10 Movie Sequels WAY Crazier Than The Original

10. Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Joe Dante's original Gremlins may be a relatively wild black comedy, but compared to its 1990 sequel, it seems positively austere.

Though Warner Bros. were keen to get a sequel off the ground quickly, Dante was reluctant, and only agreed to make Gremlins 2 when he was given full creative control over the project as well as a budget thrice that of the original.

The result was Gremlins 2: The New Batch, a sequel so gloriously unhinged one can scarcely believe a major Hollywood studio actually greenlit it.

Dante, who had a difficult experience making the first Gremlins, envisioned the sequel as a quasi-parody of both the original and movie sequels as a whole, upping the ante in a way that was both totally ridiculous and yet absurdly entertaining.

Beyond being far funnier and more cartoonish than its predecessor, The New Batch is also pervasively meta, regularly breaking the fourth wall to the extent that, at one point, Hulk Hogan even shows up to stop the Gremlins tampering with the very movie we're watching.

Because it took six years for Warner Bros. to convince Dante to make the sequel, it unsurprisingly flopped at the box office, though has endured over the last three-plus decades as one of the most daring sequels ever produced within the Hollywood system.

Also be sure to check out Key and Peele's hilarious sketch about how Gremlins 2 came to pass.