We Fed it After Midnight: What ‘Gremlins’ Says About Our Current Cultural Hellscape
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I was about half-way through my annual Christmas Gremlins rewatch when I realized it all felt extra familiar this year. Something about the central theme of society’s tendency to disastrously play around with things it doesn’t understand reminded me of the current cultural hellscape in which we all suddenly live.
It was watching Billy Peltzer irresponsibly raise his pets to the detriment of everyone around him that did it. While these days I wouldn’t be surprised to find a corner of the internet where people defend Mrs. Deagle, I’m not one of those people.
Having said that, Billy is not a good pet owner.
We know this right away because his dog – apparently allowed to freely wander the neighborhood – has destroyed Mrs. Deagle’s imported snowman. Then Billy brings that same dog to work, where it is also out of control. He seems like a nice enough kid, but I would not trust Billy to feed my gerbil.
It’s not entirely Billy’s fault, some of this is upbringing. His dad, Rand Peltzer, an unemployed and aggressively mediocre inventor, essentially steals a creature heretofore never seen in modern society and gives it to his kid for Christmas. Elated with the preciousness of the alien/oni/whatever they now possess, the Peltzer family gathers for Polaroids with it before Rand remembers there was a whole list of rules he was supposed to tell them first.
Gremlins would have been a very short movie if that camera flash had fried Gizmo to the bone then and there, though it might have worth it for the following scene where Rand is forced to explain what the hell just happened to his sobbing family.
Even after being given the rest of the rules, Billy breaks them almost immediately.
He doesn’t Mogwai-proof his room like a good pet owner would. He leaves a half-empty glass just sitting around right next to Gizmo, who for-all-he-knows will literally explode upon contact with water. When Gizmo gives give birth to a full litter after getting wet, Billy is so fascinated he takes his beloved new companion to school and willfully repeats the process which it’s worth noting looks super painful and traumatic.
In fairness, Stripe and the rest of Gizmo’s offspring do trick Billy into feeding them after midnight. On the other hand, Billy is easily duped by creatures roughly two days old.
All of this is to say Billy has no idea what he’s doing, and the entire town of Kingston Falls ultimately pays the price for his and Rand’s irresponsibility. (Lynn Peltzer gets a pass because she does all she can to clean up after her family’s mistakes, and by ‘clean up’ I mean explode said mistakes in a microwave.)
The internet was like a Mogwai once.
It was also cute at first glance, with just enough weirdness to make it interesting. You could invite your friends over and show it to them. But unlike the Peltzers, we weren’t given any rules. We brought it into our homes and played with it like the new toy we thought it was. We put in the bath and were alarmed as we found ourselves in a ‘Trouble With Tribbles’ situation. It all escalated so quickly and suddenly it was everywhere. It was still kind of fun – a never-ending torrent of cat photos and funny gifs – but like with Gizmo’s offspring, there was a mischievous aspect right there in front of us we didn’t fully understand or respect.
At first, the mischief seemed harmless. I’ll never forget the first time someone tricked me into watching a jump-scare video, and you might have been a little sick of Rick Astley, but it was a small price to pay to see that Freddy Vs. Jason trailer when it did eventually go up for real. In retrospect, Aunt Beatrice’s forwarded e-mails about beleaguered Nigerian princes might have been a red flag we missed. That’s probably when the Mogwai first started trying to hang the dog on the front porch.
Years from now, in the Future Wastes, we’ll still be huddled around a campfire composed of useless smartphones trying to figure out how the internet went from Mogwai to Gremlin. Because at some point it ate after midnight and now it’s not so cute. Now it’s teeth and claws and hate and it’s playing with the wiring in the traffic lights just for the lulz. People are violently colliding in the streets because they’re all getting different information from a source they previously assumed was reliable and everyone believes they have the right of way.
It’s affecting all of us in incalculable ways, every single day. Targeted harassment. Massive breaches of personal data. Malware. Extremist groups. Clickbait headlines. Russian bot networks. Kingston Falls has fallen into chaos and nobody knows what to do about any of it because most of us are just trying to survive the long, dark night. It’s unlikely the negative aspects of the internet will simply gather in one place for us to blow up because they would first endlessly debate whether Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is ‘real horror’ as though that were a thing.
And of course, this is what’s happened. Of course it is.
This is what Mr. Wing was trying to tell the Peltzers over thirty years ago.
“You do with Mogwai what your society has done with all of nature’s gifts. You do not understand. You are not ready.” From the first time we drove an animal to extinction to the splitting of the atom, we’ve shown the same level of care and caution to new discoveries Billy showed his poor pets. The internet may not be one of nature’s gifts in the same way a rainforest or the climate is, but the principle is the same. We usually have no idea what we’re doing with these things until it’s too late. Mr. Wing saw this clearer than anyone and that’s why Spielberg gave him only one good eye. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is Wing.
So, if someone destroys your credit score with your stolen identity, or an army of trolls ruins your Twitter mentions, or your kitchen appliances are hijacked in a large-scale DDOS attack, don’t bother checking the closets or under the bed. There’s not only a gremlin in your house, it’s already careening through your living room in a snow plow.
A new month means a new guide as titles are added (and dropped) from streaming services. Let’s unpack the most exciting titles that are available to watch on Tubi in July 2026.
