Why Gremlins 2 Is Joe Dante's Best Movie, Explained By Quentin Tarantino

It's important to remember that Joe Dante's 1990 monster comedy "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" isn't just the director's best film, it's also one of the best films of the 1990s. It functions perfectly well as a comedy, and it certainly boasts some of the best practical creature effects of its decade, but it really serves as a clever meta-narrative on the tenuous relationship audiences have with the movies they watch. Several times throughout "Gremlins 2," the Gremlins break the fourth wall, gleefully deconstructing the very nature of films. In one scene, they strangle movie critic Leonard Maltin with a strip of 35mm film. Similarly, in the sequel's most notorious sequence, the gremlins break into the projection booth and appear to start ripping apart the movie as you're watching it.

At the time, critics were generally positive about the film, although not overwhelmed. It wasn't a hit, either making only $41 million at the box office against a $50 million budget. It seems that "Gremlins 2" was just too wild and weird for mainstream audiences. It didn't help that the movie also repeatedly mocked a lot of the elements from the original "Gremlins," almost to the point where it seemed like it was teasing "Gremlins" fans. There's even a scene where characters nitpick the rules of gremlin procreation the same way a fan might. These characters are then eaten by gremlins for their troubles.

And notable critics have been drawn to the movie in the decades since it was made. Indeed, even Quentin Tarantino feels it's something special. The filmmaker once appeared on Eli Roth's podcast, "History of Horror," to discuss the horror genre, and he wound up going on a brief tangent about "Gremlins 2," arguing it's a perfect comedy and comparing it positively to MAD Magazine.

Tarantino just came out and said it when talking to Roth: He thinks "Gremlins 2" is Joe Dante's best movie. As he put it:

"Joe Dante became a director so he could do 'Gremlins 2.' He's always been a smart-alecky kind of director, because he's a smart-alecky kind of guy. There is always a little bit of MAD Magazine parody of his own movie running in the margin of a Joe Dante film. And with 'Gremlins 2,' he was able to do a MAD Magazine take-off on the first 'Gremlins' for the length of the movie. And it held! For the entire length of the movie! But when they actually start goofing on every aspect of Christopher Columbus' original premise [...] that was hysterical."

Fans of the original "Gremlins" likely know about the circumstances under which screenwriter Christopher Columbus wrote it. He penned his screenplay as a spec script, merely as a means to show to studios what his writing style was like. He never intended for it to be made. Executive producer Steven Spielberg loved his screenplay, though, and decided to buy it and put it into production. Columbus' original script was more horror than comedy, featuring more decapitations and a scene where the gremlins break into a McDonald's to eat its customers. In Dante's original script, it was also made explicit that gremlins were creatures from outer space.

For the movie, Dante upped the comedy quotient, making the premise a lot more cartoonish. It was still a horror movie, like Columbus wrote, but it was far sillier in Dante's hands. For "Gremlins 2," however, Dante shifted into overdrive, parodying every last horror element left over from Columbus' script. It was, as Tarantino described it, a living spoof.

Tarantino preferred to look at "Gremlins 2" as a mere piece of Dante's filmography. He noted that the original "Gremlins," while a huge success, was more or less a director-for-hire job for Dante. When it became a huge hit, Tarantino posited that Dante might have resented it a little bit. Dante certainly lent his winking sense of humor to the original "Gremlins," but he was never quite comfortable with the way it became his calling card. As Tarantino observed:

"It's always been a little clear that Joe Dante has a little contempt for the first movie. It's just not his kind of movie. He wrestled it to the ground and made it his movie. But I don't know if Joe Dante would see 'Gremlins' if he didn't direct it. He's just too much of a wisenheimer to not hate himself for shooting all the Mogwai stuff at the beginning. I think it seriously bums him out that it was his biggest hit. So, the idea to have complete revenge on your one fluke hit was just too powerful."

The "Mogwai stuff" refers to the first act of "Gremlins," in which the film's lead Billy (Zach Galligan) is gifted Gizmo (voice of Howie Mandel) for Christmas. There's a warm, Rockwellian feeling to the opening scene that, for moments, feels downright sentimental. Dante allowed himself to rip apart that sentimentality later in the flick, but the opening is perhaps too warm for the kind of movie Dante would've preferred to make. At least, according to Tarantino.