10 Horror Movie Sequels MASSIVELY Better Than The Original
5. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
A possibly controversial choice now, so let's get one thing out of the way: the original Gremlins is a great movie in its own right.
Joe Dante's darkly comedic creature feature is an unwieldy fusion of family-friendly sci-fi and surprisingly violent horror, yet Gremlins 2: The New Batch is so jaw-droppingly insane as to make the original Gremlins seem positively pedestrian by comparison.
Legend states that Dante only agreed to return for the sequel if he was given full creative control, which combined with a budget triple that of the original, allowed him to deliver one of the most brilliantly daring sequels in cinema history.
Gremlins 2 is a flabbergastingly tireless satire of both the original Gremlins and Hollywood's fascination with sequels, upping the ante to such a comically cartoonish level that you can practically hear Dante screaming, "You happy yet?" if you listen closely enough.
Yet this isn't some passive-aggressive crusade by Dante: it's also a terrifically entertaining piece of work that's as playfully satirical and meta as it is often genuinely horrifying.
Dante threw everything at the wall that his massive budget would allow, and courtesy of some first-rate puppetry work, the vast majority of it sticks.
Though Gremlins 2 was a box office flop - audiences of the time apparently didn't know what to do with it - it lives on today as a fondly revered cult classic, and one of the boldest sequels Hollywood has ever produced.