know what that means...

Stripe puts his finger in the water and the Gremlin eggs immediately start to bubble up on his back. He's on his way to starting a brand new Gremlin army to terrorize the town with. Well, he would've done that if it wasn't for Gizmo, the unlikely Mogwai hero.

Gizmo flies across the room in a Barbie toy Corvette that he found in the store and crashes into the garden center wall. Stripe aims his gun at Giz, but the lil' Mogwai jumps on the puller which controls the blinds. The blinds open up and a blast of sunlight hits Stripe in an instant. We'll ignore the fact that it was late at night when they all went into the department store.

And so, one of the longest, most drawn-out death scenes of all time begins...

As you know, sunlight will kill them and here's the proof. Stripe's death is all kinds of gory, with his body decomposing as he twitches and pools of green mucus drain from his mouth and nose.

His eyes go completely white and the flesh on his face continues to fall apart, exposing muscle, bone and all kinds of nasty viscous fluids. 

Stripe's body then falls into the water and it continues to bubble with a variety of colorful lights and smoke. I gotta say that they really made great use of lights and smoke machines throughout the film, especially in the pool scene when Stripe dives in.

Having no muscles or skin left, Stripe's body somehow still manages to emerge from the fountain once more, complete with the white eyes wobbling about.

The body then collapses to the floor and slowly melts into a puddle of gurgling green goop.

In what appears to be a puddle of rancid applesauce, the remains of Stripe blister and bubble to signify the end of Stripe's extremely long death. And even then, you're not quite sure Stripe is dead. With this bubbling mass on the ground, I always wondered if it meant Stripe could come back one day. You know, like if a scientist gathered up the remains and ran some tests with them and accidentally brought him back to life. Well, he didn't come back in part 2, but I wouldn't mind a Gremlins 3 as long as it didn't involve any CGI and Stripe was the main bad guy again. After all, a plain old Gremlin is mean... but a Gremlin with a white mohawk is downright evil. Or as Stripe would've probably put it, "CACA!"

Questions? Comments?
-RoG-

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