8 Sequels Ruined By Idiotic Changes To The Original Concept
3. Gremlins 2 Pushed Too Far Into Comedy
The original Gremlins caused such a hoo-ha at the time of release for being advertised as a kids movie when it was anything but. The movie caused a change to the whole ratings system and the invention of ‘PG-13’. This was a perfect rating for the film, as the clear target audience was teens and tweens looking for a horror flick with an inferred body count without the blood.
And its premise of cute looking Mogwais turning evil and running amuck in a small town, with only our teen protagonists able to save the day, was embraced heartily by the true target audience. There is also a good moral to the story, with the lead character, Billy, taking responsibility for the ensuing chaos due to his contribution to it.
The film definitely has humorous moments such as the Gremlins singing along to Snow White in a theatre. However, the preceding scene in which the Gremlins tear through the cinema in an attempt to kill Billy and his love interest Kate, is indicative of the genuinely horrifying nature of the film.
Unfortunately, the bad publicity for the first film’s violence was an example of the feedback loop taking hold in the worst way possible, with the film’s sequel, Gremlins 2 -The New Batch, replacing the genuinely scary moments with slapstick comedy.
Even characters who clearly died in the first film, such as Uncle Murray, made a return to the sequel, as if to please younger audiences traumatised by the original’s dark tones. However, all this did was to cheapen the dark joys offered by the first Gremlins film.
The sense of threat and epic nature of the original was lost, with ominous characters such as Spike replaced with lame caricatures such as Brain Gremlin (and yes, that was the character name). There’s a few decent laughs in the film, but this isn’t what the audience was interested in, and the sequel proved a box office bomb losing $8.5 million which was significant for its time.