10 Horror Movie Scenes That Totally Trolled Everyone

7. Gremlins Break The Movie - Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Exorcist 3 Jumpscare
Warner Bros.

Gremlins 2 is a feature-length exercise in director Joe Dante seeing what he could persuade Warner Bros. to bankroll, and clearly the answer is a lot.

But the film's wacky shenanigans reach a hilariously daft fever pitch when the gremlins decide to mess with the very movie itself, breaking into "your" cinema's projectionist booth and sabotaging the reel, causing the celluloid to fizzle away.

At that moment, we cut to a cinema where an usher enters the screen and finds Hulk Hogan, who is also trying to watch Gremlins 2. 

The usher convinces Hogan to stand up to the gremlins, prompting him to cut a testosterone-fuelled promo like only the Hulkster can, imploring the "Gremsters" to play the rest of the movie.

The gremlins begrudgingly acquiesce, and Hogan eyeballs the camera while telling you to enjoy the rest of the movie. 

It's a completely bonkers feat of torching the fourth wall, and certainly in step with the movie's overall anarchic spirit, if also wildly unexpected on an initial viewing.

Fascinatingly, the original VHS version of the movie substitutes the cinema scenario for the gremlins messing with your VCR, before a digitally altered John Wayne shoots at them and makes them play the rest of the film.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.