Cinema Memoir #49

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (June 15th, 1990)

This movie had one of the best teaser trailers of the decade. Check it out here if you don't believe me.

I was very excited to see this movie and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in the end. Growing up, Gremlins was one of the scariest movies I had ever seen. For a long time I couldn't get through the entire movie without covering my eyes during the scary parts. I lost hours of sleep, fearful of glowing red eyes in the darkness.

I was expecting Gremlins 2 to be similarly scary, but instead all I got was tongue in cheek humor and cartoon zaniness. I mean, check out the scariness of this scene from the original Gremlins and compare it to this scene from Gremlins 2. Nevertheless, I guess I still liked the movie and still find myself watching it occasionally.

You should definitely check out the DVD commentaries for both these movies. There's a lot of cool info about how this franchise came to be. And for those of you who are like me and prefer the darkness of the first movie, try to find the 2nd draft Gremlins script online . . . the "R" rated version. It's worth a read.

Also, the first movie has one of Jerry Goldsmith's best and most underrated scores. It's also extremely hard to find.

(Image from impawards.com)