Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Joe Dante turned the sequel down at first, considering the original a closed story and a follow up as existing only to make money. Warner Bros. came back with two things: complete creative control and a budget three times the first film’s. The result spends studio money mocking studio sequel logic. Rick Baker signed on only once he learned he could give the creatures separate personalities and anatomies. The four mogwai Gizmo produces are not copies of one another, and later one gremlin turns bat like and immune to sunlight while Mohawk goes part spider. Christopher Lee’s laboratory chief is named Cushing Catheter, after his longtime colleague Peter Cushing. The most famous gag depends on which copy you watch. In the theatrical print the film appears to break, gremlins seize the projection booth, and Hulk Hogan, sitting in the auditorium, bullies them into putting it back on. For VHS and the Japanese LaserDisc it was rebuilt as sabotage of the viewer’s video player, with a John Wayne impersonation stepping in. Chuck Jones came out of retirement to write and direct the Looney Tunes bookends. A good fit if you treat the early collapse of the three rules as the point rather than a flaw. Not for a viewer after the small town Christmas menace of the first film.