31 Days of Halloween: Gremlins and cutsie horror
I was not a fan of Gremlins 2 and cutsie horror, a genre so general that it defines what a summer movie and studio film is. It has cuddly characters and generic stars, meant to appeal to almost everyone. Gremlins 2 was not released during the Fall instead made it’s debute at the start of summer, the prime time for movie blockbusters, and Joe Dante begrudgingly falls in line by adjusting his approach the gremlins concept, by increasing the comedy and doubling-down on gags. I think Dante had enough of arguing with the studio, and relented to their requests for a more generic film they could slot into the June timeslot. Santa does not break his neck in this film, because all the comedy is safe, mainstream and edible for general audiences. Dante essentially changes his horror movie with comedy into a comedy with a little horror.
So they make Gremlins into this summer movie and people really didn’t get it, because the movie opened with a thud. It was released six years after the original and it made above a third of the original’s take. Dante was given cart blanche to develop this summer movie, and he made it into a comedy satire, although maybe he went a little overboard in my opinion. He tosses in more commetary than a Simpsons episode, starting with a lampooning of big business. Dante’s evil corporation is run by his main villain, Daniel Clamp. He’s so evil he wants to bulldoze some Chinatown small businesses, including the place of origin of our friendly, fuzzy stars of the movie. The commotion sends the stupid little monsters on a rampage through Clamp’s version of Trump Town and all pretense of a story are given up, in favor of comedic set pieces and gags. The Gremlins pop up to scare people but it’s more funny than scary, as they run around and cause trouble, like a squirrel on acid.
Dante gave the studio what they wanted but shaped his summer comedy into a satire using the same formula from the first movie. We know gremlins will pop up and surprise people, and there will be one bloody scene to top them all. In the first movie, this was a gremlin in the microwave. The same actors are back in this sequel, including Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, and they run around like in the first movie trying to convince people the gremlins are trouble. Dante throws in guest stars like Christopher Lee, giving him a character called Dr. Cathader. Dante pokes fun at a lot of crap and some of it is funny, like his Trump character, and he even makes fun of the gremlin “rules”, by having characters ask absurd questions like, “So you can’t feed a gremlin after midnight but what if it gets food stuck in its teeth and it falls loose after midnight? Does that count?” He later has the characters hose down the gremlins and electricute them.
Overall, I don’t like this movie but I think the masses love it. I don’t think Joe Dante likes it either. It has his expressions of hate all over it, from his attacks on big business and Hollywood, to his lampooning of the gremlins themselves. I think his mistake was to create a horror character so cutsie to begin with, which is trouble if you put that in front of a corporate executive, who can only see cash and dollar signs in everything. Dante also threw out some things that might have big appeals in the first movie, like the setting, and he kills off the Chinese business owner Wing from the first movie, maybe to tell us that he’s going to try to kill his franchise. At the end of the day, Gremlins 2 feels like a slightly more developed loony toons episode. I’m not sure how anyone could treat their work and their craft that way, with true absurdity, and a joke every five minutes. Dante did get what he wanted and killed off Gremlins for many, many years, until recently when everything retro is cool, and people want a Gizmo plushie and an animated series. The cutsie factor always wins out, no matter how long it takes.
It’s stuff like this that makes me question why I’m watching a bunch of 90s movies. God I hate the 90s.
Unfortunately, most 90s horror films were some of the worst to have ever graced the silver screen. At the time, we accepted these films only because we needed something to go see in the theater. Rewatching them today only exposes just how dated and silly many of these films actually are. Gremlins 2 was one film that should have gone direct to video.
One 1992 film that still mostly holds up is Death Becomes Her. Death Becomes Her is an odd romp of a film, not scary, not really comedy, just kind of eclectic fantasy with mild dark humor. Death Becomes Her holds up mostly due to its special effects. The Death Becomes her story is oddly simplistic and is ultimately not very satisfying, but Zemeckis seemed intent on ripping pages from Tim Burton’s director playbook (aka, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands).
I liked the original Gremlins film fine. I didn’t like that Gremlins 2 tried to set fire to the franchise… and G2 mostly succeeded in doing this.
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I agree with you, I really set myself up for this one by watching 90s movies. The good ones are few and far between, like Death Becomes Her, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
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Along with Dracula, there are a number of fair 90s horror flicks including Bride of Chucky, Species, The Craft, Terminator 2 and Silence of the Lambs. If you’re looking for more cultish kinds of niche horror, that would include Interview with the Vampire, Night of the Living Dead, From Dusk Til Dawn, Mimic, Mars Attacks and Flatliners. These niche cult films aren’t exactly great, but they do have their occasional moments.
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I forgot to include Leprechaun under niche horror. That film isn’t great, but it does have its moments.
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