French Literature Reviews - 2026

Antonio Dominguez Leiva & Sébastien Hubier, Gremlins
Art and Visual Culture

In both installments of his Gremlins—which function simultaneously as a Christmas tale, splatstick, monster movie, horror film, and family comedy—Joe Dante successfully synthesized two seemingly contradictory aesthetics: the B-movie tradition inherited from Roger Corman, and the blockbuster style pioneered by Steven Spielberg. Oscillating between the countercultural ethos of New Hollywood and the aggressive merchandising that took center stage during the Reagan era of the 1980s, this franchise also stands, above all, as an extended meditation on the power of cinema and the dynamics of domination at play in our postmodern world.

Antonio Dominguez Leiva is a professor at UQAM (Montreal). He has authored numerous works on contemporary popular culture and the cultural history of cruelty and eroticism.

Sébastien Hubier teaches comparative cultural studies at the University of Reims and the Euro-American campus of Sciences Po Paris. He is the author of about a dozen books on pop culture.

This volume examines Joe Dante's Gremlins duology as works that combine the B-movie tradition associated with Roger Corman and the blockbuster aesthetics pioneered by Steven Spielberg. The text notes that these films operate as Christmas tales, monster movies, horror films, and family comedies while reflecting the countercultural ethos of New Hollywood and the commercial dynamics of the Reagan era. Antonio Dominguez Leiva and Sébastien Hubier present the franchise as an extended meditation on the power of cinema and the dynamics of postmodern domination. Readers interested in contemporary popular culture and film history may find this study relevant.

The intersection of mainstream cinema and countercultural sensibilities remains a central area of inquiry within film and cultural studies. Scholars frequently examine how commercial franchises negotiate the tensions between artistic innovation and industrial merchandising during the 1980s. The authors draw upon their extensive backgrounds in popular culture and comparative studies to analyze these cinematic layers. The volume follows the thematic outlines mentioned on the page, focusing on the cultural significance of Dante's work within modern media landscapes.