Abstract
Gremlins and Little Shop of Horrors are very likeable films. The former is rather charming, and the latter is one of the most originally-rendered musicals ever produced. Indeed, it is the positive surface of the films that makes their underlying message so insidious. Fortunately, the final twist common to both films can give solace to the viewer who would like to see the disguised blacks triumph. At the end of Gremlins the original Mogwi is still alive, albeit back in the capable hands of the mysterious Chinese man, and Little Shop closes as the camera follows Seymour and Audrey into the yard of a model suburban home and then pans from their happy faces to the garden where a seemingly nondescript little Audrey II is nestled in among the blooming flowers. Temporarily subdued by the white heroes, the blacks in disguise might triumph in the future.
Recommended Citation
Turner, Patricia A.
(1987)
"Reel Blacks: Blacks in Disguise,"
Trotter Review: Vol. 1:
Iss.
2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol1/iss2/6
Included in
African American Studies Commons, American Film Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons
