Gremlins 2 is better than Gremlins

Gremlins (1984)

(PG) ★★★

Director: Joe Dante.

Cast: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Judge Reinhold, Dick Miller, Glynn Turman, Keye Luke, Corey Feldman, Edward Andrews.

"And now... Tubular Bells."

The 1980s were a wild and scary place for an easily frightened movie-loving kid. Torment and terror lay around every corner. 

Horses died in swamps, overcome by sadness. That lovely guy who invented The Muppets made a puppet film that was pure nightmare fuel. A Wizard of Oz sequel turned out to be horrifying because heads could be removed and if you touched the sand you died. Even the ending of the greatest adventure of all time had faces melting. 

It’s only in this landscape that a movie like Gremlins could have been made. Part cornball cartoon, part check-under-the-bed horror, it tried to walk a line that only truly existed in the '80s - the hitherto unexplored zone between kids entertainment and bed-wetting terror. In fact, Gremlins and Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom led censors to rewrite the ratings system in the US, because the line those two films walked wandered straight into places too dark for most kids. After all, nothing says "kids movie" quite like stuffing a living creature in a blender or a microwave, or ripping out the still-beating heart of a terrified man.

Joe Dante, a director renowned for mixing "the 1950s-style B movie genre with 1960s radicalism and cartoon comedy" (according to Wikipedia), attempted to blend his trademark cartoon comedy stylings with some genuine scares in Gremlins. The opening of the film is bizarrely wacky, as one by one we're introduced to a number of characters who are part of an OTT comedy from the '60s or '70s. Hoyt Axton is a goofy inventor, Judge Reinhold is a deputy bank manager/chad, Polly Holliday is a wannabe-dog killing grinch landlord, and Dick Miller is a tractor-driving xenophobe. Each is perfectly in sync with the oddball tone of the weird jokes that sorta-kinda land in the opening half hour.

But then the tone changes. In the middle of this is the cute Mogwai named Gizmo and its ominous instructions, and the 1984 teen-ish power couple of Zach Galligan (Billy) and Phoebe Cates (Kate), who are playing it very straight (as is the indomitable Frances Lee McCain as Billy's mom). They are starring in an entirely different movie - a scary movie where they are oblivious to the goofiness around them. Their movie occupies the bulk of the film but it's jarring to see them interact with the other actors who have seemingly wandered in from a comedy shooting on the same lot (which just so happens to be the town square lot where Back To The Future was filmed).

It's this blend of styles that was the selling point of Gremlins in 1984 and its biggest downfall rewatching it 42 years later. The funny-but-scary mix never quite works outside of the Gremlins themselves, who, being chaos incarnate, can get away with doing outlandishly oddball things in the middle of their killing sprees. But even then, they are pushing it. Yes, it's funny to watch them take over a bar and play cards and swing on the ceiling fans and get drunk, but we still need to be terrified of these reptilian Lokis.  

The fact we are still scared of them is largely down to the character design, the incredible puppetwork, and the insanity they bring to Kingston Falls. We can tolerate their cartoonish natures (though the scene where they cut loose in a bar, funny as it is, really does push it), but the film stumbles between its two tones. 

When it works, it's great, but the first half an hour is clunky, Axton's narration is utterly redundant, a subplot about the aforementioned grinch landlord goes absolutely nowhere, and the film frequently tries to blend cartoonish sound effects with its scariest moments. Ultimately the scares are too scary and the laughs are too goofy for it to meet in the middle.

The film's unevenness extends to its moral. Dick Miller's character, who doesn't trust foreigners or foreign products is ultimately proven right in a way - the cause of the problems comes from a Chinatown shop dealing in artifacts from the Orient. It's a xenophobic vindication for the town racist. But the mystical Chinese shopkeeper swoops in at the end to reclaim the Mogwai and tell the stupid Americans they're too ignorant and destructive to have something so cool. So turns it out everyone hates people from other countries, I guess. And everyone's right - the foreign monster causes the problem, but only because the dumb Americans can't follow the rules.

Gremlins is a flawed classic. It's goofiness aside, it's got some good scares, the Gremlins themselves are incredibly disconcerting villains, and the finale, as zany as it is, is a thrilling climax. Its technical achievements are also out of this world. The robotics and pupperty is next level, and the final moments of a melting Stripe are truly remarkable.

But probably its biggest success is its high concept. Even if you haven't seen Gremlins, you know at least two of the key three rules (don't get 'em wet, don't feed 'em after midnight) and you know what happens if you break those two key rules - little monsters happen. It's a brilliant plot, and one that succeeds and thrives for 75 per cent of the film.

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Gremlins 2: The New Batch

(PG) ★★★★

Director: Joe Dante.

Cast: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Robert Picardo, Christopher Lee, Haviland Morris, Dick Miller.

"And I said, 'Joe, honey, I don't wanna be in your stinking sequel'."

All the things that are wrong with the first Gremlins film are right with the second one. And I realise how controversial it is to state such a thing.

It's still not perfect but The New Batch nails its tone right from the start. Yes, it's bonkers, but it's consistently bonkers, and Galligan and Cates fit in so much better. The scares are more kiddy friendly but also fit in with the comedy better. And the laughs are far funnier this time around. Right from the get-go, Gremlins 2 is aiming to be an oddball B movie, and it is.

And yes, we can do without the fourth wall-breaking scene that literally derails the film. It might've worked in the cinema, in the moment, but it was hokey then and it's hokey now. Some of the other meta-jokes fall flat, such as Leonard Maltin reviewing the first film. And you could rightly argue it's nowhere near as scary as the original.

But Gremlins 2 has so much going for it. It leans into its B movie ideas far more, complete with Christopher Lee as a mad scientist, its pop culture references are en pointe, and it has something bigger and better to say than the first film - that corporate American greed and inane tech-reliance will be our undoing. And here we are. 

One of the key sorta-villains is a parody of Donald Trump who proves to be an idiotic buffoon, completely disconnected from reality. John Glover makes the character Daniel Clamp way more sympathetic, but the idea cuts through.

In general, it's a send-up of sequels, of disposable pop culture, and of America in general. The majority of the plot takes place in one "smart" building that proves to be incredibly dumb - it's a nightmare to get into, inside is a nightmare, and then fixing any problems within it are nigh-on impossible. That's America.  

Yes, Gremlins 2 is only good because of the hard work of the original. The high concept of the first film sets up so much of the second, allowing it to work as well as it does. Some of the best jokes are actually riffing on the silliness of the first film, and poking fun at that. Does Joe Dante have contempt for the original, or is he just seeing an opportunity for laughs? Who knows, but for mine, it works. Plus the bulk of the effects are incredible, and once again build on the remarkable puppetry and robotics of the original.

But for evenness of tone, for better laughs, and for deeper themes, Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a better film than the original. Whereas Gremlins is a mismatched horror-comedy, Gremlins 2 is a wild, full tilt B movie. Your nostalgia will say otherwise, but in the harsh light of 40-ish years hindsight, the sequel is indeed the better film.