Gizmo! is a 1977 documentary film produced and directed by Howard Smith about improbable inventions, and uses old newsreel footage about these inventions. Early examples of parkour and buildering are also featured, including footage of an urban acrobat, John Ciampa (the "Brooklyn Tarzan"), and a stuntman, Arnim Dahl.
Gremlins is a 1984 American comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante and released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature called a mogwai as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. This story was continued with a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, released in 1990. Unlike the lighter sequel, Gremlins opts for more black comedy, balanced against a Christmastime setting. Both films were the center of large merchandising campaigns.
Steven Spielberg was the film's executive producer and the screenplay was written by Chris Columbus. The film stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of Gizmo, the main mogwai character. Gremlins was a commercial success and received positive reviews from critics. However, the film was also heavily criticized for some of its more violent sequences. In response to this and to similar complaints about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg suggested that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) alter its rating system, which it did within two months of the film's release.
Gizmo (also known as Mikron O’Jeneus) is a fictional character, a supervillain from DC Comics. He was created by George Pérez and Marv Wolfman, and he first appeared in The New Teen Titans #3 (January 1981) as a founding member of the Fearsome Five, a supervillain team that frequently fought the Teen Titans and the Outsiders.
A bald dwarf who flies around on a jet pack, Gizmo is a genius inventor who can turn seemingly innocuous objects like vacuum cleaners into dangerous weapons. Gizmo created a corporation which supplied technology to various people, including criminals. Hoping to increase his wealth, Gizmo joined the Fearsome Five through an ad placed in the Underworld Star, a criminal underground newsletter, by the psychopathic criminal Doctor Light.
After a number of unsuccessful conflicts with the Teen Titans, (and Superman in Adventures of Superman #430) Gizmo went straight for a while, and took a job at S.T.A.R. Labs, until his former Fearsome Five teammate Psimon, after having been seemingly killed by his teammates, resurfaced looking for revenge, and shrank Gizmo to microscopic size. Years later, Gizmo found a way to revert to his normal size, and took up a life of crime once again, partnering with his former teammate, Mammoth.
Evil, in a general context, is the absence or opposite of that which is ascribed as being good. Often, evil is used to denote profound immorality. In certain religious contexts, evil has been described as a supernatural force. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives. However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior involving expediency, selfishness, ignorance, or neglect.
In cultures with an Abrahamic religious influence, evil is usually perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated. In cultures with Buddhist spiritual influence, both good and evil are perceived as part of an antagonistic duality that itself must be overcome through achieving Śūnyatā meaning emptiness in the sense of recognition of good and evil being two opposing principles but not a reality, emptying the duality of them, and achieving a oneness.
The philosophical question of whether morality is absolute, relative, or illusory leads to questions about the nature of evil, with views falling into one of four opposed camps: moral absolutism, amoralism, moral relativism, and moral universalism.
"Evil" (often stylised as EVIL) is a song by alternative rock band Grinderman, written collectively by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos. The song was featured as the fifth track on the band's second and final studio album, Grinderman 2 (2010). On Record Store Day 2011, "Evil" was released as a limited edition single, on 12" vinyl with an enclosed CD, with various remixes.
"Evil", sometimes listed as "Evil (Is Going On)", is a Chicago blues standard written by Willie Dixon.Howlin' Wolf recorded the song for Chess Records in 1954. It was included on the 1959 compilation album Moanin' in the Moonlight. When he re-recorded it for The Howlin' Wolf Album in 1969, "Evil" became Wolf's last charting single (#43 Billboard R&B chart).
The 1954 song features sidemen Hubert Sumlin and Jody Williams (guitars), Otis Spann (piano), Willie Dixon (double-bass), and Earl Phillips (drums). Wolf achieves a coarse, emotional performance with his strained singing, lapsing into falsetto. The song, a twelve-bar blues, is punctuated with a syncopated backbeat, brief instrumental improvisations, upper-end piano figures, and intermittent blues harp provided by Wolf. The lyrics caution about the "evil" that takes place in a man's home when he is away, concluding with "you better watch your happy home".
The song has been recorded by numerous artists, including: Luther Allison, Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart, Derek and the Dominos, Gary Moore, Cactus, The Faces, Dee Snider (with Widowmaker), Jake E. Lee, Monster Magnet, and Steve Miller. Koko Taylor's version of the song appeared in the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting. Tom Jones recorded a version of the song in 2011, produced by Jack White. It includes a snippet of The Doors' "Wild Child". Jace Everett and C. C. Adcock also recorded a version, which was used as the featured song for the third season finale of the HBO series True Blood.