New to Tubi July Horror Films
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
- Premise: Searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.
- Why Watch It? Let’s be frank: Director Renny Harlin has made some absolute dogs in the last few years (the less said about The Strangers trilogy the better, though this year’s Deep Water was actually ok). Deep Blue Sea remains one of the Finnish director’s best contemporary efforts, though. Between the great cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgård, Michael Rapaport, LL Cool J, Thomas Jane, and Jane’s sleeveless wetsuit), the ridiculous premise, and that damn/dumb song (“My hat is like a shark’s fin”), you basically can’t go wrong with Deep Blue Sea. It’s one of two great shark films gliding onto Tubi this month, so why not stay out of the water and watch this instead?
- Streaming: July 1
Exorcist II: Heretic (1977)
- Premise: Reagan (Linda Blair), a girl once possessed by a demon, finds that it still lurks within her. Meanwhile, Father Lamont (Richard Burton) investigates the death of the priest who performed her exorcism.
- Why Watch It? August sees the release of documentary Boorman and the Devil, which is about the troubled production of this sequel. The notoriety surrounding Heretic has undoubtedly kept plenty of horror fans away from the sequel, but this truly is a “seeing is believing” kind of film. Real talk: it’s undeniably a disaster, but the John Boorman film has also become a minor cult film. Don’t you want to see it to make up your own mind?
- Streaming: July 1
Hostel: Part III (2011)
- Premise: Four men attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas fall prey to the Elite Hunting Club, who are hosting a gruesome game show of torture.
- Why Watch It? What does Hostel look like without Eli Roth? Part III kinda answers the question. Technically Roth is still a writer, but he hands over the directorial reins to Scott Spiegel (best known for acting in Evil Dead films). The result is a film with a terrible pedigree; it’s also the first (and last) entry to skip theatres before the franchise was permanently shelved (until that TV show with Paul Giamatti shows up?). For some horror fans, however, there’s something exciting about a bad low-budget sequel. Just bear in mind that the Hostel: Part III‘s biggest star is Kip Pardue…so adjust your expectations accordingly before hitting play.
- Streaming: July 1
Insidious 1-3 (2010/2013/2015)
- Premise: A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
- Why Watch It? It’s hard to believe that the sixth (!) Insidious movie is coming out in a month and a half, but James Wan and Leigh Whannell‘s other horror franchise has been steadily chugging along for sixteen years. It’s a shame that Tubi doesn’t have all five films available to watch, but in terms of quality, you can do far worse than the original trio. The first film is iconic, and the second is basically an extended coda (with some admittedly problematic stuff going on). I’ll go to bat for Whannell’s 2015 directorial debut, though: there’s a few banger sequences in that film that people slept on.
- Streaming: July 1
Man Finds Tape (2025)
- Premise: After finding mysterious video clips, siblings investigate the strange recordings and uncover a disturbing secret spreading through their Texas town.
- Why Watch It? Writer/directors Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall‘s well-received found footage film did an extensive tour of the festival circuit, so now is a great time to check out one of the most contemporary titles debuting on Tubi this month. Surely a title that hails from producers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Spring and The Endless) is worth a free look?
- Streaming: July 2
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
- Premise: A depressed musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) reunites with his lover Eve (Tilda Swinton). However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).
- Why Watch It? This beautiful, melancholy vampire film is courtesy of writer/director Jim Jarmusch, who doesn’t often dabble in genre fare. As always, some will quibble if this artsy drama qualifies as horror, but the existential ennui of an eternal life certainly qualifies (bonus: there’s also something inherently sexy about watching Hiddleston and Swinton just lay about). Plus: if Leviticus has you hankering for more Wasikowska, this is an under the radar pick.
- Streaming: July 1
The Shallows (2016)
- Premise:A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
- Why Watch It? What better time to watch a shark movie than July? The temperatures are soaring and the idea of escaping into the water is so tantalizing. This tight, contained thriller features a great performance by Lively (and that damn seagull!), but it’s the direction from genre fave Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan; the House of Wax remake) that keeps the movie clicking along like clockwork. At 86 minutes, this is a perfect summer flick.
- Streaming: July 1
Vacancy (2007)
- Premise: Stranded in an isolated motel, a couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) become the unsuspecting subjects of a snuff film.
- Why Watch It? I’m not going to pretend that this Nimród Antal-directed home invasion film is high art, but it is a good time. You’ll likely wish there were deeper characterizations for Wilson and Beckinsale’s David and Amy in Mark L. Smith‘s screenplay, but this mid-aughts thriller is tense, exciting, and just the right amount of grimy. Plus: another short runtime, clocking in at an expeditious 85 minutes!
- Streaming: July 1
July Tubi Originals
The One Next Door (2026)
- Premise: When a mysterious stranger moves in next door to Robert and Tabitha, boundaries are tested, loyalty is questioned, and danger comes for all.
- Streaming: July 10
I Know Where You Live (2026)
- Premise: Sarah thinks she’s found “the one” until his flaws emerge. When she pulls away, chilling threats suggest he’s watching her from inside her own home.
- Streaming: July 24
What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Original? Sound off in the comments below
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